Lives in Cricket No 7 - Richard Daft

the Players went in for the second time, in a minority of 51, they increased their advantage to a lead of only six for the loss of two wickets as Daft advanced to the wicket at 1.40 pm. During Richard’s partnership with Ephraim Lockwood, Wisden recorded that one over from Powys played by Daft ‘deservedly elicited a ringing shout of applause, the “well bowled” and “well played” being equally merited.’ Later, Bob Carpenter and Daft mastered the attack. At 225, Carpenter was caught when Richard’s total was 92: it was not encouraging that John Smith, Pooley and McIntyre all fell cheaply, but by the time Richard was bowled off his glove at 238, he had scored a chanceless 102. He departed to a ‘hearty prolonged shout of applause’. He had hit one 5 and ten fours. W.G., who had scored 77 in his first innings, hit up 112 in 127 minutes in the second, enabling the Gentlemen to win comfortably by seven wickets. After his own dismissal, Richard advised Knight to be more careful before asserting that a cricketer was not worthy of his place. W.G. was again conspicuous in the next match, which was between the same teams at The Oval. In the follow-on, the Players were subsiding at 80 for five wickets when Richard and Pooley, the wicket-keeper, made a stand. They were aided by W.G., who dropped Richard and then converted an off-drive for five by him, all run, into a nine by an overthrow. When he had scored 27, a ball from Brice hurt Richard so severely that he had to retire. He missed the Yorkshire match at Trent Bridge, and in Notts’ next home match against Surrey, he failed and may still not have been fit. Luckily, this was certainly not so when W.G. and Gloucestershire were the next visitors. The match was watched over the three days by nearly 20,000 people. Many had come to see W.G. but Notts batted from the start of the match at 12.35 on the Thursday until 6 pm the following evening! After Oscroft and Wyld put on 91 for the second wicket, Wyld joined by Richard added another 91 runs for the third wicket. When Wyld was bowled with the total on 183, there was only a temporary respite before Richard, now joined by Selby, saw the Notts total up by a further 87. Richard was at last caught at 270: he accumulated 33 singles and only three fours in his 84. Selby was undefeated for 128 – only the second hundred for Notts at Trent Bridge. The crowd saw plenty of W.G. as he bowled 89 four-ball overs to take seven wickets for 162, and on the last day he scored 67 out of the Gloucester total of 139. On his dismissal, his team’s batting and interest in the match evaporated. 58 More of the County Championship