Lives in Cricket No 23 - Brief Candles

100 So the question of ‘Which Wilkinson?’ remains without a definitive answer. Until that answer appears, if it ever does, we cannot be certain whether the name of F.W.Wilkinson should be added to the list on page 93. At this distance, the only evidence we can acquire will surely only be circumstantial. So let’s summarise that evidence. For the player in The Parks being Cambridgeshire’s F.W.Wilkinson, we have the following points: l on unknown evidence (if any), the ACS and its many publications, and those deriving from them, have identified the player as F.W. l although he had not previously played for any teams more senior than Cambridgeshire, later in 1939 F.W. was a member of the MCC side that played a non-first-class match against Ireland at Lord’s. 166 Was his selection for this game perhaps some form of compensation for his truncated first-class career? l he has an obituary in the Wisden of 1988, page 1216, that refers to him as a first-class player. Whether this was written by someone using ACS-derived sources, or independent sources, we do not know. Against it being F.W.Wilkinson are these points: l the ‘Wilkinson’ in this game is not noted in any contemporary source, nor in any later book of cricket records, as having taken a wicket with his first ball in first-class cricket. In the two other British instances that I have investigated – see the second part of this chapter – the fact that the bowlers concerned took a wicket with their first deliveries in first-class cricket was seized upon, and given prominent coverage l F.W. was heading for his 44th birthday at the time of the 1939 match, and was allegedly a leg-spinner who was no longer taking large numbers of wickets for Cambridgeshire. Was it likely that such a player would have been asked to bowl the first over of the match in The Parks? l his performances for Cambridgeshire in 1938, especially as a bowler, had been noticeably less successful than in previous years. In these circumstances, would he really have been a candidate for inclusion in a representative Minor Counties side early in 1939? l there is no mention in any obituary of F.W. that I have seen, apart from that in Wisden , nor in any of the information about him supplied by King’s School, of his having had a career, even a very brief one, in first-class cricket l moreover, if it had been F.W. who played in The Parks, surely the brevity of his first-class career would have been a novelty that would have earned a particular mention in his more general obituaries. But it doesn’t. 166 He batted at three in both MCC innings, scoring 25 and 3; the opening pair were E.W.Swanton and the aforementioned J.M.Lomas. Although MCC used seven bowlers in the match, Wilkinson was not one of them. First Ballers, and a Mystery