Lives in Cricket No 42 - Frank and George Mann

37 Spectators poured over the barriers onto the ground laughing, cheering, shouting, waving: some carried Warner shoulder-high to the pavilion and lowered him into the Long Room. Warner came out on to the balcony of the dressing-room accompanied by the Middlesex amateurs and Fender, the Surrey captain, to thank the crowd for their support, but sadly, protocol of the day meant that the professionals, denied access to the pavilion itself, could only join the celebrations from 100 yards away. When the newspapers came out the following day, the top of the final Championship table read: Matches Points P W T L D F/I Total Poss Percent Middlesex 20 15 0 2 3 2 77 100 77.00 Lancashire 28 19 0 5 4 2 97 130 74.61 Surrey 24 15 0 6 3 4 79 115 68.69 After the celebrations had ended, Haig, Stevens, Hendren, Hearne and Mann went off to the Scarborough Festival while Warner rested until, a fortnight later, he led Middlesex out as champion county against the Rest of England at The Oval. Hobbs, Russell, Tyldesley, Holmes and Rhodes took advantage of a tired Middlesex attack and only rain prevented an embarrassing defeat. But the match ended with Warner walking off with Frank Mann, strongly tipped to be his successor as captain, who only a few minutes before had deposited a ball from Woolley on to the tramlines in Harleyford Road. In October the Championship winners were wined and dined at the Café Royal by members of the Middlesex County Cricket Club and a good time was had by all, except Hendren and Hearne, who were sailing to Australia with the MCC touring team, and Lee, who was on his way to South Africa for a winter coaching engagement. On the back of the menu there was an illustration of an eighteenth-century batsman with a curved bat defending two low stumps wide apart separated by a bail across the top and another man about to bowl underarm. Below that there were several handwritten lines of text under the heading ‘The Play at Cricket’: A manly exercise! But full of admonition. It requires great labour; and causes a profusion of sweat in proportion. The secret pleasure in this exercise is to prove yourself the better man than your antagonist. When you take a bat in your hand, imagine yourself at the rudder of fortune, watch the ball with anxiety and strike it with all the strength and dexterity of which you are capable, endeavour also with all your might and understanding to catch the ball; use the same diligence in pursuit of your calling, Old Playbook. The menu also highlighted the special dessert being served, a ‘Bombe Plum’, accompanied by ‘frivolities’. There were several toasts, that to Pelham Warner and the Middlesex eleven being proposed by the club Warner and his ‘Sandbank’