Lives in Cricket No 46 - George Raikes

54 Playing Cricket At Oxford: A ‘Nearly’ Man be hoped that he will come off on that occasion.” The Athletic News said: “There is no disputing the fact that Raikes would be an acquisition to the team in every way. A keen batsman and superb fielder, he can also trundle brilliantly at times – vide his MCC prowess – and has a peculiar delivery unlike any other bowler in the eleven”. (note 3) Raikes did indeed gain selection for the return match with Lancashire and he did come off. Following an innings in which the team and Raikes recorded their usual failures with the bat, he was promoted to first change and fully repaid the faith shown by Fry in his bowling; he was both parsimonious and penetrative, returning figures of 19-11-32-4. This time he secured a couple of prime scalps, dismissing future great Archie MacLaren and Frank Sugg (the latter first ball). Though he failed to take a wicket in Lancashire’s second innings, he again kept things tight and the Daily Telegraph reported that Raikes had been successful in his quest for a ‘Blue’. Having done enough to persuade Fry that he was worthy of selection, albeit as what Wisden called “a very fair change bowler” rather than as a stroke-playing batsman, Raikes promptly lost form with the ball. Against Sussex he took but two wickets and against the MCC he was only asked to bowl four overs in the whole match. He continued to justify his position as a tailender and dropped as low as number nine. The Varsity Match started on 2 July and Fry decided to bat first. None of the early batsmen could build a start and, when Raikes went out to join his skipper, the score was 258 for six – a fair but not a match-winning score. Given that there was almost no batting to come (in fact, nine, ten and ‘jack’ would fail to contribute a run between them), it was up to Raikes and Fry. With a first-class best of just 12, the odds were against Raikes achieving anything of note but this was his day and the Daily Telegraph reported that Raikes and Fry “experienced no difficulty in meeting the attack”. In fact they seized the initiative from the Cambridge bowlers and added 60 runs in only 65 minutes. Raikes was caught at the wicket by Walter Druce off Frank Mitchell for 29 whilst Fry went on to score an unbeaten 100; the final total of 338 turned out to be more than enough as Cambridge made 222 and, following on, 200. Oxford went on to win by eight wickets, their only win of the season. Alas for Raikes, although he had surpassed expectations with the bat, he appeared to have lost the confidence of Fry as a bowler and was only asked to send down 14 of the 173 overs that Oxford bowled in toto , taking just one wicket. The Eastern Daily Press commented, not entirely convincingly, that Raikes had “thoroughly justified his place in the winning team” whilst Wisden stated of the season as a whole “that Raikes often proved remarkably effective as a change … and might with advantage been given a better trial.” Certainly, he topped the bowling averages, though Gerald Bardswell, Lawrence Bathurst and Dudley Forbes (none of whom went on to have a significant first-class career) all took more than twice as many wickets as did Raikes.