Lives in Cricket No 7 - Richard Daft

Chapter Six Comparisons Fortunately for the narrative line, Richard spent more time on the cricket field in 1864, but it cannot be said that he was consistently successful. He did not play his first innings of note until the last week in June, when he stroked his way to 61 for the Players at The Oval. On the same ground, his scores were 56 and 29 for Notts versus Surrey, but bigger scoring was required from his side in the face of the Surrey score of 468. In the follow-on, after Richard was run out for 29, no-one did much and Surrey needed only four to win. A fortnight or so later, Notts met Kent on a new ground, at the Crystal Palace, where bumpy conditions made batting difficult. It was during Richard’s display that Edgar Willsher said to his colleague in the Kent side, Captain McCanlis: ‘This is the hardest wicket to bowl down in England.’ McCanlis queried this: ‘Have you forgotten Carpenter?’ ‘No!’ came Willsher’s riposte. Thanks to Richard’s 78, Notts won by 74 runs. A fortnight later, at Bradford, he played another match-winning innings, this time 80, which gave Notts victory over Yorkshire by seven wickets. Yorkshire’s second innings was something of a curiosity: only seven wickets fell to the bowlers as B.W.Waud was run out, George Anderson retired hurt after being hit and George Atkinson, while bowling, had been taken out by a drive from Richard. He could not complete his over and had to be taken home. The boot was on the other foot at The Oval when Richard turned out for England against Surrey: Parr and Co had all declined their invitations and he may have wished he had done the same when, in the first innings, he received so severe a blow over the heart that he had to retire. On resuming, he was caught for only two. At the second attempt, he was run out for ten – an unhappy ending to his first-class cricket for the season. Notts had had a mediocre summer, playing seven matches of which they won only three. Richard scored 334 runs in 13 innings at an average of 27.83 for the county: in all matches he hit 498 runs. His brother, Charles, scored 215 runs at an average of 15.35, 36