Lives in Cricket No 7 - Richard Daft

have to bat a man short because Shaw had, the previous evening, got quarrelling at cards and rushed out saying he would ‘go and do for himself’. Daft’s thoughts turned to the Clifton Suspension Bridge, and it was a great relief when Frank Townsend, one of the Gloucestershire players, reported that he had seen an object lying under a tree on the Downs, which proved to be Jemmy Shaw. Gloucestershire, unable to enforce the follow-on, batted out time. W.G. was easily first in the batting averages, with 1,485 runs at the grand average of 57.11. Richard, scoring 589 at 34.64, went to the wicket 20 times compared with Grace’s 29 innings. For many years the convention among cricket historians was that the starting year for the competition was 1873, on the ground that in that year the regulations governing the qualification of players were first applied, but for those participating or watching at the time, 1873 was no different from 1872. Richard was afflicted by quinsy (a throat infection) in the spring of 1873, but recovered in time for the start of the season. Notts faced a number of improbable incidents: Alfred Shaw had recovered from illness but was injured when a powder flask exploded. Then the two fixtures with Gloucestershire were scrapped; W.G. had committed himself to play in a benefit match which clashed with one of the games between his county and Notts, and when the Notts committee found that the champion, who was notably supportive of professional benefits, wanted the date of the county meeting changed, they inexplicably refused to play Gloucester- shire at all. Two other matches also gave rise to controversy: the Huddersfield Club asked Richard personally to take a Notts team to play a Yorkshire side. The affair turned out disastrously for the visitors, as the hosts scored 194 while the wicket was playing easily: heavy rain then totally changed the conditions and Notts were bundled out twice. G.B.Davy, their secretary, tried to repair the damage to the club’s reputation by writing to the press explaining that the game was an unofficial one, but the papers still insisted on treating the result as a championship loss for Notts. This was a decisive factor in the county having to share the top place with Gloucestershire instead of heading the list. Even more unpalatable was Notts’ match against the lowly Derbyshire team, which was played in September. This was a clear case of pride coming before a fall, as Notts insisted on allowing the More of the County Championship 60