Lives in Cricket No 46 - George Raikes

49 Raikes the International ‘Keeper’ the visitors had to play with ten men. The game was started in a drenching downpour of rain, which fell almost throughout the game. There were very few spectators present.” Why Raikes should suddenly decide to make himself available for such an unpromising fixture, for a team with which he had no prior connection will forever remain a mystery; perhaps he had been visiting his mother at nearby Hedenham Hall and fancied a game of soccer. And yet East Anglia had still not seen the last of Raikes’ goalkeeping. Halfway through the following October, he was again sighted acting as custodian for Bungay (note 10) in their 1-0 victory over visitors Diss in a match counting towards Division Two of the North Suffolk League. The Eastern Daily Press described it as “a good and evenly contested game” but, for once, failed to concentrate on Raikes. It is again unclear why Raikes should again find himself in East Anglia; it is possible that he had some time to kill between leaving Wells College and taking up his clerical duties at Portsea (as will be dealt with in chapter six). Whatever, this would appear to have been the very last game in East Anglia in which he was noticed. Another Low Key Coda At Christmas 1897 Raikes was appointed to serve in Portsea and it is not particularly surprising to find him participating in football that was, although competitive, several levels beneath him. Although reports in the press are somewhat patchy, he appeared to have turned out for the White Company, a club who participated in the lowly Portsmouth League (note 11) – this required him to rub shoulders with the likes of the Dockyard Apprentices. Unsurprisingly, when the League put out a representative side, Raikes was a shoo-in as custodian; for instance, in September 1899, he kept goal against the United Services League on the Men’s Ground but was unable to prevent the Portsmouth League going down by two goals to three. The press reported that “the losers’ defence was good, but the forwards … were hardly so smart as the front rank of the Services.” On another occasion, when he was due to play for The Rest against the League Champions, Havant Eclipse, he demonstrated that he was still guilty of the tendency to call off rather late in the day. And, finally, after nearly as many farewells as Frank Sinatra, Raikes was sighted playing football for one last time. On 21 February, 1900, it was noted: “About 100 spectators turned up at Fratton Park on Wednesday to witness the friendly between Portsmouth Reserves and White Company, who had the Rev G.B.Raikes in goal, and won by 2-1 after a capital game. The visitors showed smart form and deserved their victory. The Reserves were reinforced …” That appears to have been that as far as Raikes and football are concerned, perhaps one should not wager against further sightings … note 1: Cavallini (2009) quotes The Times which reported that “Perhaps the player who was chiefly responsible for the Casuals’ win was G.B.Raikes, of Oxford, in goal, and the way in which he stopped shot after shot from the Sunderland attack elicited repeated applause.”