Lives in Cricket No 2 - Johnny Briggs

marked the occasion by giving him an inscribed silver cup. Like Morley, he was buried in Sutton-in-Ashfield cemetery, while other cricketing sons of the village also found their final resting place there. These included Thomas ‘Topsy’ Wass , whose bowling helped Nottinghamshire to the county championship in 1907. His career total was 1,666 wickets in 312 first-class games but although he played in a trial match, for an England XI and three times in Gentlemen v Players matches, he never made it into the full England Test team. Also buried in Sutton cemetery is Frank Farrands , who played a handful of matches for Nottinghamshire as well as for Oxford, Ashbourne and Blackburn. After his playing career was over, Farrands became a respected first-class umpire. James Shaw began his career in the pre-Test era, making his debut for Notts in 1865 and was regarded by W.G.Grace as the best fast bowler of the period. He was pretty fit, too, playing in every Nottinghmashire match in a ten-year period. He played for an England XI and it was against that England representative side that he produced the best bowling figures for a Nottinghamshire cricketer, 10 for 20. Tom Buckland , whose birth was registered as Tom George Beastall, played twice for Nottinghasmshire with a highest score of 12 and best bowling of 2 for 13, while John Kesteven appeared in three games for Nottinghamshire and also a had a highest score of 12 while William Marriott also played twice for the county with a top score of 14 and 2 for 10 as his best bowling analysis. Walter Price had a more substantive career with 33 first-class appearances for MCC and Nottinghamshire, scoring 625 runs (highest score 57) and taking 15 wickets with a best return of 5 for 66 for MCC against Gloucestershire at Lord’s in August 1870. Also born in the village was John Crossland , who was to play in the same Lancashire team as Briggs. In all, Crossland played in 84 games for Lancashire between 1878 and 1887, but his career will mainly be remembered for controversy. His action was called into question on several occasions although he was never no-balled and he was also the centre of a row between Nottinghamshire and Lancashire over his eligibility to play for the Old Trafford side. In the end this finished his career as it was found that he did not have permanent residency in Lancashire and was thus ineligible to play for the county. Ironically, he was a resident of Lancashire, in Cricketers from Sutton-in-Ashfield 97