Lives in Cricket No 23 - Brief Candles

98 his game against the University, Wilkinson was forced to retire injured after bowling eight overs, 162 and took no further part in the match. In his place, a substitute – D.J.F.Watson, who was an Oxford undergraduate rather than a Minor Counties player – was allowed to bat. So it would appear that F.W.’s entire first-class career consisted of a ‘did not bat’ and bowling figures of 9-1-24-1. 163 The overs, incidentally, were of eight balls. But now let’s look at some other sources. In the Wisden Book of Cricket Records , there is no mention of F.W. in the list of those taking a wicket with their first ball in first-class cricket. Surprising, but some inadvertent omissions are surely inevitable in a 700- page book of this nature. But there is also no mention of Wilkinson’s first-ball achievement in the brief match report in Wisden which, because of his substitution, doesn’t even list him in the Minor Counties’ team, although it does mention his early injury. And there is no mention of this achievement in contemporary reports of the match in The Cricketer , or in the major broadsheets. Surely a player taking a wicket with his first ball, and then leaving the game through injury, would deserve a mention, especially if this were his first-ever first- class match? So look instead at some other contemporary newspapers – the Oxford Mail for example: It is rare that the first ball of a match takes a wicket, but this happened in the Parks this morning in the match between Oxford University and the Minor Counties, when Lomas had the unlucky experience against Wilkinson, of the Yorkshire Second XI … . 164 Hang on – what’s this about Yorkshire? Surely Wilkinson was a Cambridgeshire man, even if he was born close to a Yorkshire border? Now look back into the papers for a few days earlier. On 2 June, The Times and various other newspapers reported the teams selected by the Minor Counties Cricket Association for the match at Oxford, and for their following match against the West Indians. Both included ‘Wilkinson (Yorkshire)’, but no Wilkinson from Cambridgeshire. On the day the match at Oxford began, The Times even went as far as identifying the player as ‘Wilkinson (F.) (Yorkshire)’. The plot, as they say, thickens. So have another look at the Who’s Who , and there, immediately below the entry for F.W.Wilkinson is one for ‘Wilkinson, Frank’, a Hull-based professional; 165 a medium-fast bowler who played 14 first-class matches for Yorkshire between 1937 and 1939. Have some wires got crossed here? 162 sic; but Wilkinson actually bowled nine overs in the innings 163 We learn from the Oxford Mail that the 24 runs he conceded included a six and a four hit by R.B.Proud off successive deliveries. 164 Oxford Mail , 7 June 1939. 165 He actually played his first first-class match, in 1937, as an amateur, and turned professional at the start of the following season. First Ballers, and a Mystery