Lives in Cricket No 26 - HV Hesketh-Prichard

47 month was over he would go down in history, most unfairly, as the man who lost The Ashes. Nevertheless Fred would take 153 wickets in the Championship this season at an average of 14.28, so Sussex were significantly weakened. There were no Hampshire players involved. Hex took two early wickets at Hove, clean bowling Relf and his former Horsham colleague Killick, to have Sussex at 30 for two. However, Sussex carried on to 337. Hampshire replied with 234, Arthur Hill making 78. Sussex made 306, with Hex ineffective, bowling nine overs for 45. At the end Hampshire were 287 for nine and hanging on. Prominent in the hanging on was Hex, who having scored 7* in the first innings in a last- wicket stand of 33, was now 13* at the end in an unbroken match-saving partnership of 40 with David Steele. The Manchester Guardian described the stand: with three-quarters of an hour left, Hesketh-Prichard, the last man, joined Steele. Both men played very coolly, and successfully resisted all the bowling. Steele gave a couple of difficult chances, and Hesketh- Prichard had a narrow escape from being caught in the last five minutes, but still the two men deserve every credit for their plucky stand . Cricket said ‘their effort was one of the events of the season’. That may have encouraged them as they went straight back to Portsmouth to play Somerset, starting on 10 July. Somerset won the toss and batted, but Tom Soar bowled them out for 163, taking seven for 80 and bowling unchanged. Hex was not asked to bowl in this innings, with Christopher Heseltine making a rare appearance. At the close Hampshire were 88 for four, but steady batting from Barton and Llewellyn with 90 apiece took them to 293. Soar and Llewellyn bowled Somerset out again for 205 (Hex 5-0-20-0) and, amazingly, Hampshire made the 76 needed to win for five wickets, having wobbled somewhat at 11 for three. Another game was over in two days. So it was a couple of days later they rolled up at Tunbridge Wells to play Kent on 14 July. Any hope of another success had vanished by the end of the first day, with Hampshire out for 138 against Blythe and Mason, and Kent at the close 283 for three following an opening stand of 243 by Burnup and Dillon. But Hex had taken two of those and caught the other and the next day he bowled Kent out for 441, taking seven for 139 in 33 overs, the first time he had achieved five or more wickets in a first- class innings. Cricket magazine says ‘Heskett Pritchard’s [sic] lobs were chiefly responsible’ for the ‘downfall of the Kent batsmen.’ It seems that ‘lobs’, was not being used in any technical sense. But Hampshire’s second innings was a disaster – all out 108 – and again there was an innings defeat and a game over in two days. He then went off to play for Hampshire’ s club and ground side against thirteen of Alton and District, but took only three wickets in two innings. The next game was not until 28 July, and was to see the county’s best performance of the season. At Southampton, Charles Robson put Surrey in to bat on what must have been a damp wicket, and they were bowled out Portsmouth and Patagonia