Lives in Cricket No 2 - Johnny Briggs

He reported for his duties each day at the ground, where he provided practice for club members and didn’t appear in a full-scale match until the end of June – and only then because the first eleven was a man short. He appeared in a further five games during the summer, largely as a makeweight when the numbers were low, once turning out for a team entitled the ‘Eleven Lawyers’, although it is not known whether the latter side had much luck with their appeals! He batted at either ten or eleven and only made runs on only two visits to the crease – he didn’t bowl at all. Briggs was re-engaged the following year and made a much improved contribution although his total tally of wickets at the season’s end was only 13. However, it did include an analysis of 7 for 32 in his benefit match against a side entitled ‘An XI of the Universities’ although the rain-affected game raised little money for the beneficiary, something that was to be repeated on an even bigger scale later in Briggs’s career. One plus point for Briggs were his figures, the sort of return for which he would later become famous. Where it all began 11