Lives in Cricket No 7 - Richard Daft

The first county side met by Notts was Surrey at The Oval – a sure sign of reconciliation between North and South – beginning on 9 June. This was the first county match at The Oval in 1870, and a large crowd was present each day. In the first innings, Richard hit 55 before he hit his own wicket; Notts on 161 had a lead of 15. In the second innings, Richard top-scored with 80. According to Wisden , he played true bowling ‘with an ease and science which was a pleasure to watch.’ The Notts innings reached 325, leaving Surrey 341 to win. Jupp, yet again, held the line for Surrey in a long stand with Stephenson; they really collared the bowling in adding 99. Two of Stephenson’s scoring shots (fives) resulted from overthrows. The tail took some dislodging, and it was 6.35 pm before the last wicket fell at 232, leaving Notts winners by 108 runs. The next Notts fixture was also in London, at Lord’s against MCC, two days after the finish of The Oval game. The match, which was full of incident, produced a major breach of the Laws of Cricket and was the scene of a dreadful accident. V.E.Walker played for MCC when Notts batted first until he suffered a hand injury and had to retire. When MCC’s turn to bat came, H.A.Richardson went in instead of Walker – in each innings. There was to come a time, thirty years later, when such a breach of the law would result in sharp criticism from the MCC Committee and loss of first-class status of the fixture, but in fact at this period the allowing of substitute to bat was not particularly uncommon. In his massive statistical survey of W.G’s career, J.R.Webber suggests that Richard was pressurised into agreement to the substitution. Richardson, in turn, failed to turn out on the third day and another substitute, Price, fielded in his stead! The match, as it had been in 1869, was the only first-class fixture played at Lord’s that season to last into the third day, and as in the previous year, both Daft and W.G. reached three figures. Wisden’s report says that Richard never scored so rapidly as he did in making his 117. Only Summers, with 41, gave him any real help: their addition of 119 was the county’s highest third-wicket partnership to date. Richard was eventually bowled, leaving at 238 for eight. In a demonstration of approval, rare to Lord’s, Daft was called up to the pavilion and presented with a prize bat. W.G. and I.D.Walker had taken MCC’s score to 67 by the end of the first day’s play, and next morning they added 35 at a run a minute and went on to 127 before Walker was dismissed. W.G. continued in great form, but Nottinghamshire Captain 48