Lives in Cricket No 46 - George Raikes

47 the fact that for the first time the Scottish Association availed themselves of the services of Scotch professionals engaged with English clubs, the team including no fewer than five of such players. While Scotland were thus able to place a thoroughly representative side in the field, England were unfortunate that Bloomer, their best forward, and Needham, one of the half-backs, were unable to play. The absence of these two men necessitated considerable alteration in the arrangement of the team… As was anticipated, there was an immense crowd, and though Celtic Park is reputed to hold 60,000, the various enclosures and stands were so crowded that an hour before the start it was deemed advisable to close the gates. When the teams appeared on the field a portion of the crowd broke down the barriers and themselves swarmed round the line of play, while those in the rear threw lumps of cinders at those in front. The police succeeded in driving the crowd back a few yards, and except for a brief period in the first half the game proceeded without interruption. Losing the toss, England in the first half had to face a fairly strong wind, and during the greater part of the time were engaged in defending. The Scotch halves played finely, quite breaking up the combination of English forwards, while with the exception of Crabtree the English half-backs did not acquit themselves well.” For Scotland Lambie and King, “who worked together admirably, raced away, and the former sent in a shot, which Raikes put out. Lambie took the ball on the rebound, and gave Raikes no chance, scoring the first goal for Scotland after half an hour’s play. Another attack by the Scotch forwards five minutes later ended successfully, King kicking a second goal. Scotland continued to press, Hyslop heading just outside , while Raikes only just cleared smart shots by King and Hogg.” Scotland led at the interval 2-0. After crossing over, with the wind at their backs, ‘the Englishmen were seen to much greater advantage’ and hit one of the uprights. “Lambie and King got away again, and the latter sent in an awkward shot to Raikes, but the English goalkeeper managed to clear.” Ten minutes from the close England succeeded in scoring. “Though they played desperately right up to the finish, England met with no further success, Scotland being left the winners of a hard game by two goals to one.” Although the match was lost, no blame was attached to the Varsity trio at the back, Grayson declaring “the old defensive firm of Raikes, Oakley and Lodge gave not the slightest cause for concern”. Grayson was also in no doubt that the selectors had been correct to select Raikes ahead of the professionals – the established J.W.Sutcliffe (Bolton Wanderers) and the up-and-coming J.W.Robinson (Derby County) and W.H.‘Fatty’ Foulkes (Sheffield United) A mere two days after what would turn out to have been the match of his life, Raikes played in his final ‘big’ game, a 4-2 victory for the Corinthians at Derby County. He was still just 23 but that was that – by the time that anyone had noticed that he had stopped playing it was already old news. Creek summed up his legacy not entirely accurately at a distance of 40 years: “G.B.Raikes was excellent while at Oxford but he took Holy Orders shortly after going down, and played little afterwards.” In fact he almost retired altogether after going down, playing only a little recreational Raikes the International ‘Keeper’