Lives in Cricket No 34 - Frank Mitchell

56 pleasing knock. The Hastings matches were both played in September, and Mitchell would then have been back living in the south of England for he commenced teaching work with the Abbey School at Beckenham that autumn. The school remained in existence until World War II when it was moved to East Grinstead, but has now been long closed. 1898 Teaching may not have appealed to Mitchell for too long, for in the summer of 1898 he was back again playing in four first-class matches, initially for A.J.Webbe’s XI and then for MCC. Webbe was a true amateur, a man of private means able to indulge on almost a full-time basis his passion for cricket, but who was also a very good player in his youth for Oxford University and Middlesex. He was to be President of Middlesex and a Trustee of MCC. Webbe’s XI regularly played against Cambridge University from 1885 and Mitchell played against his side in 1894 and 1896. He was now to play for Webbe, possibly amongst the first of his many private sponsors and benefactors over the years. In a first-class but twelve-a-side match Webbe’s team played Oxford University at The Parks, and Mitchell scored 35 and 35. The Laws of Cricket then provided that ‘ A match is played between two sides of eleven players each, unless otherwise agreed to’. A somewhat similar law applies today. The other three first-class fixtures in which Mitchell appeared in 1898 were all for MCC and all at Lord’s. Rain totally disrupted the first match against Nottinghamshire and Mitchell did not bat. In the second game he then scored 161 against Cambridge, the first time he had played against the team that had given him all his early opportunities. In days when a six could still only be scored by hitting the ball out of the ground he made his 161 out of 250 in three hours and 20 minutes with a five, 22 fours, four threes, 11 twos and 34 singles. MCC won by an innings and 13 runs and only lost three wickets in the process. A few days later Mitchell played for MCC against Oxford University. Curious circumstances involved his selection. He was not due to play and the Oxford XI had been chosen for this, their last fixture before the Varsity match. Oxford then asked if they could play an extra batsman, presumably to try and get their batters into form and without dropping anyone. MCC graciously agreed to make the teams twelve-a-side but did not have twelve players available. A summons was sent to Frank Mitchell but the MCC team were all out for 84 before he arrived, so he is marked on the scorecard as absent. No doubt he batted up the order in the MCC second innings but he scored only nine, and MCC, bowled out for 97, lost the match. The young player, F.H.Bateman-Champain, who Oxford had wanted, at a late stage, to bat did play. He scored 50 runs in his two innings, more than anyone else in the game, but then scored only four in the subsequent Varsity match – though Oxford still won. Mitchell played no first-class cricket in August, and would not have been teaching. By now country house cricket was in full swing and the grouse Quiet summers, winter tours and Test cricket, 1897-99