Lives in Cricket No 42 - Frank and George Mann

25 Chapter Six Warner and his ‘Sandbank’ When plans were made at the end of the war for the resumption of cricket in the summer of 1919, there were gloomy prophecies that spectators would no longer be interested in paying to go to grounds to watch the first two days of a match if the drama and excitement of a result would not be reached until the final third day. The president of Warwickshire, Ludford Docker, convinced the other counties that he had the answer if they took advantage of ‘daylight saving’ which had been introduced during the war to increase industrial productivity and was going to be continued. Britain’s ‘Summertime Act’ was passed on 17 May 1916 and on the following Sunday, 21 May, the clocks throughout the country had been put on one hour in advance of Greenwich Time, extending the hours of daylight for the whole of the summer months. It was agreed that county matches should be limited to two days but with longer hours of play, the first day ending at 7 pm and the second day at 7.30 pm. This looked a good idea on paper and for a few weeks the crowds came, but the novelty soon wore off. As Wisden for 1920 explained: The advocates of the two-day match overlooked the needs of the human stomach … the craving for food had as a rule become stronger than the passion for cricket’, so that spectators developed the habit of getting up and going home to supper just as the game was getting exciting, leaving the grounds almost empty. In a generally fine season, the two-day system also failed because wickets were good and few games were actually completed, which had been the point of the experiment. Yorkshire played more games, twenty-six, than any other county and took the Championship title which was determined on a simple ‘percentage of matches won’ basis. Northamptonshire and Somerset played only twelve games. Others played between sixteen and twenty-four, with five counties, including Middlesex, playing only fourteen. Middlesex lost nine of those matches and won just two, finishing just above Essex and Warwickshire near the bottom. The long days of play tired players as the weeks went by and the quality of cricket suffered. Too many inferior batsmen made large scores against bowlers and fielders who were physically exhausted. On several occasions Warner called himself ‘a dead dog’ and reluctantly dropped out of four Championship matches, including visits to Lancashire and Yorkshire. Frank Mann played in all 14 county matches plus five others, taking over as Middlesex captain when Warner was absent, winning one, losing one and drawing the other two. His five other matches were all over three days including Gentlemen versus Players at Lord’s; Demobilised Officers against