Lives in Cricket No 34 - Frank Mitchell

58 The winter of 1898/9 in South Africa with Lord Hawke The next tour that Mitchell undertook was, in time, much more significant, for long after it was over it was able to credit him with two retrospective England Test caps. Less than two months after his return from North America, Mitchell was on his travels again, this time on his first visit to South Africa and under the captaincy of the redoubtable Lord Hawke. By December 1898 Lord Hawke had known Mitchell for over four years. Hawke had been wonderfully impressed by the scores of 75 and 92 made by Mitchell for Cambridge University against Yorkshire in May 1894 but, since that match, Mitchell had made little impression as a subsequent Yorkshire player, and in the past two years had been rarely chosen. But maybe the 161 that Mitchell had scored for MCC against Cambridge at Lord’s in the 1898 summer, together with Mitchell’s performance in America, had determined Lord Hawke to give the now 26-year-old Yorkshireman another opportunity and in less testing circumstances. The team chosen to tour South Africa was quite strong. Pelham Warner was one of the party and he and Mitchell would usually open the batting. Then there was J.T.Tyldesley of Lancashire, Frank Milligan of Yorkshire – fatefully to remain in South Africa after the tour, and to die in the Boer War – Schofield Haigh, Albert Trott, C.E.M.Wilson, J.H.Board as wicket-keeper, and other quality players. The tour was underwritten by the South African Quiet summers, winter tours and Test cricket, 1897-99 Hawke’s England team in South Africa 1898/99. Back: F.Hearne (umpire), W.R.Cuttell, F.Mitchell, F.W.Milligan, A.G.Archer, A.White (umpire). Middle: S.Haigh, H.R.Bromley-Davenport, Lord Hawke, A.E.Trott, J.H.Board. Front: J.T.Tyldesley, C.E.M.Wilson, P.F.Warner.