Lives in Cricket No 45 - Brief Candles 2

38 He stayed at that address for the rest of his life. From the 1911 census we learn that he was now an invalid, with a fractured shoulder and ‘decayed bone’ from which he had suffered for nine years. Well before 1911 this illness seems to have brought an end to his active career, for although Edward Baker was still named as the proprietor of the athletic goods business in Kelly’s for 1903, by 1907 that responsibility had passed to his wife. Four years later it was she who completed the family’s census return, in which she recorded that in their 31 years of marriage they had had nine children, six of whom had survived to that date. After 40 years, the word ‘cricket’ reappeared on his census form, where she gave his occupation as the all-embracing ‘athletic dealer, also huntsman, hotel proprietor [and] professional coach (cricket)’. One suspects that Mary Jane was listing all his previous occupations, rather than telling us what he was up to in that specific year. He lived for only another two years. Edward Baker died at his home in Bridge Street on 30 June 1913, and it was surely, and sadly, a painful end. His death certificate records the principal cause of his death as being ‘chronic caries of the shoulder’, which online sources tell us is an extremely painful form of tuberculosis. His death was formally reported by his oldest son, William; and despite all the other careers which his father had ventured throughout his life, he recorded his occupation simply as ‘professional cricketer’. Evidently cricket was seen by his family as the most important part of his life, even at its very end. Whether he passed his ability in the game to his sons or daughters is uncertain. I have noticed that a ‘W.Baker’ played for Maidenhead against MCC in July 1912. But Baker is not an uncommon surname, and I am reluctant to jump to the conclusion that this W.Baker was Edward’s son William. But it may have been … Edward Baker’s funeral took place on 5 July 1913, but the local newspaper the Maidenhead Advertiser did not include any report of it. Nor did the death of this seeming jack-of-several-trades merit a separate news item in the paper; he was, seemingly, just another forgotten man. And were it not for the special nature of his first-class batting career, he might still have been forgotten today. More pairs Getting on for 350 cricketers worldwide have had the unhappy experience of registering a pair in their only first-class matches. To end this chapter, here are notes of some of the more interesting other occurrences. It is not an achievement limited to batting rabbits: as many as 16 players have registered ‘only-match pairs’ when they opened the batting in one or both innings. Among the more recent to do so was Colin Arnold (Tasmania v NSW, Hobart 1976-77), who had the extra misfortune of being dismissed ‘hit wicket’ in his second innings. John Bulbeck (Hampshire v England, Southampton 1842) is the only other one-matcher to complete his pair by Never a run