Lives in Cricket No 42 - Frank and George Mann

75 Chapter Thirteen Frank Mann: Test Selector At the beginning of the 1930 season, Frank accepted a request from MCC to join the selection committee for the Ashes series in England that summer. He would be working under ‘Shrimp’ Leveson Gower as chairman, and alongside ‘Farmer’ White, captain of Somerset, and two co- opted professionals, Wilfred Rhodes and Jack Hobbs, representing North and South. The England captain would be Percy Chapman who had led the MCC team that toured Australia in 1928/29 and retained the Ashes, winning the series 4-1. The first match of the 1930 Test series, at Trent Bridge, was won by England by 93 runs, but Australia came back to level the series by winning by seven wickets at Lord’s: the Third Test at Leeds was drawn. Before the start of the Fourth Test, at Old Trafford, it was announced that Chapman had been invited by a separate MCC Special Selection Committee to lead the side for the 1930/31 winter tour of South Africa together with the names of the players selected. The Fourth Test at Old Trafford was also drawn after rain prevented any play on the final day. It was decided that the final Test, due to be played over four days at The Oval from August 16, would continue until there was a result. A generous decision as, if it had finished as a draw after the four days originally allocated, England would have retained the Ashes. As soon as the Fourth Test ended on 29 July Frank went off to join Middlesex for the first day of their match at Worcester starting the next morning, his first county match of the season. After beating Worcestershire the Middlesex team travelled down to Hove to play Sussex over the Bank Holiday weekend, starting Saturday, 2 August. The amateurs all stayed at the Metropole Hotel on the sea front at Brighton, where Ian Peebles recalled some examples of Frank’s legendary sense of humour while guests at the Hotel relaxed in the Palm Court listening to the resident orchestra. The ozone seemed to stimulate Frank’s own humbler musical ambitions and, taking advantage of the conductor’s short sight, he would conceal himself amongst the musicians. So, much to his annoyance, the maestro’s finest moments were liable to be blown asunder by the discordant blare of a trumpet, or a thunder of drums, according to the novice’s fancy of the moment. The ozone appears to have stimulated Peebles as well and Sussex were skittled out for 72 in their second innings, when he and Gubby Allen shared the ten wickets between them, and Middlesex won by nine wickets to finish the game in two days. Middlesex were due to start their next county match at Liverpool against Lancashire on 6 August, but the front page of the News Chronicle of Tuesday, 5 August caused Frank to drop