Lives in Cricket No 2 - Johnny Briggs

Briggs didn’t excel in the other Tests in the five-match series which England won 3-2 and his batting rarely brought him many runs despite the fact that he was pushed up the order several times – in the Second Test he opened with MacLaren although the experiment wasn’t a success, Briggs scoring only 12. Nevertheless, Briggs had been an integral part of the ‘Ashes-winning’ team celebrated by Punch magazine’s famous poetic tribute, which contained the following lines: ‘Then wrote the queen of England; Whose hand is blessed by God; I must do something handsome; For my dear victorious Stod.’ 68 Touring with Stod