Lives in Cricket No 34 - Frank Mitchell

34 Cambridge, Yorkshire interlude and America, 1895 negotiations by now taking place on the other side of the Atlantic. Ultimately a compromise was wisely reached. With only three weeks to go before both teams were due to set sail, Germantown fell in with the broad wishes of the Associated Clubs. The invitation from Germantown to Kenneth McAlpine to bring a team was withdrawn – though without any opportunity being given to him or any of his team to join Mitchell’s side. McAlpine was a great lover of game and continued to give generous support to Kent and the Mote Cricket Club at Maidstone. He was President of Kent CCC in 1922, the year before his death. The Associated Clubs, through the generosity of the Chairman of the Belmont Club, conceded the match that was due to be played at Belmont to the Germantown Club. The Germantown Club accepted that the Associated Clubs would pick the team for one of the Gentlemen of Philadelphia games, and the Associated Clubs agreed that Germantown should pick the Gentlemen team for the other game. So all was relatively happy as Mitchell and his men set sail on the American Red Star Line vessel St Louis with 1400 other passengers on Saturday 29 August, 1895. The journey was smooth and fast, 529 miles being completed on one day. The team that Mitchell chose was not entirely an Oxbridge side, though his reasoning for individual selections has not become apparent. Fourteen players made the journey across the Atlantic Ocean before their first night ashore at the First Avenue Hotel in New York. Eight men had played for Cambridge University in the summer of 1895. They were Mitchell, N.F.Druce, C.D.Robinson, R.A.Studd, C.E.M.Wilson, W.W.Lowe, W.McG. Hemingway and H.H.Marriott. The Oxford team of 1895 was represented by F.A.Phillips, H.A.Arkwright and J.C.Hartley. Six of those eleven had played in the 1895 Varsity game. That left three outsiders of whom the two senior were Vernon Hill and Frank Milligan. Hill provided valuable experience to Mitchell’s team. He had left Oxford University in 1893, was called to the bar at the Inner Temple in 1895, and was settled into the Somerset side for whom he would play until 1912. Milligan, an Etonian, was an occasional colleague of Mitchell’s in the Yorkshire side and another protégé of Lord Hawke. The final member of the team, W.Mortimer, went to and from the United States without ever at any time playing a first- class match. This group of young men were to have a happy tour – not entirely successful on the cricketing field, but then their opponents would not have wished to be in any way dominated in playing terms – and their happiness would lead to yet more teams visiting the American shore over the next few years. The American clubs offered generous hospitality, and Englishmen engaged in the cotton and other trades were welcoming hosts. Just five games were played, two of them now regarded as first-class. The students, after all, had some requirement to return to their studies in early October. It was natural to commence in New York and a twelve-a- side game was duly arranged for the Livingston ground on Staten Island. Wisden was to describe the English team as Mr Mitchell’s team though they had started their journey as The Oxford and Cambridge side. New York