Lives in Cricket No 34 - Frank Mitchell

119 Blackheath, Nigeria and family days the Academy Cricket Club extant. In later years Mitchell would campaign for a return to Lord’s of the annual match between the military academies of Sandhurst and Woolwich. Frank Mitchell was also constantly at Lord’s throughout the 1920s and the early 1930s. The late E.W.Swanton remembered him as being ‘ a character’ but without elaboration. He plainly enjoyed watching all forms of cricket there, and was keen to advance both services and schools cricket and to give opportunities to youngsters from all backgrounds. Mitchell wrote a letter published by The Times on 15 September 1926 in which he urged support for a match to be played by two sides from elementary schools to be shortly played at Lord’s. ‘I hope we shall see a large crowd, have some good cricket, and that the better side shall win. I shall be there to see, and I am sure that many older and better cricketers than I ever was will come too. It is a great honour for these boys to come to play at Lord’s, and if we can find a Hobbs or a Tom Richardson, cricket will be none the worse for it.’ It was for London Elementary Schools against C.F.Tufnell’s XI at Lord’s in 1932 that the 14-year-old Denis Compton first made his mark, with 114 as an opening batsman before being out stumped. As well as his love of Lord’s, Frank Mitchell had great affection for the Rectory Field at Blackheath. It was at the Blackheath Rugby Club that he had started to make a name for himself, and after World War I he, without in any way being professionally employed by the Rugby Club, gave his time generously in the coaching of the young colts. Naturally he was also a member of the Blackheath Cricket Club, which in 1886 had moved to the Rectory Field to play their summer fixtures. Mitchell may have played cricket on the ground during his days with Brighton Cricket Club, and perhaps hoped later that in his first-class career either Yorkshire or the South Africans would have had a fixture at Blackheath. That did not come to pass and his first-class games in Kent were to be at Canterbury and Tonbridge. Kent County Cricket Club played a total of 84 matches on the ground from 1887 to 1972, after which the facilities were not considered adequate for first-class fixtures. It is now at nearby Beckenham that Kent will come for a very occasional metropolitan fixture. The end came in the autumn of 1935.  In early September he was well enough to write a brief letter to The Times  about his old friend Ranjitsinhji, with a mention of the 1912 Scarborough Festival and Lady Londesborough as hostess. Whilst his wife was in South Africa looking after her own sick mother, Frank Mitchell died, aged 63. The primary cause of death on Friday 11 October was a coronary thrombosis. His funeral was held three days later at Charlton Cemetery and, at that short notice, his three children and a small, yet distinguished, group of former players and colleagues were present. The service was conducted by an old friend the Rev. F.H.Gillingham who had played over 180 games for Essex, and there too were Pelham Warner, the Surrey President H.D.G.Leveson Gower , J.R.Mason, Ronald Aird the then Assistant Secretary of MCC, the Surrey coach William Charles (‘Razor’) Smith, the noted amateur Gerry Weigall and another good friend, the Blackheath groundsman Charles Street. There too