Lives in Cricket No 23 - Brief Candles

89 Wooster wasn’t exactly sweeping all before him in club games in 1925: over the season as a whole he took just 31 wickets for the club, at an average of 11.33. But he had nevertheless caught the eye of the county club, and his cause cannot have been harmed when he took six wickets for Kettering against Rothwell at the end of June. So the Dublin University game was an opportunity to have a closer look at him. This was the last, and only first-class, match of the University’s short tour to England; but if they had saved their best till last, then I’m afraid their best was nowhere near good enough, as they were comprehensively beaten by what amounted to an ‘A’ eleven of one of the weaker first-class counties. The University batted first when the game began on Saturday, 18 July and were dismissed by 3.25 pm for 197, rugby international Mark Sugden top- scoring with 36. Dick Wooster was the fourth bowler used in the innings, and took his only wicket when he bowled No.7, James Wills, in his seventh over, to make the University 169 for eight. Wooster bowled nine overs in the innings, returning 9-1-23-1 in two spells. Unfortunately my attempts to interpret the scorebook 154 have not established beyond doubt whether he bowled to Samuel Beckett, who was one of the University’s six first- class debutants, and who scored 18 in as many minutes, with four fours, batting at No.8, but he may very well have done so. 154 The scorebook now resides at the Northamptonshire Record Office. In the Wickets At home. The Kettering CC eleven in 1927 in front of their pavilion then under construction. Standing (l to r): L.Marshall (scorer), C.W.Miller, F.C.Thompson, R.Wooster, T.H.M.Preston, S.Wright, M.A.James, A.H.Lea (umpire). Seated: W.H.Cawton, W.C.Farnsworth, E.F.Towell (capt), H.J.Parker, G.H.Johnson (wk). Wooster and three of his teammates played county cricket.