Lives in Cricket No 42 - Frank and George Mann

45 Chapter Eight A New Captain for England There was no overseas team visiting England in the summer of 1922 so Test selectors, still reeling from the impact of losing 5-0 in the series in Australia the previous winter and 3-0 to the Australian tourists in 1921, would be under no immediate pressure to start building a team with the potential to recover the Ashes. However, MCC had agreed to send a team to South Africa in the northern winter of 1922/23 to play twenty-two matches, including five Tests. With the current captain, Lionel Tennyson, unable to tour, the search for the right man to lead the party began as soon as the English season started. But first there was a County Championship programme to be played and defending champions Middlesex started as usual with two easy victories at Lord’s, this time over Warwickshire and Gloucestershire, thanks to centuries from Lee and Hendren, and 84 from Bruce. The chain of early victories was broken this year by a mere draw at home to Essex, despite Hearne’s match figures of eleven for 175, and followed by a shock defeat at Old Trafford. Putting that result behind them, they won the next four matches in a row with Hearne at the peak of his form, enjoying another ten-wicket match haul against Nottinghamshire at Lord’s and a double- century against Gloucestershire at Gloucester. Then their confidence was shattered by the first defeat at Lord’s since 1913. Losing by an innings to Yorkshire at home suggested that they were not firing on all cylinders this season and perhaps the successes of the two previous seasons had led to complacency. Frank Mann would have none of it and they responded with revenge over Lancashire, thanks to the arrival of Stevens from University to take ten wickets in the match, plus centuries from Hearne and Hendren. But the recovery was short-lived and they could only win one match of the next five while losing to Nottinghamshire and Somerset. The last game of these five was a draw with Essex at Leyton where the highlight was Frank Mann’s first century of the season, 100 from 150 balls including thirteen fours and two sixes, after coming in at 87 for five and adding 125 for the sixth wicket with Stevens. In the second innings he enjoyed a stand of 121 for the fourth wicket with Hendren while scoring 54. But there was some controversy at Leyton during Frank’s second innings. Details were published in the 19 August issue of The Cricketer : It is not often that a boundary hit by one of the most popular amateurs of the day gives rise to any barracking. This occurred in the Essex and Middlesex match at Leyton last week, when a section of the crowd noisily protested against the circumstances under which Mr F.T.Mann scored a four off Mr C.T.Ashton’s bowling. It seems that, in the act of delivering a ball which was wet, Ashton inadvertently