Lives in Cricket No 7 - Richard Daft

the last nine wickets fell for 56. W.G. was left high and dry – his score equalling Richard’s. MCC failed by four runs to avoid the compulsory follow-on. Straightaway, Jemmy Shaw bowled W.G. for a duck, but MCC left the county 157 to win. George Summers went in on the fall of the first wicket at 23. As Richard recalled to Old Ebor nearly thirty years later: ‘Platts’ deliveries got up as high as the batsman’s head, and when he bowled to Summers, the first ball shot up extra quick and hit poor Summers on the left cheekbone. Reeling like a tee-to-tum [a small spinning top marked with letters for playing a game of chance], he collapsed to the ground unconscious. W.G., who was then a 21-year-old medical student, felt his pulse and said ‘he is not dead’, and Summers was carried to the Lord’s Hotel.’ A number of contemporary attitudes are revealed by the descriptions of the incident by various participants. C.E.Green, the wealthy benefactor of Essex county cricket, commented: ‘I could see by the way he clenched his hands that he had received some serious injury. Richard Daft had to come in next and I shall never forget seeing him walk in with a towel or two tied over his cap to cover his head. It showed what he thought of the dangers of the wicket,’ and as Professor Derek West added, the proclivities of the bowler. Lord Harris, the captain of Kent, and for sixty years a moving force in the game, wrote: ‘The next man to come in to bat was Richard Daft, who was always very dapper and rather full of self-importance. I shall never forget his coming out of the pavilion with two large towels bound round his head.’ The truth is that Daft wore one large towel round his head, covered with a scarf tied under his chin. He very nearly fell victim to Platts’ next ball which pitched about halfway, shot up and went clean over his head. This was a clear indication that none of the gentlemen on the MCC side had warned Platts to hold his fire. Richard later commented: ‘Platts’ next ball would have hit me in about the same place had I not thrown my head back – as it was it passed me and went right away to the long stop.’ C.I.Thornton, the great hitter, confirms Richard’s arrival at the wicket in his safety covering and his avoidance of the first ball, and adds: ‘Daft did let Platts have it and no mistake . . .’ Platts, described by David Frith as a small but tremendously fast bowler from Derbyshire, who could swing the ball pronouncedly, is said to have lessened his pace after this distressing match. Nottinghamshire Captain 49