Lives in Cricket No 46 - George Raikes

24 Raikes’ Progress: From ‘Iron Gloves’ to Allrounder The Norfolk Committee were not at their best in arranging fixtures for the 1896 season. Whilst committing to play friendlies against I Zingari and the MCC, they failed to arrange the necessary four home-and-away fixtures to qualify for inclusion in the Minor Counties Championship. The first match started disastrously when ‘Hot’ Pigg chose to bat and Hertfordshire racked up a total of 382; with the professionals, Shore and Morley, proving uncharacteristically unthreatening, Raikes was asked to assume the burden of the attack and he rose to the occasion admirably, recording figures of 41-13-101-3. He was then required to do his familiar impression of a stonewall for a goodly portion of the second day to deny Hertfordshire victory; eventually rain helped Norfolk to sneak a draw After a couple of inconsequential performances, Raikes returned to form with the ball. Against the MCC, he recorded figures of 19-6-28-3 and 19-4- 45-5 and the Eastern Daily Press recorded that he “bowled very well”. He was rewarded with the ‘cherry’ in the last two games, against Cambridgeshire and Worcestershire, and seized his opportunity, taking a further seven and five wickets respectively. He appeared to have been working up a fair head of pace as ‘keeper Gerard Blake was forced to stand back to his bowling. Unsurprisingly it had been Raikes’ best season to date with the ball; his 26 wickets costing only 15.12 apiece, only marginally more expensive than those of Charlie Shore, the habitual leader of the attack. However, with the exception of his first match against Hertfordshire his batting had regressed and he averaged less for Norfolk than he did for Oxford University. The 1897 season saw the two brothers Raikes playing in the same Norfolk side – apart from one friendly in 1904 this was the only season in which their careers overlapped. George Raikes continued to bat in an obdurate fashion. For instance, in his first match, he opened Norfolk’s second innings against Durham alongside Sydney Page and they batted through 19 overs to finish on 55 without loss, Raikes share being a mere 11. The return match found him blocking again. After Charlie Shore had helped himself to all ten Durham wickets, Raikes opened once more and, out of a close of play score of 87 for five, he had accumulated only 29 not out. When he was finally dismissed for 37, he had been in for nearly three hours and all but ensured victory for Norfolk. The following match against Hertfordshire demonstrated that he could force the pace when required, having employed ‘careful tactics’ in his first knock, his second innings partnership with Phil Fryer saw “two men hitting away in brilliant style”. Raikes’ share of a match-winning partnership of 64 was 30 not out. Aided by a couple of not outs, Raikes’ Championship average was as good as that of any other batsman but he was rarely asked to purvey in the presence of his older brother, who took 19 wickets. His fielding attracted rave reviews in the 1898 Norfolk Cricket Annual in which Norfolk’s hon sec, E.G.Buxton, wrote of the previous season: “I consider our fielding is, as a rule absolutely first-class; … G.B.Raikes at extra mid-off” (‘Extra mid- off’ is not a position with which I am familiar but both John Chilvers and Jonny Howlett suggest that it is the contemporary term for extra cover.)