Lives in Cricket No 23 - Brief Candles

102 player in The Parks in June 1939 was Frank Wilkinson of Yorkshire, and not Francis W.Wilkinson of Cambridgeshire. If that view is accepted, F.W. is not entitled to an entry in the list of those taking a wicket with the first ball of their only first-class matches; indeed, sadly he is not entitled to the status of a first-class cricketer at all. And if this view is maintained, Frank Wilkinson is entitled to a revised career record of 15 first-class matches rather than 14, with 27 wickets for 614 runs at an average 22.74, rather than 26 wickets for 590 at an average 22.69, as credited in the Who’s Who of Cricketers. The definitive evidence that would resolve this issue one way or the other is still lacking, and, like John Milner 31 years ago, I too would welcome that evidence coming forward. In the meantime, I have reluctantly concluded that F.W.Wilkinson does not strictly qualify as a ‘Brief Candle’, even though the mystery of his first-class career, if any, is surely worth the telling here. So the number of first-class cricketers goes down by one; or does it? For I have a candidate – linked to F.W.Wilkinson by the common issue of substitution – for an additional player to be accorded recognition as a first-class player, even though he has not hitherto been granted that status. Again the evidence is only circumstantial, but I am persuaded by it – and the leading expert on the county concerned has not sought to disagree on the matter. The player concerned is one George Edward Tyler, who may or may not have been a full substitute for Warwickshire in their Bank Holiday match against Worcestershire at Edgbaston in August 1919 – a match whose first-class status is itself still questioned in some quarters. But this is not the place to go further into this. The full story must await a further publication … . 168 * * * * * With Wilkinson excluded, there are just two British bowlers in the list of those taking a wicket with their first ball in their only first-class matches. Attempts to establish anything approaching full biographies of them – or even details of exactly how they took their wickets – have, sadly, borne little fruit. I summarise below what I have managed to find out about them so far, and would, of course, welcome any further light that readers of this book may be able to throw upon them. The man from Briton Ferry First to join the list was John Johns, universally and understandably known as Jack Johns . He was a right-arm fast-medium bowler from the Briton Ferry club in South Wales, where he played alongside his older brother Tom (T.S.) Johns. Jack was born in Briton Ferry on 15 October 1885 and lived there all his life; although he died in Neath General Hospital, his home address was still in Briton Ferry. 168 I am currently preparing another book that will cover this point in more detail. I have run a draft of the relevant chapter past Warwickshire expert Robert Brooke, and he has not taken any issue over my conclusions regarding G.E.Tyler. First Ballers, and a Mystery