Lives in Cricket No 7 - Richard Daft

he had been manager for eleven years, joined Gunn and became his partner. Richard was an active participant in the village life of Radcliffe. When the Radcliffe Conservative Association was formed in 1880, he was an early member and was among the notables who attended the first dinner in November, 1881. A less civilised event was a meeting held by the Liberals in October, 1885, which was disrupted beyond recall by a posse of their opponents who were egged on by three members of the Daft family which, according to the report, included Richard himself. The other two were presumably Richard the younger, then aged 21, and Harry, aged 19. When the Liberals renewed their meeting some weeks later, the speaker remarked: ‘I would have thought that in Radcliffe, Parr and Daft would have known how to receive one of the opposite team.’ By 1886, Richard was a member of the Conservative committee. For a period in the 1880s, he served on the Board of Guardians, who were responsible for the administration of the Poor Law, and was elected a member of the Finance Committee, but by 1887 he was finding it difficult to get to their meetings. He was also a sidesman at the parish church. His political views indirectly brought him before a session of the Revision Courts, held in September 1885, and concerned with municipal voting rights. The Liberals objected to his having a vote by virtue of his occupation of the refreshment booths on the Trent Bridge ground. They argued that as Richard let the booths, the persons who sold the drinks were the true occupiers. After hearing from the Secretary of the County Cricket Club that Richard paid the rates and that the booths had been erected at Richard’s expense, the objections were dismissed and he retained his (Tory) vote. In 1881, he was the first professional cricketer ever to be elected to the Notts committee. Apart from Robert Tolley and, until 1872, his father-in-law, Butler Parr, he was the only cricketer of distinction to belong to that body. Richard’s experience was never again as uncongenial as it had been in 1881. On the field, Notts went from strength to strength, especially after Alfred Shaw replaced the ailing William Oscroft as captain in 1883. After sharing the title with Lancashire in the previous year, they headed the championship table in 1883, losing only two matches over the 108 Many Preoccupations