Lives in Cricket No 34 - Frank Mitchell

82 Chapter Thirteen International cricket: South Africa in England, 1904 From South Africa, Frank Mitchell in 1903 was in regular contact with Lord Hawke, who was himself in regular contact with the Secretary of MCC, Mr F.E.Lacey. One of Lacey’s roles was to co-ordinate the arrangements with the counties for their future fixtures, and for 1904 that was done at a meeting at Lord’s chaired by him and attended by 41 other representatives of the first-class counties, and another 23 from minor counties. It must have been quite a gathering that met on 8 December 1903. The South Africans obtained twenty-six fixtures, twenty-two of which were first- class, running from 30 May to 5 September 1904 at Hastings. The influence of MCC in all of this was always strong, and when the national fixture list was published in early 1904 one fixture given was ‘ 4th May – Lord’s – MCC Annual Meeting and Dinner’. Hawke had used his persuasive powers to aid the South African team in obtaining fixtures against all the first-class counties, MCC and Ground, the Universities, London County, the Gentlemen of Ireland, Scotland, Liverpool and District, the South of England, and most important of all, in mid-July at Lord’s, An England XI. The concept of Test cricket against South Africa had not yet arrived, and though in later years some of the earlier tours to South Africa were given retrospective Test status, that did not happen with South African tours to England. The first official Test played by South Africa in England would be in 1907 when Mitchell would not be a participant. He might in his later years have regretted that his 1904 tour was not granted a retrospective Test, for 1904 was to be a much happier tour for him than his next and last touring venture in 1912. Yet, at a late stage, the 1904 tour was on the verge of never happening. Whilst Mitchell was canvassing for Bailey’s candidates in the 1904 election, he received a wire from his employer suggesting that the tour be cancelled. Possibly Bailey was downcast at likely election results or troubled at bearing most of the costs of the tour. Mitchell responded by telling Bailey that cancellation would imperil cricketing relationships between England and South Africa, and that was certainly true, for Lord Hawke had gone to much trouble in arranging an attractive tour. Bailey backed down and in Mitchell’s words told Mitchell to ‘get on with it’. If Bailey did have anxieties about the costs, he was right to do so. He had underwritten the travelling and hotel expenses which cost him about £2000. Multiply that by 90 to reflect inflation today and he was out of pocket by the modern equivalent of £180,000. Wisden was unconcerned. ‘Other South African merchants also helped to pay the heavy expenses of