Lives in Cricket No 34 - Frank Mitchell

39 Rugby Union - as a player and writer Mitchell scored a try and made three conversions. The reward for Mitchell was to be given an international cap for England for the match against Wales at Swansea on 5 January, 1895. The weight, skill and hard work of the English forwards made their pack the dominant one and the team won by 14-6, which could have been greater had not Mitchell missed a penalty and two conversions. Lansdowne Road in Dublin was the next stop for this fine team. The game was tighter but England prevailed by 6-3. Just the Scotland game remained, and on home turf for England at the ground of the Richmond Club. But pride had come before a fall and England lost 3-6. Mitchell was no longer the place kicker and blame for the defeat was put on the forwards with The Times being critical in analysis: ‘The forwards were the cause of the degeneration of the game perhaps explained by lack of practice. They had quite lost the art of getting the ball away with the splendid footwork and hard work previously seen.’ So the 1894/5 season had ended in disappointment. When the summer of 1895 cricket had passed, Mitchell was left with one final season of rugby at Cambridge. He played his last Varsity rugby match at Queen’s Club on 11 December 1895. He was now captain of his university and two other Caius colleagues joined him in the Cambridge pack – A.F.Todd and F.Jacob. After the loss of 1893, and the draw of 1894 there now came a Cambridge win by 5-0, the winning achievement being a converted try. Now the man at The Times could write in different vein: ‘ Mr Frank Mitchell the Cambridge captain is to be congratulated on having instilled into his forwards that fine The England team that lost to Scotland on 9 March 1895, with Mitchell in the middle of the back row. In front of him is the captain, Sammy Woods, who played cricket for Australia, England and Somerset.