Lives in Cricket No 7 - Richard Daft

So on to Canterbury for North versus South, where after brilliant fielding on the part of the North, Richard was greeted with cheers as he advanced to the wicket – but it was 23 minutes before he got off the mark. He and Carpenter gradually built up a stand of 113. The man of the day was James Lillywhite junior, the Sussex left-arm bowler, and rather later, England captain, who captured all the North wickets for 129. Richard was caught behind by Pooley with his score on 64. Against Surrey, his innings reached 78, earned by three and a half hours of ‘cautious’ and ‘scientific’ cricket ‘such as but few other batsmen can play,’ in the words of Wisden . At 55 for seven, Richard, in second wicket down, had already been in for 69 minutes for his score of 12. Later, Martin McIntyre successfully assailed the Surrey attack. The score had climbed to 202 when Richard was out. His innings again included 33 singles, as well as 4 fours. In contrast, McIntyre slammed his 88 with the aid of a five and 7 fours. Notts then put Surrey out for 60 and they followed on, eventually setting Notts 167 to win. At the close, they in turn had struggled to reach 107 for eight, Richard being caught for only three. At Sheffield the following week, he scored 27 and 21 not out to save the game for Notts, who after being set 170 for victory, just scraped a draw at 81 for seven. In the Yorkshire second innings, Richard bowled 37 overs of lobs and ended with six wickets for 59, the best return of his first-class career. A week later, at Clifton, he had the better of the home attack which lacked W.G., who was preparing to tour Canada. First, the two other famous Graces, E.M. and G.F., hit hundreds in Gloucester- shire’s total of 317. The weather was superb and the attendance large when Notts began their innings. Richard went in at number four and steadied the helm when Notts were struggling with the score at 54 for 4: only Barnes stayed in with him to add 50, and by close of play Notts had struggled to 179 for 8, with Richard on 61. Little was expected of their remaining batsmen, Morley and J.C.Shaw, when the game resumed next day before a crowd of 8,000. Following the cheap dismissal of Morley, Jemmy Shaw proceeded to play the innings of his life, defending stubbornly for an hour and forty minutes, while Richard increased his own total to 92, in the process saving the follow-on. At last, Shaw was bowled for nine with the total at 239. Richard himself had batted for five hours, hit five fours and run 47 singles. In Kings of Cricket he wrote that on the morning of that third day, he learned that Notts would More of the County Championship 59