Lives in Cricket No 42 - Frank and George Mann

36 Warner and his ‘Sandbank’ to bowl them out. Warner held himself back and asked for quick runs from his ‘sturm struppen’, Hendren, Haig, Murrell and Mann, but they panicked and, after Mann went for a big hit and skied a catch to cover, Middlesex had lost seven wickets for 83 runs in an hour. Warner was not happy to leave Surrey only 200 to get in about three and a half hours so he came in to push on and, as soon as the distinctive Harlequin cap appeared at the top of the pavilion steps, the crowd rose to their feet and roared him all the way to the wicket. Stevens was waiting for him and received the instructions: ‘Run everything: I want a few runs fast.’ In the next 7½ minutes Warner and Stevens added 25 runs playing tip and run. Declaration at 3.40 gave Surrey three hours to get 244 runs to win. The first wicket fell at 22 when Hobbs snicked Haig into the slips and after Hendren fumbled the ball it spun away to Lee who snatched it inches from the ground. All credit to Surrey who carried on with the chase despite the loss of wickets and they had 100 up in 75 minutes, then reached 120 in 90 minutes so that they had half the runs they needed in half the time before more wickets began to fall. With the last man in at 6.20 pm Steven bowled Studwick and Middlesex had won by 55 runs. The Middlesex side that famously beat Surrey by 55 runs at Lord’s in August 1920 to take the Championship. Standing (l to r): H.W.Lee, H.K.Longman, F.J.Durston, N.E.Haig, G.T.S.Stevens, C.H.L.Skeet. Seated: J.W.Hearne, F.T.Mann, P.F.Warner (capt), H.R.Murrell (wk), E.H.Hendren.