Lives in Cricket No 7 - Richard Daft

Chapter Seven County Cricket ‘If one county is better than any other, that county is Nottingham’, said John Lillywhite’s Cricketers’ Companion reviewing 1865. The county was strengthened by the arrival of Jemmy Shaw, a fast left-arm bowler of rare skill, in spite of a remarkable and disconcerting squint. This did not affect his skill with the ball, but may have been responsible for his almost total ineffectiveness as a batsman, who reached double figures only once in eleven seasons with the county. Aided by other new acquisitions, Alfred Shaw and William Oscroft, Notts completed a successful, if still restricted, programme of seven fixtures, beating Sussex and Yorkshire twice, Surrey once and Cambridgeshire, too, in their only fixture, while they lost to Surrey in the return by one wicket. In 1865, Richard’s season began with failure against sixteen Notts Colts at Trent Bridge and against Twenty-two of Retford for the All England Eleven, but neither his failures nor appearances against odds were typical of this season: nor was the All England Eleven a typical All England team. It now consisted entirely of players from the North: Willsher and others had helped to form the rival United South of England Eleven. Richard batted well for the county in their first match against Sussex at Trent Bridge, accumulating 67 and adding 122 with George Parr for the fourth wicket, a county record. Sussex scored 84 and 38 in the face of devastating bowling by Grundy. At Lord’s, Richard fared adequately for the All England Eleven against the United, scoring 25 in his first innings. This was the occasion when Grundy bowled 84 balls to George Parr and Richard without their scoring a run, except two from an overthrow. The following week, Richard played a brilliant innings of 78 for North versus South. On the evening of the second day of that game, the Cricketers’ Fund Friendly Society held its Annual General Meeting at Lord’s. Willsher, Tinley, Carpenter, Grundy, Tarrant, Daft, H.H.Stephenson and John Wisden were all present. Tom Box announced his resignation as Chairman. Subsequently, Richard was elected as a 39