Lives in Cricket No 42 - Frank and George Mann

106 The Creation of Watney Mann a very lovable person’ as well as being ‘a master of mime, the apt facial expression showing fear, horror, disgust accompanied by some little comic gesture, always perfectly timed.’ Harry Lee added: ‘His good nature, modesty and sportsmanship added very much more to the game than he took from it.’ The Wisden obituary in 1965 agreed that he ‘was a highly popular personality on and off the field’ and Walter Robins, whom Frank had brought into the side in 1925 to make his first-class debut while still a schoolboy, told his son Charles that ‘he was much admired and liked by both amateurs and professionals, that he had a very outgoing personality, a big heart, was full of practical jokes, and Middlesex cricket was always enjoyable under his leadership.’ George Mann’s last match at any level was in 1966 for the Forty Club against Lord Porchester’s XI at Highclere Castle, now famous for being the site of ‘Downton Abbey’ in the television series. None of the fictitious Lord Grantham’s descendants appear on the scorecard, although ‘Lord Ted’ Dexter was playing for the Porchester XI and was responsible for the dismissal of George, caught and bowled for four. The 1960s are popularly known as the ‘swinging sixties’ but for cricket the early sixties were better known not for the ‘swingers’ but the ‘chuckers’, when the delivery of several fast bowlers clearly involved throwing rather than bowling. It all kicked off during the Ashes series of 1960/61 and continued unresolved for several years. At the International Cricket Conference meeting in July 1965, a new interim definition of throwing was commended to the governing bodies of cricket in each country: ‘A ball shall be deemed to have been thrown if, in the opinion of either umpire, the bowling arm is straightened, whether partially or completely, immediately One last match. George captained an Old England side against the Lord’s Taverners at Lord’s on 13 June 1964; a match fully reported in Wisden. Alec Bedser and Bill Voce bowled.