Lives in Cricket No 19 - Frank Sugg

showed he could temper aggression with patience when there was the need. The North had lost three wickets for only nine runs in reply to the South’s first innings of 204, but Frank pulled the innings round in stands first with Gunn and then with Briggs, the North eventually totalling 271 before going on to win by four wickets. While he had not conquered his weakness for getting out early in his innings, in 1889 he was less frequently dismissed for a single-figure score than in previous seasons. It was this improved aspect of his batting which lifted his average to a respectable level. Although he appeared in both North v South matches, Frank Sugg would have been disappointed not to be selected for the Players in either of the more prestigious Gentlemen v Players matches in 1889. These omissions suggested that he was slipping down the merit table in the selectors’ eyes. However, he had the honour of being one of the 1890 Wisden ’s ‘Nine Great Batsmen of the Year’. It was, though, based on performances of the previous season, 65 and the selection was restricted to professionals: any England side of the time would include a number of the leading amateur batsmen. The mixed feelings about Sugg’s qualities are reflected in Wisden ’s citation. It applauded his ability to turn a game by his big hitting but added: ‘That he depends more upon quickness of sight than upon a scientific method can easily be seen from the faulty way in which he will often commence an innings on even the best of grounds.’ As already noted, Frank would have responded that this was the way he played and that was that. Lancashire had hopes of winning the Championship in 1890, now played under a formula devised by the counties themselves, but the side was weakened by the absence of Briggs, for a month, and his business partner Pilling, for the whole season, through tuberculosis. (He died the following year, aged only 35.) In the event Lancashire finished second to Surrey with seven wins from their 14 games compared with Surrey’s nine. This season Surrey turned the tables on Lancashire by winning both their matches against the northerners; these losses were particularly critical because under the new tariff, a point was deducted from the losers’ total for each defeat. Late in the season A.C.MacLaren made his first appearance for Lancashire, soon after he had captained Harrow in the annual fixture against Eton. Archie MacLaren Lancashire Stalwart 69 65 The Almanack had established the practice of honouring players in this fashion only in the previous year’s edition when six ‘Great Bowlers’ were named.