Lives in Cricket No 42 - Frank and George Mann

52 Chapter Nine MCC in South Africa: 1922/1923 R.M.S.Walmer Castle docked at Cape Town on 9 November 1922 and the next morning eleven of the fifteen MCC touring players started a first- class fixture against Western Province at the Newlands ground. 26 After the three-week voyage, the English batsmen were not surprisingly all at sea and slumped to 93 for six in reply to 145. Philip Mead was joined by Percy Fender and together they turned things round with a stand of 143, Fender reaching his half-century in 42 minutes, but both fell in the nineties going for a bigger lead. Needing only 40 runs to win, the MCC top-order batsmen failed again except for Russell, who was joined by Frank Mann at 21 for four to steer them to victory. This was followed by two easy wins, both by an innings, against South-Western Districts in a two-day match at Oudtschoorn where Jupp took six wickets in each innings, and Eastern Province in a first-class match at Port Elizabeth. At Grahamstown the local eleven was increased to fifteen for the two-day match and managed to hold the MCC eleven to a draw while the tourists took advantage of the opportunity for more time at the wicket. Sandham scored their first century of the tour and Mead was thwarted from doing the same when play ended with him unbeaten on 93. Neither Border at East London, where Sandham scored another century, nor North-Eastern Districts at Queenstown, could prevent the innings defeats that followed, and Griqualand West were beaten by eight wickets at Kimberley. It was at the match at East London where the first signs of discord among the four wives on the tour probably emerged. During the tour Frank Mann ‘discovered, to his chagrin, that the wives complained much more about the selectorial decisions than their husbands, while their presence hindered many of the social aspects of touring’, according to ‘David Mutton’ blogging as Silly Mid-Off . Cecilia Gilligan was the youngest at 24, compared to Ivy Carr aged 30, Enid Mann aged 33, and Dora Woolley aged 36. Cecilia’s inexperience and youthful ambition may have made her more likely to have been displeased and outspoken that her husband Arthur had not been selected to play against Border, the third time in the first five matches that he had been overlooked, particularly as the husbands of the other wives had played in all five. It was also suggested by Michael Marshall in Gentlemen and Players that dissatisfaction with team selection and seating arrangements at social gatherings had created friction between the ladies, unkindly referred to as ‘camp followers’. His source had been Frank Mann’s son, George: 26 Incidentally, a few days earlier, a different MCC touring side, under A.C.MacLaren, had started a tour of Australia and New Zealand with a first- class fixture in Perth, Western Australia.