Lives in Cricket No 42 - Frank and George Mann

71 Northern Counties Rule: 1925 to 1928 school batsman to have appeared for many years, and J.A.Nunn, so that they fielded a team of seven amateurs and only four professionals. Warwickshire led by 206 runs on the first innings and Frank came in at 100 for four and facing an innings defeat. This was not the time to hit his team out of trouble and, getting his head down, he batted for over five hours to score 194 runs, his highest first-class score, enjoying a stand of 118 for the sixth wicket with Crutchley and a stand of 104 for the seventh wicket with Haig. During his innings Frank also passed a career total of 8,000 runs for Middlesex. Not only avoiding defeat, Middlesex now asked Warwickshire to score 228 if they wanted to win and almost had them on the rack at 175 for five when the match ended as a draw. Two weeks later Middlesex had a great opportunity to beat Nottinghamshire at Trent Bridge although early on the second day they looked to have no chance until Frank took over again. Replying to Nottinghamshire’s first innings of 387, Middlesex had crashed to 81 for four and again looked like they would have to follow on until Frank took charge with an unbeaten 77. Eventually Middlesex were asked to make 369 to win and Frank made another of his bold decisions by sending Gubby Allen in at first wicket down, with instructions to go for the runs from the start. Gubby obliged by hitting 102 in two hours and forty minutes with 19 fours before Frank joined him at 211 for four and, with plenty of time in hand, victory looked possible. Frank now told Gubby to take things easy but his instructions were ignored and Gubby was out almost immediately, caught at the wicket for 103. Knowing how upset Frank would be, Gubby made a wide detour to avoid eye contact with his captain as he returned to the pavilion. Wickets continued to fall and despite a half- century from Frank, Middlesex were all out fourteen runs short of victory. Frank missed three Championship matches in 1927 and the match at Lord‘s in May against the New Zealand tourists. Middlesex dropped to ninth place, their lowest since 1919. But it was a very wet summer and in four matches there was less than six hours play with no points lost or won. Ten of the others were drawn, and of the other ten, five were won and five lost. The extraordinary bad luck of losing the toss twelve times in succession was a great disadvantage in a season of more rain-affected pitches than usual, though the Daily News Cricket Annual of 1928 thought him sometimes ‘too venturesome’ with declarations. Hearne was fit again but Allen dropped out before the end of June, Stevens played in only five matches, Dales in two and Bruce not at all. Hendren was in even better form than usual, hitting 15 centuries in the season, eight of them for Middlesex, but they never had bowlers to take advantage of the wet wickets during July and August with Robins being particularly disappointing. There were no centuries from Frank that year and only three half-centuries, the best being 74 against Hampshire at Bournemouth. It was another rescue mission, going in at 71 for four in reply to 237 and enjoying a fifth-wicket stand of 123 with Lee. At least he had some fun at the Folkestone Festival in the North versus South match. 34 Going in last at 339 for nine, he added 34 It was probably this festival where Sir Home Gordon remembered, in his 1939 autobiography, Frank’s presence at a fancy-dress ball, ‘faultlessly attired’ as a Lyons waitress, a ‘nippy’, and ‘seeking out the ladies cloakroom’. Alan Gibson mused in The Cricket Captains of England that this type of ‘larky transvestism was in vogue in the twenties’.