Lives in Cricket No 7 - Richard Daft

bringing his total over three seasons to 392 runs at 14.00: 1864 was in fact the high point of his first-class career. The Illustrated Sporting News had this to say about Richard in 1864: As a batsman, Daft, in my opinion ranks second to none in the world. Tom Hayward plays gracefully, but he is no more worthy to be compared to Daft in gracefulness than I’m fit to be Chancellor of the Exchequer; Bob Carpenter hits splendidly to the off and keeps down the balls well, but Richard Daft beats him hollow. Some exception has, I am aware, been taken to the fact that many off balls that other players would punish, Daft contents himself with playing back to the bowler. . . . Some judges say that since he ceased to play with the All England Eleven there has been a falling off in his batting, and I am inclined to think there is some truth in this opinion. As a fielder, he stands very high. He usually stands ‘long-leg’ and ’middle wicket off’, and the sharpness and precision with which he returns the ball to the wicket are absolutely astonishing. George Parr used to say that as a batsman, Hayward was much more showy than Carpenter but altogether inferior to him. Of their playing contemporaries, Edward Rutter, who bowled slow left arm for Middlesex and Southgate, considered that Richard was nearly as good as Hayward. Alfred Lubbock, a brilliant bat for Eton, Kent and the Gentlemen, liked the batting of Daft and Hayward the best. W.G.Grace, who was so soon to dwarf them all, said of Richard: He was the most finished and graceful batsman in England for a great many years. From 1859 until 1876 he was the most scientific batsman among the professionals, delighting everyone by his upright, manly style of defence and exceptional wrist power. He was a fine field at long-leg, and that, too, at a time of rough kicking grounds. He made an excellent captain and led the Players and Nottinghamshire to many a victory. Richard and Robert Carpenter died within a year of one another, and in their obituaries in Wisden’s Cricketers’ Almanack , almost certainly written by the editor Sydney Pardon, the writer expressed a considered view: [Richard Daft] came before the public at about the same time as Robert Carpenter and the late Thomas Hayward, and for three or four seasons it was a disputed point as to which of the three Comparisons 37