Lives in Cricket No 34 - Frank Mitchell

25 Cambridge: the freshman’s year, 1893/94 In the next game against A.J.Webbe’s team, Mitchell renewed acquaintance with F.S. Jackson, and there too was Lord Hawke who batted magnificently for his innings of 157. Mitchell with scores of 24 and 20 did not disgrace himself before he was twice out to the accurate medium pace of William Attewell. However it was his third match for Cambridge, starting on 21 May 1894 on the Fenner’s ground, that gained widespread recognition for Mitchell and hopes of a startling cricketing career. Cambridge won by 119 runs against a Yorkshire team including John Tunnicliffe, J.T.Brown, Robert Peel, David Hunter and (again) Hirst. The Wisden reporter in the Almanack of 1895 retrospectively wrote: ‘ The feature of the match was the superb batting of Mitchell, whose performances at this period of the season raised hopes that unfortunately were far from being realised. He went in first and was out ninth in the first innings, scoring in two hours and fifty minutes, 75 out of 145, while on the second day he showed even finer cricket making 92 out of 178 in two hours without giving a chance.’ That score of 92 was to remain Mitchell’s highest of the season. The Wisden writer recorded that at that time it was thought that Cambridge had found a batsman of the class of Alfred Lyttelton, A.G.Steel and C.T.Studd. Such hopes did not immediately fall away, for the next team to arrive in Cambridge were MCC and Ground, and once more W.G.Grace was an opponent. Though Mitchell only made one in his first innings, a goodish score of 45 in his second knock might again have impressed Grace. In this game W.G. opened for MCC with his son but sadly whilst W.G. scored 139, junior was out for 0. W.G. was caught off a skier at mid-on by J.J.Robinson off the occasional bowling of Mitchell to be Mitchell’s first first-class wicket. Yorkshire, had by this stage of the season – the last week in May – decided that Frank Mitchell should be included in their county side as soon as an opportunity arose. That chance came on 28 May when the Cambridge XI were engaged in a trial match against the next XVI. Yorkshire were at Trent Bridge to play Nottinghamshire and promptly placed Mitchell in the side at No. 3. This was a powerful statement of the Club’s belief in Mitchell’s talent. The player who had to give way for Mitchell was the fast bowler Lees Whitehead, one of the perpetual twelfth men of cricket history. John Tunnicliffe, J.T.Brown and Robert Peel all had to move a place down the batting order to permit the Cambridge freshman to bat immediately after the opening partnership between Lord Hawke and F.S.Jackson was broken. As Jackson made 42 out of a low Yorkshire innings score of 94, Mitchell would have been pleased to have made 20 of the 52 runs scored by the ten remaining members of the team. No other player reached double figures. In a very low scoring game, Yorkshire still won by 3 wickets. This game would have been, for Mitchell, a daunting introduction to tough northern first-class cricket between two proud teams. As Cambridge had no match arranged during the next round of Championship games, Mitchell was able to travel back to Lord’s with the Yorkshire side to make his maiden appearance on that ground. This