Lives in Cricket No 7 - Richard Daft

county played only six first-class matches, but their formwas good enough for the press to adjudge them champions. Their opportunities to shine were limited – compared with those, for example, of Surrey, whose programme extended to 16 matches. Richard scored 285 runs, playing in all the games. He showed what fine form he might have produced in a full season’s batting on the hard pitches: his first effort at Trent Bridge was a sparkling 94 against Lancashire at the end of May, leading to a handsome victory for Notts by an innings and 74 runs, as Lancashire crashed for 74 and 148. In that fading centrepiece between the All England Eleven and their United opponents at Dewsbury, his 36 in the first innings was exceeded only by the unbeaten 40 of the United keeper, Tom Plumb. The game, over in two days, was for the benefit of Carpenter and Hayward and raised £335 14s 1d at the gate. Richard hit 61 for the All England side against Mr. Thomas Walker’s Eighteen and went on from Eastwood Hall, near Nottingham, to Trent Bridge to fall for nought and 21 against Eighteen of the Nottingham Commercial Club. He hit fifties against Surrey at The Oval – a sign of reconciliation, perhaps – and Yorkshire at Savile Town, Dewsbury. In August, he amassed another big score against odds – Twenty-two of Bestwood Park fielded out his 88 runs. Altogether that summer, he again played as few as seven matches in first-class cricket, scoring 335 runs in 13 innings at an average of 25.76. In 1869, now aged 33, he showed such good form that it is a source almost of grief that he did not play so very much more often than he did. In eleven innings for Notts, he scored 471 runs, averaging 67.28. It is noteworthy that he appeared again at both Lord’s and The Oval and did so with remarkable effectiveness. At Lord’s, his 103 not out in Nottinghamshire’s second innings against MCC took him five hours on a typically difficult wicket and earned the praise of the Wisden commentator: ‘For cool, scientific, cautious and successful defence, this innings of Daft’s was a marvel; “slow” it certainly was, but it was “sure.”’ How hard run-getting was at Lord’s before the middle 1870s is demonstrated by the fact that this match was the only one of the season there to extend to the third day. Notts had a lead of 17 on the first innings, in which W.G. scored 48 for MCC. When Notts batted again on the second day, Richard’s innings commenced at 12.25 pm with the total 33 for three. While he was rocklike and immovable at one end, Shaw and 44 County Cricket