Lives in Cricket No 7 - Richard Daft

Chapter Ten More of the County Championship Cricket always remained to the fore. In 1872, Richard played in one match more than in the previous season and, in all first-class matches, scored 589 runs at an average of 34.64. John Selby had an even finer summer. The county’s performance was not strong: they won only two matches and drew the remaining five, but the press consensus, if one can be deduced, was that they had ‘retained first place’ among the counties. The reasons for the decline in the number of wins were clear to see. Alfred Shaw soon became too ill to play and because of injury Biddulph, the wicket-keeper, could turn out only twice. The lack of a good man behind the stumps was an enormous handicap to the remaining bowlers. Jemmy Shaw declined as a member of the attack, but this was not the disadvantage it might have been as it led to the introduction into the side of Fred Morley, fast left-arm. Of Morley, Daft’s opinion was ‘if he bowled like a machine, he certainly resembled a machine that was well oiled and in perfect working order.’ They were however the best county batting side, scoring 20.89 runs per wicket, higher than any of their rivals. Richard himself went from strength to strength after an unpromising start. He was a member of the United North Eleven, who at the end of April were dismissed for totals of 46 and 68 by the United South at the Wavertree Road Ground, Edge Hill, Liverpool – the predecessor of the Aigburth enclosure. His own innings totalled 14 and 13: he failed in his first county match of the season against Yorkshire at Trent Bridge, although Notts won the match. So, when, in the following week, he was bowled at Lord’s for nought in the first innings against the Gentlemen, there were not wanting critics to suggest that he was getting past his prime. The next morning, Richard read a piece by W.H.Knight, the editor of Wisden and a well-known sporting journalist, that made him cross. According to Knight, he had lost all form and at his time of life, 36, he ought not to have been chosen for the big match. When 57