Lives in Cricket No 26 - HV Hesketh-Prichard

38 Hex had accumulated quite a reputation – he was, even so, still only 23 – as possibly the best shot in England, as an explorer and as an author. On 24 April the Daily Express appeared and had started running Where Black Rules White . Also in 1900 Hex was elected a member of Incogniti, possibly proposed by Conan Doyle, which would suggest that he had played for them in 1899 and 1900, since the rules required qualifying matches. Incogniti’s records are remarkably full but do not list non-members who played in 1899 and 1900. 22 Incogniti had been established formally in 1862, the year after they played their first match, and the original rules imposed no restriction on membership other than a subscription of 10s 6d (52.5p) a year: there was no requirement for potential members to be varsity men. There is no record, though, that Hex ever actually turned out for them. The Hampshire captain in 1900 was Charles Robson, the wicketkeeper. He had apparently taken up wicketkeeping rather against his will as Hampshire were short, and possibly took up the captaincy in the same spirit. If the census information is to be believed he was a mineral-water manufacturer by profession, having originally studied law, and was by this time coming up to 41 years old. He was not a great cricketer, with a batting average just over 15, but he was an amateur in a team shorn of its best amateur players. The Hampshire committee were to minute in 1904 that the selection of match teams should in future be left in the hands of the captain, who by then was E.M.Sprot. That suggests there might have been some dispute, but there was certainly no selection committee and it would seem likely that this formalised an existing arrangement. A captain looking to make up the numbers may not have wanted to be too precise about the minutiae of qualification. In fact Hex played only four first-class games for Hampshire in 1900, turning out for the first time in first-class cricket. Before his appearances for the full county side, there was a warm-up game against an eighteen of Portsmouth, where Hex took eight for 97 as the eighteen totalled 230 – and nearly won. Against Somerset, starting on 24 May, there was no play on the first day, and on the second Hampshire were all out for 81. The Times , identifying him as ‘Mr A.Pritchard’, said ‘the rain which made a start impossible on Thursday ruined the wicket for today’s batting’. Somerset then scored 249. In the second innings Hampshire got to 209, thanks almost entirely to Wynyard, who made 107, and Somerset knocked the runs off to win by seven wickets. In Hampshire’s first innings, Hex batted at No.10, scoring 0*, which earned him promotion to nine in the second innings, and seems to have bowled quite well, returning 20-10-34-3 in the first innings, dismissing three of the top five when he opened the bowling, 23 and 10-2- 25-1 in the second, clean bowling Lionel Palairet. 22 Communication from Claire Whickman, author of the club history. 23 His first wicket in first-class cricket was C.A.Bernard, caught by Robson behind the wicket, for four. Portsmouth and Patagonia