Lives in Cricket No 46 - George Raikes

23 Playing in the Newly Formed Minor Counties Championship Norfolk made their debut in the Minor Counties Championship on 27 June 1895, against Lincolnshire at Spalding. On the first day the home county made a mere 131 but fought back to dismiss Norfolk for just 103. Raikes top-scored for Norfolk with 27 but, during the day, he received a telegram from the Oxford University skipper requesting that he ‘abandon ship’ and travel to Maidstone where he would represent the Dark Blues in their match against Kent. The Norfolk captain, Redmond Buxton, decided “to release him in order that he might comply with this request, it being considered that otherwise it might result in the loss of his ‘Blue’”. This meant that Norfolk had to play the second day with just ten men. As it turned out, Raikes was indeed awarded his second cricketing ‘Blue’ and Norfolk’s match petered out into a relatively high-scoring draw, the visitors finishing with two wickets to spare. The next match saw Raikes assume the captaincy for the first time. For the only time in the 1895 season, Redmond Buxton was unavailable and, despite being just 22, Raikes was the most experienced amateur in the eleven (note 8) . Hertfordshire struggled against the slow left-arm of Charlie Shore but their tail wagged vigorously and, as it turned out, decisively; out of a final total of just 117 runs, numbers ‘nine’, ‘ten’ and ‘jack’ scored no fewer than 67 between them. In return, Norfolk mustered a miserable total of 48. Only Sydney Page, with 13, reached double figures. Hertfordshire’s second innings finished on 87, before Norfolk’s second abject collapse saw them dismissed for just 43 – a defeat by 113 runs. Raikes himself was a failure, bagging a brace of ‘twos’ and failing to take a wicket. Rain ruined the home fixture against Cambridgeshire, notable only for the fact that Raikes opened the batting and bowling, whilst he also opened the batting against Lincolnshire in an innings victory. His sole sizeable innings of the season, a 65 containing one ‘six’ and two ‘fours’, enabled him to exact some revenge on Hertfordshire, who also lost by an innings. In his final match of the season, against Oxfordshire, he failed with the bat but took three for 30 to run through the visitors’ middle order in their first innings. Raikes missed the last two matches but Norfolk won both and finished as joint champions. It was in many ways a disappointing season for Raikes; a batting average of 22.14 being barely adequate whilst his total of five expensive wickets were not what the county would have expected from a cricketer who had received a ‘Blue’ on the basis of his performances as a trundler in the first-class game. In early August, Raikes made another of his dominating performances for the Suffolk Borderers, played as part of Garboldisham Week, an annual celebration of ‘country house’ cricket in Norfolk. This time he was unable to secure victory as Watton declared at 169 for six and, although he carried his bat for 75 not out, he received no support and the Borderers were sent packing for just 109. Raikes’ Progress: From ‘Iron Gloves’ to Allrounder