Lives in Cricket No 7 - Richard Daft

professionals, Carpenter, Hayward and Tarrant, were staunch supporters of Parr. Richard was one of the eight professionals from the North who played in the Willsher match, but the following year, 1863, he did not represent the Players at Lord’s or at The Oval, nor did he turn out for England or the North when they played south of the Thames. On the other hand, he played only twice for the All England Eleven, once against the United at Lord’s, when he scored only two and 11, in May, and once for the England Eleven against odds, and that not until mid-August. Haygarth in Scores and Biographies is quite clear that, owing to business, Richard’s efforts were confined for some little while to the matches of his county and a few first-rate ones at Lord’s. That summer, he appeared in only nine matches of note, of which five were first-class, and of these four were for Notts – two each with Kent and Yorkshire. Richard began the season in good form, scoring 39 and 80 not out at Trent Bridge against Kent, who were set 282 to win; they were in the process of being overwhelmed at 41 for 6 when time ran out. Ten days later, Notts visited Great Horton Road, Bradford, for their initial first-class match with Yorkshire. The home side excelled, leading by 16 on the first innings, and then bowling Notts out for 88, to win by eight wickets. Richard top-scored with 27 in the first innings but was unable to stop the rot with 17 in the second. The return at Trent Bridge a fortnight later came to a sensational close: Richard’s totals were 20 and 25 in a low-scoring match in which Notts had to follow on 81 behind. They made a small recovery, seven batsmen reaching double figures, and left the strong Yorkshire side 101 to win. Ned Stephenson hit up 30 without difficulty, but a metamorphosis was imminent. A contemporary noted: ‘One of the most exciting matches ever played in Nottingham. In the last innings, Yorkshire had only 30 runs to obtain, but owing to the splendid bowling of J.Grundy they were got out, leaving Notts the conquerors by six runs.’ The next match was against Kent at a novel venue, Swift’s Park, Cranbrook. Richard made only ten but Kent did little better, scratching only 58 and 45, to lose by an innings, in the face of a wonderful performance by Jackson, who scored 100, took 12 wickets, and held three catches from the bowling of Grundy – the two bowled unchanged throughout the two Kent innings. Richard 34 More at Home