Lives in Cricket No 42 - Frank and George Mann

30 Warner and his ‘Sandbank’ The game at Leyton ended on 27 July and after other counties had completed their fixtures by 30 July, Middlesex were in sixth place in the Championship table with a lowly percentage of 58.18, well behind the top county Surrey who had reached 78.65. With only nine matches left to play, the suggestion by one or two optimistic and creative statisticians that Middlesex were still in the running for the title, was treated with disbelief and some amusement, although Warner and his team believed that a place in the top three might be a realistic target. What followed was a wild and increasingly exciting series of matches with the Championship title never certain until the last day of the season. Countdown to the title In the August Bank Holiday match, at Hove, Sussex had no answer to the leg spin of young Stevens, who took seven for 17 in eight overs, and were all out for 92. In the Middlesex reply Warner went for a duck, but Lee and Hearne added 144 in two hours and Middlesex ended the day at 213 for four. On Bank Holiday Monday Hendren stayed with Lee who reached 132 and then Hendren fell 13 short of his own century. After Haig and Gunasekera came and went quickly Frank Mann restored order with a quick 44 out of 73 in 55 minutes, including three consecutive sixes off Tate, to enable Warner to declare 277 runs ahead with a day and a half to play. 16 But another day wasn’t needed as Sussex crumbled again to Stevens and were dismissed for 154 in under two hours. Stevens had taken another six wickets and finished with a match analysis of thirteen for 60 in 22 overs, confirming Warner’s belief that here was a star of the future. Meanwhile Kent had beaten Hampshire to go top of the table with a percentage of 80.00 and Yorkshire had drawn with Lancashire. Middlesex were well behind with a percentage of 61.67. Middlesex moved eastwards to Canterbury on 4 August to take on the leaders, Kent, whose position at the top of the table had been achieved by three consecutive victories over Yorkshire, Surrey and Hampshire. This was the second match of Canterbury Week and marquees were up all around the ground with flags and pennants waving and a brass band playing, all set up ready for another Kent victory. On the first day half the Middlesex side were out before lunch but a stand between Hendren and Haig took them past the 200 mark. The day ended with Kent only 49 runs behind with eight wickets in hand. Warner tried six bowlers the following morning before turning to Haig who took seven wickets for 32 and the Kent lead was only five runs. Middlesex failed again in their second innings with Freeman getting a hat-trick by dismissing Hearne, Haig and Mann and were 47 for six. A small recovery thanks to Hendren and Stevens brought the total up to three figures and the final total of 127 kept their hopes alive. Kent began well and only Hearne could 16 Gerald Brodribb reported a conversation with A.E.R.Gilligan to the effect that two of these ‘great, soaring hits’ struck the wall at the north end of the Hove ground first bounce. The wall is 138 yd [126 m] from the wicket, so these may be his longest hits. Tate was in 1920 still an innocent off-break bowler, and did not refer to this treatment in his autobiography.