Lives in Cricket No 19 - Frank Sugg

£1,000 would be equivalent to about £71,000 and £85,500 in 2011 money. Frank was well aware that many professional cricketers were less fortunate than himself and often faced straightened times, if not penury, when their professional careers came to an end. With his brother Walter, he did what he could to help in cases known to him. For example, John Jackson, the Nottinghamshire allrounder who lived in Liverpool, 81 was ‘in no small measure’ assisted by the Sugg brothers and after his death in a Liverpool workhouse in 1901 Frank appealed for funds to ensure that his grave would not ‘remain unmarked.’ 82 The appeal was unsuccessful and it was only in 2009 that a headstone was finally raised on Jackson’s grave. The irony of this is that Frank Sugg’s final resting place is also unmarked, on which more in the final chapter. Returning to Frank’s time as a stalwart of the Lancashire team, Lancashire failed in 1898 to attain the high standards they had established in winning the Championship the previous season and slipped to sixth place in the table, conceding the title to Yorkshire. It was Lancashire’s bowling in particular that let them down and they conceded almost five more runs per wicket than in 1897. Although Cuttell completed the double, the first Lancashire cricketer to do so, Hallam was unable to play at all and Briggs was not the force of old. Mold was again hit by injuries, as was Hallows, an allrounder who otherwise would have been a valuable addition to the bowling resources. Johnny Tyldesley was the county’s outstanding batsman. Sugg was less successful than in the previous season. He scored 1,037 runs in his 22 championship matches at an average of 26.58 and 1,044 runs at 25.46 in his 23 first-class matches. He made a terrible start to the season, ‘palpably out of form’ according to Wisden . His scores in his first 11 innings were one, six, six, nought, nought, nought, seven, 12, 28, nought and six, putting his position in the side in doubt. On the county’s West Country tour, in June, he recovered his form with 169 against Somerset, when he shared in a third-wicket partnership of 278 in three hours with Albert Ward in Lancashire’s second innings, 83 and a spirited 76 against Gloucestershire. He Lancashire Stalwart 85 81 Jackson had been a predecessor of Sugg at Burnley, where he was the club’s professional in 1868 and 1869, but had moved to Merseyside in 1870. 82 Old Ebor (A.W.Pullin), Old England Cricketers , Wm. Blackwood, 1900, p 56, and Ric Sissons, op.cit ., p 147. 83 At the time this was the highest third-wicket partnership for the county, a record overtaken in 1904. At the end of the 2010 season, it was still the county’s record for the third-wicket partnership against Somerset.