Lives in Cricket No 46 - George Raikes

36 Raikes’ Meteoric Rise as a Top Quality Footballer It was the third successive year in which his college carried off the Inter- Collegiate Cup and the second year in which Raikes tasted silverware as an individual. It would not be surprising if Raikes had selected Magdalen largely on the grounds that it had a reputation as a hotbed of soccer. Raikes also featured in the Casuals’ 5-1 thrashing of London Caledonian in the first round of the London Charity Cup. This proved to be the start of one of the very few senior competitions in which he took part. He had to take a break from serious football due to ill health; firstly he severely strained his side and was unable to fulfil his commitments for the Casuals’ Christmas tours and then, at the end of January, he was reported as suffering from a nasty dose of ‘flu’. This allowed the Eastern Daily Press to continue its litany of praise: “The Oxonians … are anxious to see Raikes out and ready to take his old place before the date of the Inter Varsity contest. A better goalkeeper than Raikes has not been seen at Oxford for many years.” Raikes did recover in time to take his place in the eleven for the Varsity match. Oxford were again strong favourites to win; they had won 14 and drawn only two of their 17 warm-up matches, scoring 74 goals and conceding only eight, whilst Cambridge had won 12 games and lost as many as nine, scoring 56 goals whilst shipping 38. However, Oxford failed to ‘read’ the pitch and, expecting that a frost-bound pitch would thaw, had turned up with long ‘knobs’ (studs) on their boots; in contrast Cambridge arrived with their boots adorned with shallow bars of felt and The Oxford University Soccer XI that lost the 1894 Varsity Match by three goals to one. Standing (from left): J.A.Walker, E.B.Alexander, G.B.Raikes, W.J.Oakley, GO Smith, E.C.Bliss, C.B.Fry (captain), C.D.Hewitt, E.F.Buzzard. Front (from left): F.W.Carlton, B.N.Bosworth-Smith.