Lives in Cricket No 42 - Frank and George Mann

56 knuckled down to put on 70 runs together before the day ended. Heavy rain prevented any play on Saturday and when play resumed on Monday, the final day of the match, there was little prospect of a result. South Africa batted most of the day to reach 368 and Frank sent his numbers ten and eleven to face the final 15 minutes. They lost Macaulay after scoring eight and Carr joined Kennedy to play out the final few overs. There would now be a break between Tests of nearly three weeks with matches at Eshowe and Newcastle before returning to Johannesburg to face Transvaal for a second time. They could only draw with Zululand and Northern Districts, despite Frank’s blitz at Newcastle, hitting three sixes and nine fours in his top score of 79 out of 284 for eight declared. They got back on track beating Transvaal by 199 runs, thanks to another century from Sandham. Gilligan was given every chance by being selected for all three games but managed to take only five wickets against Northern Districts and no wickets at all from 31 overs against Transvaal. This gave Frank no reason to bring him into the eleven for the Fourth Test at the old Wanderers ground. Once again England got off to a bad start, losing Sandham, Russell and Woolley with only 35 runs scored. Carr and Mead took the total on past three figures, but with Mead gone, Carr and Fender continued to find run- getting a very frustrating business against some very good fielding, with MCC in South Africa: 1922/1923 The MCC side during its South Africa tour of 1922/23. Standing (l to r): W.H.Livsey, A.Sandham, G.G.Macaulay, G.Brown, A.S.Kennedy, C.P.Mead, G.B.Street (wk). Sitting: V.W.C.Jupp, P.G.H.Fender, F.T.Mann (capt), A.E.R.Gillligan, A.W.Carr.