Lives in Cricket No 42 - Frank and George Mann

43 A New Captain for Middlesex there at 19 for no wicket when play ended for the day. The next morning Middlesex still needed another 303 to win but they had proved themselves experts that summer in turning first-innings defeats into victories and the game was on a knife edge. Lee went at 48 and Hearne joined Twining at five minutes past 12. The second wicket didn’t fall until 5.20, four hours and ten minutes later, after they had added 229 runs. It was Twining’s first county century (135) and Hearne’s fifth (106) and all that was needed was Hendren to make the winning hit at five past six, with Frank Mann at the other end on an unbeaten 22, for the celebrations to start. In the final table, Middlesex had fifteen wins in twenty matches, and secured 75 out of 95 possible points, giving them a percentage of 78.94. Surrey had fifteen wins in 24 matches and had earned 81 points out of a possible 115, giving them a percentage of 70.40, well behind their North London rivals. Yorkshire, in third place, had 16 wins, more than either of the London sides, but these were spread over 26 matches, giving them a percentage of 70.40. It was, though, the end of an era for southern sides. The next nineteen Championship titles were shared out, albeit none too equally, between Derbyshire, Lancashire, Nottinghamshire and Yorkshire. Frank declared that the success of the team was entirely due to his predecessor and that he had inherited a fine team and the only part he played in winning the Championship was by spinning the coin. In its Winter Annual for 1921 The Cricketer made a different assessment: To F.T.Mann, the captain, the County owe a deep debt of gratitude, for he proved himself an admirable leader, who managed his rather The Middlesex side, with Frank very much the big man, which won its last Championship match of 1921 to take the title. Standing (l to r): R.H.Twining, H.L.Dales, J.W.Hearne, F.J.Durston, A.R.Tanner, H.W.Lee. Seated: E.H.Hendren, N.E.Haig, F.T.Mann (capt), Hon C.N.Bruce, H.R.Murrell (wk). A total of 27 players, fifteen of them playing five games or fewer, represented the county in the Championship during the season.