Lives in Cricket No 42 - Frank and George Mann

50 fieldsman and a batsman who has enjoyed an extraordinarily successful season’. 25 And to add weight to that judgement, Hendren later scored 107 for C.I.Thornton’s XI at Scarborough against the MCC Touring XI in September, thus passing 2,000 runs for the season. Arthur Gilligan, captain of Sussex that year and now 27, was appointed vice-captain and Frank was going to need all the help he could get as it was expected that, in addition to the sixty-three days of cricket to be played, there would be plenty of socialising at official and unofficial functions during their eighteen weeks travelling to all four corners of South Africa. However, according to the October edition of The Cricketer , published when the party was already at sea on the Union Castle liner Walmer Castle , Frank would be getting extra help from an unexpected source: The captain of a cricket team touring in our Dominions carries with him a great responsibility, and Mr Mann is the right man in the right place. He is of the type that compels affection and respect, and the leader who inspires these feelings in his eleven is half-way to success; and in Mrs Mann, who goes out with him he will have a charming and tactful Chief of Staff off the cricket field. There were three other wives accompanying their husbands on the tour, Mrs Gilligan, Mrs Carr and Mrs Woolley: while this feminine presence within the group might help create a more social atmosphere after play had ended for the day, it might also present some awkward moments for Frank which would need the diplomatic talents of Mrs Mann to prevent disagreements. One potential area for discord was that Frank Woolley and his wife Dora had also decided to bring their two children, aged seven and six, and although the South African cricket authorities were paying all the tour expenses, including arranging first-class single cabins for all the players, amateur and professional, the extra charge for first-class double cabins to accommodate wives and family had to be met by the player himself. In the case of the amateurs with private incomes this was no problem, but beyond the means of a professional cricketer like Frank Woolley. The passenger list for the Walmer Castle shows that he and his family occupied a second-class cabin and took their meals in a restaurant separate from the rest of the MCC tourists. This segregation would extend to hotel accommodation if they travelled together around the South African provinces and although, out of courtesy, Dora Woolley could be invited to attend official engagements with other wives, her presence on such occasions and not on others, could lead to embarrassing situations. On a more optimistic note, the 1922 Winter edition of The Cricketer carried an enthusiastic poem which demonstrated the confident expectations of England cricket lovers left behind in Britain as Frank Mann and his team sailed south to begin their South African tour. It was headed ‘Mann Goes South’, and was published with apologies, rightly, to the authors of ‘Drake Goes West’, a song made popular by the Australian baritone Peter Dawson: 25 This was presumably Warner’s own view – at this stage of the season, Hendren had scored 1,560 runs at 62.40 − so perhaps he had been outvoted on the selection committee. A New Captain for England