Lives in Cricket No 19 - Frank Sugg

Leicestershire when Tyldesley was on England duty but was then left out for the next two matches. The writing was beginning to look to be on the wall for Frank. He soon came back once more, doing well against Derbyshire and Somerset, when he scored 95 in an innings of spectacular hitting, missed chances, and a foolishly attempted run which cost him a probable century. He was at the wicket for only one hour and forty five minutes and 64 of his runs came in boundaries. What was to prove Frank Sugg’s last first-class match was against Yorkshire at Bramall Lane, Sheffield, starting on 26 June 1899. Lancashire won by 59 runs. Other than a couple of catches, Sugg did little of note in the match. Indeed, sadly, in his last innings in a first-class match, Frank was out for a duck, caught Tunnicliffe, bowled Rhodes. After this innings he disappeared from the first-class game with nothing to mark his going, in sharp contrast to his explosive performances as batsman and outfielder in earlier summers. In this final season Sugg scored 250 runs at an average of 25.00. Wisden , in its comment on Lancashire’s season, said that Sugg ‘played fairly well at times and considering the big deeds he has accomplished for the county, his abilities as a forcing batsman and his excellence as an outfield, the wisdom of the executive in dropping him so completely seemed open to question.’ In reality though, Lancashire now had six or seven players who could reliably take the middle-order batting positions from which he had given such entertainment. Whatever the wisdom of the decision, Frank, now 38 years old, had plenty of other interests with which to fill his time. 84 He would also soon have a growing family to look after. Before we turn to consider the life that Frank Sugg made for himself after his retirement from first-class cricket, it will be of interest to recount the assessment of him made by W.G.Grace at the end of Frank’s career. According to W.G., who had observed Sugg in action at close quarters throughout his career, Sugg was a batsman of the dashing order, a tremendous hitter and when he has got his ‘eye in’ punishes any kind of bowling he may have to face. Batsmen like Sugg are the terror of bowlers who never know to what extent they may be punished. Sugg might have made a better batsman if he had been gifted with a little Lancashire Stalwart 87 84 His brother Walter, eighteen months older, continued to play for Derbyshire, where there was far less competition from other players, until 1902, though not regularly.