Lives in Cricket No 42 - Frank and George Mann

98 Chapter Seventeen Captaincy Decisions During the voyage back from South Africa in March 1949 George met a young lady, Margaret Clark, the daughter of the General Manager of South African Railways, who was travelling to England for a few weeks holiday. George abandoned his earlier commitment to being ever-present at the dinner table with his team of players and could be found more and more frequently sharing his meals separately with Margaret. Their relationship quickly grew into more than just a brief shipboard romance and they made plans to continue meeting each other socially during the duration of her time in London. In the meantime, George had to be brought up to date with the business situation at the brewery and received confirmation that he could continue another season as captain of Middlesex and probably England as well in the four-match Test series against New Zealand. He was back in time to play at Lord’s against Nottinghamshire in the first county match of the season. On the final day Middlesex were left to score 222 in 135 minutes and naturally George expected everyone to go for the target. But it didn’t work out well: with 197 on the board and nine wickets down Leslie Compton, injured earlier in the match, returned from hospital on crutches determined to prevent defeat. He hobbled to the crease accompanied by George, who would act as his runner if a quick single would spare him from having to play out the final over, hoping that his partner, Jack Young, was in a better condition to defend his wicket. But the runner was not needed as Compton calmly played out the last six balls without incident. After the successes in South Africa it came as no surprise that Frank was asked to continue as captain of England for the home series against New Zealand. First came the Test trial, North versus South at Edgbaston, where he was able to renew relationships with most of his winter-tour successes and look forward to winning another Test series. Unfortunately, in the mistaken belief that the New Zealand tourists were going to be no match for their hosts, only three days were allocated for each of the four Tests. George soon realised that he was going to have to use all his creative captaincy skills if he stood any chance of beating the talented visitors before the three days were over. At the First Test at Leeds he declared England’s second innings closed at 267 for four, despite being well set himself with an unbeaten 49, 52 but seeking a chance of victory as a better choice than staying in for the half-century and perhaps even three figures, 52 This innings included George’s best-known big hit, onto the roof of the old football stand, whose front edge was 115 yards [105 m] from the wicket, with a potential ‘carry’ much greater than that.