Lives in Cricket No 26 - HV Hesketh-Prichard

40 Portsmouth and Patagonia Holt, after some years as a ‘missionary’ in London, running the Rugby boys’ centre. The next game was against Derbyshire, who scored 338. Hex bowled only two overs for six runs. Hampshire’s reply was 134 (Hex 10*), and Derbyshire’s second innings was 175. He did not bowl at all in this innings, and in Hampshire’s second innings of 202 he was again out for nought. The bowling on this occasion was opened by Rev G.B.Raikes, a medium- pace bowler whose main sporting achievement had been to play three times in goal for England at football in his university days. The Manchester Guardian says that Hampshire had to make three changes, suggesting they were struggling for players (a common event in this season), so it may be that Hex had to play even though not fit. He had gone down with malaria in 1897 so this and other times he bowled inexplicably poorly or not at all could have been recurrences of the disease. For this game The Times finally had him as ‘Mr Hesketh-Prichard’ but with no initial. They don’t seem to have had a reporter at any of the matches, and presumably were not aware of exactly who he was. That was the last county cricket he played for two years: presumably he had agreed to play these four games because he had some spare time. He did turn out on 14 June for what the Allahakbarries scorebook calls Conan Doyle’s XI against the Artists, taking one wicket but being allowed to open the batting: he scored four. It also seems likely that a game between the Daily Mail and the Daily Express took place in this year. This was at Sutton Place, which was rented by Alfred Harmsworth, proprietor of the Mail. The Express won by eight wickets with Hex taking six wickets in the first innings and five in the second. The Express side also turned out C.B.Fry, who made exactly 50 and was then bowled by Philip Trevor, early in a long career writing about the game. In the second innings Fry (who by now was not usually allowed to bowl in county cricket because of his doubtful action) turned his arm over. While, like many other amateurs, Hex tended to disappear in August because shooting had started and schoolmasters might come in to replace them, on this occasion it was Patagonia that called. While Hex had done better in the first two county games than the later two, it would not have been a question of not being picked. With or without Hex, Hampshire were terrible in 1900. They didn’t win a game and lost 16 out of 22. Forty-one players appeared for the county this season, and 24 of them tried their hands at bowling, with most games featuring a number of amateurs of debatable status. Harry Baldwin must have felt that he had bowled at one end all summer. He took 84 wickets at 28.85, coming out with figures redolent of endurance like six for 130 against Yorkshire and seven for 154 against Somerset: not bad for a man who would turn 40 in November. On another front, Hex was now well enough known already to be named in a report of those attending the 110th anniversary dinner of the Royal Literary Fund, where Anthony Hope and Mark Twain were among the speakers.