Lives in Cricket No 46 - George Raikes

25 Raikes’ Progress: From ‘Iron Gloves’ to Allrounder Thoughts on Raikes’ First Spell for Norfolk It would have been unlikely that contemporaries of Raikes would have known that he would not appear for Norfolk even once during the next six seasons, before making two triumphant reappearances (1904-1906 and 1909-1913: see chapters eight and nine). Up to this point he had scored 1,108 runs at 21.31 and taken 56 wickets at 18.52. These were the figures of a run-of-the-mill Minor Counties’ all-rounder rather than those of a cricketer with two ‘Blues’ to his name. With the exception of the 1893 season, his batting had been no more than steady, although his ability to block effectively was of use to the county, and his bowling was only of supportive value except for 1896, when he appeared to find an extra yard of pace. When he returned to bolster a side that had endured some hard times in the early years of the 20 th century, he was a completely different player; his batting was far more assertive and, as will be described in chapter seven, he had traded in his workmanlike fast-medium for a much more deadly bag of leg-breaks, top spinners and googlies. note 1: The Incapables were a club of ‘country house’ cricketers based in the south of Norfolk. note 2: It was not uncommon for sportsman to excel at both keeping wicket and keeping goal. Billy Moon and Leslie Gay, who kept goal for England before George Raikes, were much more successful stumpers than the Salopian, Gay even winning a Test cap. note 3: It is not at all clear whether the MCC were doing the young Raikes a great honour by selecting him at such an early age or whether they had turned up at Lakenham with fewer than eleven men and co-opted him on the spot. On balance the latter is more likely as it was regrettably common practice for the MCC to struggle to raise a full side for an ‘out’ match. note 4: Potential stumpers included Gerard Blake, Charles Taylor, Phil Fryer, Sergeant Smith - a mysterious figure of who only his rank is known - and Tom Morley. note 5: The brothers were generally known as ‘Hot’ and ‘Cold’ Pigg. note 6: This semi-final and the final of this competition, which was only inaugurated in 1891, were held at the County Ground, Lakenham. note 7: The rules on eligibility were duly tightened. Raikes ran into exactly the same problem when attempting to represent Wymondham at soccer for their football club was, like their cricket club, ranked as ‘junior’. note 8: Technically, the Canadian-born Frederick Tipple was the senior amateur but his debut match, in 1888, was the only fixture that he had played in to date and this match, his second, was his last for Norfolk. Clearly he was not captaincy material.