Lives in Cricket No 19 - Frank Sugg

Bowling and Fielding, Advice to Young Cricketers, Hints on Training and the like in which the editors drew explicitly on their own experience. The comprehensive advice on batting, bowling and fielding reads as pertinently today as when it was written with just the occasional dated offering, for example on fielding: ‘the pipe and cigarette are in great measure answerable for the many butter fingers that are always en evidence wherever cricket is played. Instead of fielding properly, the fragrant weed is lit.’ The training regime that Frank recommended for athletes would not go down well today, certainly with present-day cricketers, but it shows the thought that Frank Sugg gave to the matter. Briefly summarised: Rise early, if possible take a cold bath; “cleanse” the bowels Take a brisk walk or, if the weather is poor, work out with weights Breakfast on a chop or steak, toast and a cup of tea Walk two or three miles followed by a “sharp run” for a mile followed by a vigorous rub down Dinner at one o’clock of beef or mutton with a glass of beer or stout, greens and potatoes “partaken of sparingly”, and a plain wholesome pudding Rest after dinner, and then a run “in racing costume” of the Away From Old Trafford 95 A rarity. The Frank Sugg annual of 1897, 200 pages of facts and figures, advice and advertisement.