Lives in Cricket No 2 - Johnny Briggs

the first of them, at The Oval, Briggs scored 85 in the first innings, while in the second game, Briggs was making his first appearance at Lord’s in this prestigious match. His invitation to take part in these fixtures was an indication of his growing prominence in the game. However, he did not play in the end-of-season Gentlemen versus Players match at the Scarborough Festival, where Wisden suggests his place was rather unsurprisingly taken by local favourite Tom Emmett, of Yorkshire. In the following season – 1886 – normal service was resumed as far as Lancashire, Nottinghamshire and Kent were concerned, thus expanding the Lancashire fixture list against other counties to fourteen. Briggs played in all these matches, three other games for Lancashire, nine times against the Australian tourists, including three Tests, and for the Players against the Gentlemen at Lord’s. With 27 matches under his belt, it was his busiest first-class season so far. Lancashire did not make much of a fist of their championship challenge, but Briggs, becoming ever more popular among the knowledgeable crowds which followed the game, was in demand for representative and privately-raised sides of all hues, including at the Scarborough Festival. In total he collected 92 victims at 15.96, his best aggregate so far, although his batting dropped away a little with 722 runs at 19.51. From mid-season onwards he was often entrusted with opening the bowling. He remained in the middle order for Lancashire, but batted lower down the card in representative games. But in the midst of this marvellous season, there was a mysterious incident when Briggs inexplicably went ‘missing’ for two days without permission. The committee, not best pleased by Briggs’ absence, deducted two days’ wages from him, but no one knew where he had gone or what he was doing. Some have speculated that he had suffered an epileptic fit, but there is no evidence, anecdotal or otherwise, for this assertion. 34 Coming of age as a cricketer Briggs played in several Lancashire matches that were completed in a single day, including matches against MCC at Lord’s in 1886, against Surrey at Old Trafford in 1888, against Somerset at Old Trafford in 1892) and again against Somerset at Old Trafford in 1894.