Lives in Cricket No 19 - Frank Sugg

scored another hundred in 1898, 104 against Essex at Old Trafford, and added 70 in Lancashire’s second innings (though Essex ran out comfortable winners by four wickets). But his continuing inconsistency and fallibility early in an innings diminished Frank Sugg’s value to his side. It was in this season that Frank achieved the ‘best’ bowling figures of his career, two for 12 in 5.2 five-ball overs against Notts at Trent Bridge, one of them William Gunn, in ‘a spiritless match’ that was fizzling out into a draw. ‘Monkey’ Hornby, now 52 years old, relinquished the captaincy for the 1899 season, the position being shared between MacLaren and G.R.Bardswell. But Bardswell only played in four championship matches and Alec Eccles and Hornby also had to fill the role in some games. This unsatisfactory situation hardly helped the team’s prospects; not surprisingly Lancashire had another disappointing season, finishing fourth behind Surrey, Middlesex and Yorkshire. The bowling suffered from injuries to Hallam and the serious illness suffered by Johnny Briggs during the Test match at Headingley, an illness which ended his season and was to be the beginning of the end of his great career. Arthur Mold, now also nearing the end of his career, took 104 wickets at 19.34, followed by Cuttell with 74 wickets and Briggs with 49. A useful acquisition was Jack Sharp, a fast-medium bowler who, like Frank Sugg earlier in his career, was also a professional footballer and who in due course was to open a sports business in competition with that of Sugg. Sharp was also to prove an excellent batsman. The county’s leading batsman, however, was now Tyldesley who scored 1,584 runs in the Championship in 1899 at an average of 41.68 and was selected for England during the season. Towards the end of the 1899 season, the similarly brilliant R.H.Spooner, then just 18 years old, arrived on the scene and played in four matches. It was during this season that Sugg’s position in the side came under serious threat for the first time. He was in the twelve for Lancashire’s first match but was left out of the final eleven in favour of C.R.Hartley, a 26-year-old amateur, who had first played for the county two seasons previously. Johnny Tyldesley was moved into Frank Sugg’s favoured spot of first wicket down. Sugg was still out of the side when Lancashire were soundly beaten by the Australians, in each Lancashire innings only Tyldesley and Cuttell reaching double figures. He returned to the side against 86 Lancashire Stalwart