Lives in Cricket No 42 - Frank and George Mann

69 Chapter Twelve Northern Counties Rule: 1925 to 1928 After coming so close to winning the Championship again in 1924; Middlesex failed to finish higher than sixth for the next eleven seasons and even dropped as low as ninth in 1927. Yorkshire won their fourth consecutive Championship in 1925, then Lancashire won it for the next three years, followed by Nottinghamshire in 1929, then shared again between Yorkshire and Lancashire until 1936. The success of those northern counties, mostly playing with an amateur captain and ten professionals, gradually became the model for most of the other counties. But not for Middlesex, who persevered with their recruitment of promising young amateurs from schools and universities, rather than the development of young MCC professionals from the nursery at Lord’s. Some of the MCC youngsters obtained permission to qualify for other counties rather than continue to hope for an occasional opportunity to prove their talent with the Middlesex first eleven when there were not enough amateurs available. Many of the amateurs were very gifted cricketers indeed, such as Twining, Dales, Bruce and the three recent arrivals, Stevens, Guise and Allen, but not always knowing which would be available meant that there was a lack of continuity, and it was a tribute to his ability to make the best of what he had, that Frank was as successful as he had been for so many seasons as captain. Acknowledging the need for new blood, Middlesex gave opportunities to eight new amateurs in 1925, including Tom Enthoven who was currently captain at Cambridge University. The one with the most promise was certainly the young schoolboy Walter Robins. Lord Dunglass was given another chance while still at Oxford University but, failing to make any impression, he moved on to other interests, as we have seen. Middlesex won half of their 24 matches in 1925 and lost only three, but eight draws in their last thirteen matches, with Hearne unable to play in the last six, was not enough to take them higher than sixth. It wasn’t until the eighth match of the season at Lord’s against Worcestershire that Frank got into his stride, before that managing only 133 runs from his twelve innings. But then he scored 71 in a sixth-wicket stand of 160 with Hendren in the first innings and 57 in the second, to ensure that Middlesex would eventually win by 191 runs. Two weeks later Middlesex pulled off an extraordinary and totally unexpected victory over Nottinghamshire at Trent Bridge. After two low-scoring first-innings totals, Nottinghamshire recovered and set Middlesex a massive target of 502, with almost four sessions of play left. At the end of play on the Monday Middlesex were 60 for three with Lee, Hearne and Stevens all out. North went early on the final