Lives in Cricket No 45 - Brief Candles 2

112 like almost all first-class matches in 1919 it was scheduled for only two days) Worcestershire made 341 for five declared, aided by an innings of 128 by A.N.Jewell. At least Alfred got on to the scorecard, for he took a catch off the bowling of fellow-debutant C.R.Preece to dismiss the county’s number five, W.Greenstock. He had also had his debut innings on that day, batting at number six and falling for a duck to the bowling of the opposing captain W.H.Taylor. He may or may not have taken some schadenfreudian consolation from the fact that his nephew Chase Meredith, batting one place lower, also fell for a duck, while H.K.Foster himself only managed to score two. From 106 for eight overnight, Foster’s XI pressed on to 203 all out on the second morning, mainly thanks to an innings of 59 not out at number ten by wicketkeeper J.F.MacLean. In their second innings the county declared at 183 for seven, leaving Foster’s side around 40 overs to score 322 for victory. That was never going to happen, of course, and they closed at 182 for four. Batting one place higher than in the first innings, Alfred made ten before being given out lbw to Dick Burrows (“But that was never lbw, old boy! I might have gone on to get a century”, as Thony Handy’s Tarrington playlet surmised him saying afterwards!). Neither Meredith nor Foster batted a second time. What very little we know of Alfred’s personal performance in the game comes from the reports in the Worcestershire Daily Times. In fact, all they tell us is that his first-innings catch was taken in the slips (not bad for an old ‘un, eh?), but they say nothing of his batting, or his dismissals, in either innings. Alfred Green-Price (seated centre, in striped jacket and cap) where he spent so much of his adult life – surrounded by cricketers. These were the players in a Herefordshire v Radnorshire match in the early 20th century. The oldest of them all