Lives in Cricket No 26 - HV Hesketh-Prichard

71 Hex set off this year by playing for MCC against Nottinghamshire starting on 3 May. The MCC team included a fair sprinkling of Brackley’s men and Thompson carried on where he had left off in Trinidad, taking seven for 14 as Notts were all out for 47. Hex did not get on to bowl in the first innings, but in the second he took five for 40. MCC won by ten wickets. He was then asked to play for the Gentlemen of England against the Australians at Lord’s, starting on 18 May. The Gentlemen scored 300: the To-Day newspaper got unexpectedly excited about Hex’s batting: It was Hesketh-Prichard, however, who was really Jessop’s substitute, and set the benches under the awnings and in the stands roaring. Hesketh-Prichard is a golden-haired giant, who can tell stories or bowl with something of the tempestuous delight of a fighter at a fair. He bats, however, more like a child scooping out sand with a wooden spade. No one seems to realise what a darling child’s game he is playing at more clearly than himself. On Thursday the Australians could break no home in his infantile defences. He stood there, throwing back his little spadefuls of sand, and letting a great laugh out of him on the two occasions on which he came by a run. Twice, too, the ball missed the middle of the bat. It just grazed the edge and it veered past the wicket- keeper, carried by its own force the length of the boundary. Hesketh- Prichard, seeing his score mounting up, threw his huge, capless head back and joined in the roars of delight that went like a storm round the field. He actually went on to score ten! The Gentlemen started to bowl all right, and at one point the Australians were in some mild trouble at 94 for four, three to Walter Brearley and one to Hex. But from then on it was slaughter – Duff 94, Armstrong 248*, Darling 117* – all the way to 555 for six declared. Hex, in 23 overs, had one for 121. Walter Brearley bowled 34 overs, for five for 169. The Times said the Gentlemen’s bowling ‘never seemed to present any difficulty to the Australians, though Mr Brearley seemed to be the most effective.’ Somewhat acerbically Cricket remarked that ‘the bowling was about as strong as could be produced from the ranks of the Gentlemen which is, perhaps, not saying much.’ Late on the second day, Hex was asked to open the batting and was still there at the close, 5*. However at the other end Pelham Warner had gone for nought and McDonnell for five, and the next day the Gentlemen went down for 66 all out, Hex being bowled by Noble immediately in the morning. Straight after that he appeared for the MCC against Kent. He took one for 31 in nine overs in the first innings and one for 27 in the second. MCC won by nine wickets with Braund and Thompson doing most of the damage. The First Test against the Australians would be on 29 May at Trent Bridge. Hex had probably blown his best chance of selection. England went in with only one serious opening bowler, Ted Arnold of Worcestershire. One of the Gentlemen