Lives in Cricket No 7 - Richard Daft

received a lucky charm of malachite from the monarch, who told him that as long as he possessed it, he would never have to do a hard day’s work; ‘and I never have,’ he declared. A month after the Loughborough match, Richard played at Derby when the local twenty-two opposed the All England Eleven, but this time there was a big development – he was playing for the Eleven. He scored only five in each innings and did no better for the Eleven against Twenty-two of Boston, but his last three matches brought much greater success. At Grantham, assigned to play for the local Twenty-two, his scores of 31 and 26 were the highest in each innings – the Twenty-two mustered only seven double-figure totals out of their 44 journeys to the crease! The season finished with five days of cricket at Irnham Park, under the generous hospitality of Captain W.H.Woodhouse. For Twenty-two of Irnham Park, he top-scored in each innings, compiling 35 and 29 against the United England Eleven attack which included John Wisden. He scored 8 and 26 for the Park against Old Harrovians. These last few innings were significant as they were made against strong amateur opposition. In 1858, Richard hit his highest recorded score to date when he stroked his way to a total of 75 for the Notts Amateurs against Burton-on-Trent in June, and a week or so later he made his first-class debut at The Oval for Nottinghamshire against Surrey. This entry into the eleven was not quite as straightforward as this sentence suggests. The constitution of the Nottinghamshire side was the subject of a long letter from the Secretary of Surrey to Bell’s Life . He had arranged to meet Lord Stamford (who had three of the Notts professionals, Bickley, Tinley and Brampton, contracted to play for him) to ask him to release them for the match, but Stamford would not be moved and ordered the three ‘home’. In addition, George Parr was absent through illness. In these circumstances, Richard was selected for the weakened Notts eleven to meet the best that could possibly have been thrown against them by Surrey. The home side ran up the considerable total of 200, but the last two batsmen fell to Richard. Going in at number three, Richard reached 13 before being bowled by an enormous break-back by Heathfield Stephenson. When Notts followed on, 86 in arrears, Alfred Diver (of Cambridgeshire) and Grundy gave them a second good start: the Notts captain varied the batting order and Richard, going in lower down, exhibited beautiful play and was undefeated on 44 as Notts reached 194, Advancement in Life 17