Lives in Cricket No 7 - Richard Daft

Chapter Nine The Graces and the Counties ‘From 1871 to the end of my connection with first-class cricket, county matches were more interesting than any others.’ So wrote Richard in Kings of Cricket . Spice was added by the addition, in 1871, of the newly-formed county of the Graces. Notts’ only defeat in 1871 was at Sheffield where Yorkshire were victorious by 140 runs, and were generally acknowledged as the county champions. This was the year of W.G.’s first appearance in Nottingham and the event was eagerly anticipated. Richard himself was in splendid form, scoring in nine innings for the county 390 runs at an average of 65.00. His summer began as usual on Easter Monday when he scored 21 for the county Eleven against Twenty-two Colts, in front of a windswept crowd of 4,000. In his initial first-class foray for North versus South at Lord’s, he did not get beyond the teens in either innings. He then had a month away from the game before turning out in Notts’ first county fixture against Yorkshire at Trent Bridge: their great character and left-arm opening bowler, Tom Emmett, bowled him for nought, but his undefeated 50 in the second innings brought success to Nottinghamshire. Back in London for what was already the height of the season, he failed to score for the Players at Lord’s, falling to left-armer David Buchanan. At The Oval, he fell again to Buchanan for 11 in the return played back to back against the Gentlemen, but made reparation with an undefeated innings in the follow-on, when the Players attempted unsuccessfully to save the match. On the third day, in front of a crowd numbering 9,000, Richard, with Alfred Shaw, 38, put on 91 to carry the score to 260, which was 143 ahead, and the match was moving towards a draw. Then Buchanan dismissed Shaw and the last two men in the space of seven balls without addition to the score. Richard was left on 68 not out. The Gentlemen scored 145 in an hour and three-quarters to win the match for the loss of five wickets. He again reached 68, once more undefeated, later in July at Trent Bridge. As Notts totalled only 51