Lives in Cricket No 34 - Frank Mitchell

69 A remarkable season, and a lost opportunity 1901-02 (again) and Lancashire completed this excellent package. His 106 against Lancashire at Headingley in August 1901 may have been the finest of all these centuries, and it was to be his last for Yorkshire. The match was Brown’s benefit game. When Mitchell came to the crease on the opening morning nearly 31,000 people had passed through the turnstiles, and Yorkshire had lost three early wickets for just 21 runs. He went on to the attack immediately hitting 19 fours in his stay at the crease of two and a half hours. It was to be his only Roses match century. With a fine selection of other scores between 50 and 100, he made 1674 runs in the Championship of 1901 – a new record for Yorkshire in Championship games. It was almost half as many again as Hirst and Brown, who both averaged 33 for Yorkshire, compared with Mitchell’s 49.23. In all Yorkshire matches Mitchell scored 1801 runs. Despite that brilliance it is unlikely that Mitchell could have secured an England place. Robert Abel and J.T.Tyldesley each scored over 3000 runs, and fourteen players finished ahead of Mitchell in the national batting averages. As a further illustration of the competition, the Gentlemen v Players match at Lord’s in July 1901 was played over three days when most counties, including Yorkshire, had agreed not to arrange fixtures. Mitchell clearly had good claims to play for the Gentlemen, but he received no invitation. The first six in the Gentlemen’s line up were C.B.Fry, P.F.Warner, K.S.Ranjitsinhji, R.E.Foster, J.R.Mason, and G.L.Jessop. One can begin to understand why, despite his marvellous season, Mitchell was not perceived as being quite in the top rank. If he himself felt frustrated at being ignored, that may have contributed to his decision to leave England for South Africa at the year end. Mitchell in 1901, his best ever English season.