Lives in Cricket No 26 - HV Hesketh-Prichard

30 Horsham to Haiti not managed to complete the bowling analysis as in this game: the innings included one 4 and five 3s, which might suggest that local boundary rules were in place. All kinds of unlikely people turned out for the Allahakbarries, as Kevin Telfer’s recent book recounts. 17 Other enthusiasts have suggested that H.G.Wells, Rudyard Kipling and G.K.Chesterton also played, but there is no evidence for this. Wells had been asked, but one suspects that having a father who was briefly a struggling professional had not filled him with love for the game. On 1 June, though, he played for Authors v Artists at Denmark Hill – the Authors made 269, of which Hex, batting at No.3, made 70; he then took seven wickets as the Artists were bowled out for 96. The Artists had a regular fixture list, and the crossover between cricket and art was remarkable. In 1903 Cricket listed twenty ‘artist cricketers’ exhibiting at the Royal Academy that year. The Allahakbarries’ scorebook records another game on 1 July, but Hex did not play in this one. Except for Horsham, the only game of which we have a full record in these years is his appearance for Sussex seconds. There were suggestions that he had played for W.G.Grace’s London County in 1899, but their records do not support this. Parker says that ‘for London County he took many wickets’ but in fact he played only four first-class matches for them between 1902 and 1904, taking 19 wickets at 17.21. If cricket scores are thin, the most important event of 1899, because it launched him on a whole new career, was an appointment with Arthur 17 Kevin Telfer, Peter Pan’s First XI, Sceptre, 2010. Hex’s own drawing of himself going out to bat for the Allahakbarries with J.M.Barrie. Fortunately, Hex wrote better than he drew.