Lives in Cricket No 42 - Frank and George Mann

40 A New Captain for Middlesex but had outscored them all, including Hobbs, with 1,178 runs from first- class matches at an average of 62.00. The other Middlesex player on the tour, Jack Hearne, had been taken ill after the first day of the Second Test and taken no further part in that match or any of the other Tests and fixtures before returning to England, although he was expected to have made a sufficient recovery and to be able join his Middlesex companions soon after the start of the new season. As in previous years, much of the success of Middlesex would depend upon the amateur talent that would be available, and this featured strongly in the first issue of Warner’s new magazine The Cricketer , dated 30 April 1921, which contained an in-depth analysis for all the counties entitled ‘Prospects of the Season’. Of Middlesex, the magazine commented: Mr F.T.Mann will captain the side this year, and a very good one he should make, too. He knows Mr Warner’s methods, he knows the side, and, what is more important, the side know and trust him. Except for the loss of ‘Plum’ the side will be very much what they were last year. N.Haig, that match-winning cricketer, will play all through 1921 at least. The Hon C.N.Bruce, one of the most beautiful bats on a hard wicket, will play a good deal in the first half of the season, and so will Mr G.E.V.Crutchley, who, fit and well, gets runs quickly and in perfect style. Mr G.T.S.Stevens, for whom the very highest cricketing honours are confidently predicted in the future, will not be able to play for Middlesex, of course, till after the Varsity match. The reviewer does not mention Horace Dales, who would rejoin the team (as the replacement for Warner) to open with Lee, or Dick Twining, another opening batsman who hoped to be available occasionally. Another of Warner’s regulars, ‘Father’ Kidd, was now living and working in Dublin but intended to come back to England occasionally. Kidd had captained Cambridge University before the war and when Warner was ill in 1912 he took over the Middlesex captaincy throughout July and August. If the 31-year-old allrounder had remained in England the county might seriously have considered him ahead of Mann when Warner retired. As the season progressed Mann would call up a total of 27 players compared to Warner’s 19 in 1920, usually in an attempt to find new talent or fill in gaps where business and other demands called regulars away. Of the eight amateurs who were given a trial and made their debuts in 1921, none were needed in more than a handful of matches. Two never played again but the other six, Archie Foster, Bert Wenyon, Norman Moffatt, Geoff Cuthbertson, Gubby Allen and Patrick Durlacher, went on to make themselves available during future seasons with varying levels of success. Allen had left Eton in July, not expecting to be playing first-class cricket until the following summer for Cambridge University, but was surprised to receive a message from Lord’s: ‘I got this telegram from Frank inviting me to appear in two games for the county in August. I was just nineteen and hadn’t even got a Blue at that stage.’ Middlesex made an impressive start to the 1921 Championship by winning the first eight matches, thanks to three centuries from Hendren, a double