Lives in Cricket No 23 - Brief Candles

95 senior games master he was in charge of cricket and football (amongst other sports), set up a badminton club, organised the annual sports day, coached pupils even in his spare time, and was a friend to generations of Eleians. His commitment to the school was shown by his being secretary of the Old Eleians Club from 1933 until 1961, in which year he was the club’s president. A further tribute came in 1967 when the school’s annual cup for fielding was named the F.W.Wilkinson Cup. Both within and outside the school, cricket rather than football became, over time, his major sport. In 1924 he made his first appearances for Ely City CC; an end-of-season report remarked that ‘it is a pity he cannot play more frequently’. He was able to do so by the 1930s, and was a regular member of the side throughout that decade, his performances peaking in 1935 when he topped both the batting and bowling averages with 476 runs at 39.66 and 51 wickets at 11.68. He also turned out regularly for sides representing King’s School, but his abilities were taking him higher. He first appeared for Cambridgeshire in the Minor Counties competition in a single match in 1923, and was a regular in the side from 1929 until just before the Second World War, captaining them for three seasons from 1935. As at Ely, he played as an all-rounder, generally opening the batting or going in at No.3, and bowling as first change or later. To judge from newspaper reports his batting style is best described as ‘patient and steady’, though he could certainly hit out when needed. As for his bowling: well, the Who’s Who of Cricketers calls him a leg-spinner, and although he certainly bowled some deliveries in this style, I am not sure that it describes him fully. Reports that I have read talk of him bowling ‘a mixture’, and include references to him ‘bowling with great fire’, ‘making the ball swing late’, and ‘coming off the pitch with a zip’: not all terms that one associates with an out-and-out leg-spinner. Whatever his style, he took nearly 200 wickets in the Minor Counties competition for Cambridgeshire between 1923 and 1946, with best innings figures of six for 13 against Lincolnshire at Boston in July 1932, and a match best of 11 for 112 (six for 69 and five for 43) against Bedfordshire at Bedford School exactly two years later. His 1,700-odd runs include one century, a score of 103 against reigning Minor Counties champions Leicestershire II at Fenner’s in August 1932. He reached the 90s on two other occasions. His century at Fenner’s was described in the local press as ‘a patient and valuable contribution and something in the nature of an endurance test in the hot sunshine’: whether the endurance test was for the batsman or the spectators is not clear! It came during a purple patch in his batting, for between June and August 1932 he hit four centuries in all cricket, comprising scores of 123* and 127 for King’s School against Chatteris Town and his own club Ely City respectively, followed by his 103 for the county, which was followed in turn by 103* for Ely City against St Giles. Although he had no comparable purple patch in his bowling, mention should be made of his feat of taking five wickets in six balls for Ely City against Old Lennensians in 1936, in a somewhat brief innings in which one First Ballers, and a Mystery