Lives in Cricket No 34 - Frank Mitchell

90 South African residence, 1905 - 1911 and meet the proposed bride of Cecil. In doing that, Frank met Theresa so that he then told his parents that he was going to marry her! The newly married Frank and Theresa then lived at Auckland Park, Johannesburg until 1912. They were to have three children, Thomas Frank born in 1907, Moya born about 1909, and Anthony Philip, born after World War I, in London in 1919. Away from family matters, Mitchell played some social cricket in his adopted country. Cricket, with snippets of cricket gatherings from around the world, records that he played at Krugersdorp on 25 January 1908 for Abe Bailey’s XI v XII of Krugersdorp and District, and that he scored 77 not out during an easy victory. There are no other cricketing references about him in 1908 or 1909 that can currently be traced. However in 1910 Frank Mitchell re-emerged as a significant figure in South African cricket when in September he was named as one of the selection committee for the team to tour Australia in 1910/11. Fellow selectors were J.H.Sinclair, a colleague of Mitchell in the 1904 England touring party, George Allsop, Mitchell’s manager of that 1904 tour, G.S.Kempis, who had played for the Transvaal and T.W.Bell, acting chairman of the South African Cricketing Association. Not altogether surprisingly, none of them had been to Australia but they still chose a good squad of players to be led by the admirable Percy Sherwell who had captained the South African team in England in 1907. Though South Africa lost the Test series in Australia 4-1, they still impressed that home nation and Sherwell was to be one of the selectors who later chose the team to visit England in 1912. Mitchell would have been present at the dinner at the Union Club in Johannesburg on 1 October 1910, presided over by Abe Bailey, before the South Africans left for Australia. Selectors did not travel with their teams and Mitchell still had a business to run. He was, nonetheless, able to play cricket for the Wanderers Club and on 2 December 1910 he achieved a score of 226 out of 383 for 9, playing for the Wanderers against the Pirates at Johannesburg. The Pirates were a fine club, and Mitchell’s batting in this match showed his ability had by no means deserted him. In March 1911 the South African tour to Australia ended, with Abe Bailey bearing half the financial losses, and thoughts were turning to the now arranged Triangular Tournament in England of 1912. Frank Mitchell, probably without any thought then of being on that tour himself, wrote to The Times in London suggesting that during the 1912 summer a game be arranged between England and an Eleven of Colonial cricketers chosen from the South African and Australian teams then in England. He thought that such a match would create the greatest interest in the Colonies and suggested that the Colonial team should be chosen by the two visiting touring captains with the President of MCC as referee, and the proceeds going to the Cricketers Benevolent Fund. Ever the innovator, this letter to The Times was one of a number to be written by Mitchell to that paper over the next twenty years. It again revealed his enjoyment of writing,