Lives in Cricket No 42 - Frank and George Mann

32 top three percentages now read: Kent 77.00, Yorkshire 76.67, Lancashire 72.00, with Middlesex on 67.15. Middlesex now had a rest day on 10 August thanks to their two-day win south of the Thames. But on 11 August, against Nottinghamshire, Warner now, in Ronald Mason’s words, ‘brought back to Lord’s a team which not only had great individual capacities at its command but which had in the rigours of its recent away games discovered a wonderful co- ordinated power.’ The new opening partnership of Skeet and Lee was doing well, giving Warner the opportunity to drop down the order behind Hearne and Hendren. Durston was firing on all cylinders, Stevens proving he was a genuine allrounder, Murrell stumping and catching at every opportunity, match-winning spells of bowling from Haig and Gunaskera, plus Frank Mann coming to the wicket to destroy an already beaten attack. Nottinghamshire were all out before close of play on the first day: on the second Hendren, with 232, reached what would be his highest score of the season after carefully building his innings by taking 105 minutes to reach fifty but then hitting a further 182 in only 100 minutes. Nottinghamshire made a fight of it for a while and at the end of the second day were only 80 behind with seven wickets in hand. Then Hearne struck and Nottinghamshire collapsed leaving Middlesex needing only 17 runs to win. Middlesex were still out of the top three with a percentage of 69.33, behind Kent, Yorkshire and Surrey. Middlesex now moved on to Bradford for their sixteenth Championship match, starting on Saturday, 14 August. Yorkshire were last year’s champions and looking strong contenders to repeat their success. Few would bet against a team containing such greats as Holmes, Sutcliffe, Roy Kilner, Rhodes, Emmott Robinson, Waddington and Rockley Wilson: Middlesex regarded them as their most dangerous opponents. Warner won the toss, decided to bat first on a green wicket and Middlesex were all out for 105 by mid-afternoon. It had all started badly when Skeet was hit by Waddington ‘between wind and water’ and was out soon after. Warner came in at four and made an unbeaten eight while wickets fell around him, including Frank Mann who had been unable to hit them out of trouble. All seemed lost when Holmes and Sutcliffe took the score past 50 without loss but then, in a rush of blood to the head, Sutcliffe tried to hit a slow long hop from Stevens out of the ground and skied the ball into the safe hands of Hearne. After tea the spin of Hearne and Stevens began to bite and Yorkshire had fallen to 69 for seven. Then their captain Burton and wicketkeeper Dolphin blunted the attack and held on to take Yorkshire to a lead of 39 by close of play. Middlesex started their second innings 64 behind but were without the injured Skeet, so Warner opened with Lee and defended heroically while Lee, Hendren and then Haig, playing one of his most important innings, piled on the runs before Rhodes bowled him for 86. Frank Mann’s attempt to add to the score was again ended by Wilson for the second half of his ‘pair’. After Middlesex lost their last two wickets on the third morning, Yorkshire had the rest of the day to make 198 runs to win although Kilner Warner and his ‘Sandbank’