Lives in Cricket No 34 - Frank Mitchell

15 become an Oxbridge Blue was the Rev H.M.Sims who played for Cambridge University between 1873-5 and who then had five games for Yorkshire. He died tragically young at the age of 32, having caught a chill in his Leeds parish. Long after Mitchell had left the school, the Headmaster was Stanley Toyne who played once for Hampshire in 1908 and 23 years later another first-class game for MCC. Toyne’s enthusiasm led to an enhancement in standards which in turn may have later benefited those two other pupils and future important cricket captains A.B.Sellers and N.W.D.Yardley. The most recent cricketing alumnus from the school has been Jonathan Bairstow, son of David, and a talented young player. Frank Mitchell’s own talent in the school cricket team will be examined shortly. But when he arrived at the school the predominant team sport was rugby football in which he was to become a player of the highest standard. He was good at other sports, and joined in the school drama activities and debating society. He gained a prize in classics and divinity in 1885, and was elected as a Foundation Scholar in 1886. This may have been because of his good academic performance and probably entitled him to remain at the school on reduced fees. In 1890 he passed the Higher Certificate of the Oxford and Cambridge Examination Board. The Certificate could result in exemption from entrance examinations to individual Oxbridge colleges, and may have been useful to Mitchell when, three years after leaving school, he gained admission to Gonville & Caius College, Cambridge. Cricket 1886. The school cricket club was maintained by parental contributions, and not every boy had the opportunity or inclination to play. An indication of the small numbers involved comes from Mitchell’s first mention in the school magazine, The Peterite. In May 1886 he played for the Next XIII against the First VI. The First VI scored 37 and 80 (Mitchell two for 25) and the Next XIII 66 (Mitchell three) and 34 (Mitchell two, run out). That early run out may have been an indication of the impetuosity which to some extent affected Mitchell’s whole career. He believed in attack, and through attack the taking of risks. His first game in the school First XI was against the local Clifton Cricket Club, St Peter’s being in the York Parish of Clifton. Like many a great player he started with a 0. The school also played against several northern schools but the two notable games each year were against the Yorkshire Gentlemen. The Yorkshire Gentlemen had been founded in 1864 and up to 1931 played at the Wigginton Road, York ground, a ground good enough for one first-class match to be played there in 1890 between Yorkshire and Kent. Mitchell played his best school cricket in these Yorkshire Gentlemen matches. Play was carried on within prescribed hours as one innings games, and if those innings were both short, and the formal match over early, a third, and occasionally fourth innings could be played. So it was in 1886 that Mitchell in his first Gentlemen’s fixture scored 8 not out from 58 for nine, and then 7 out of 46 for seven in a match recorded as lost by 14 runs with the Gentlemen having scored 72. St Peter’s School, 1883-1890