Lives in Cricket No 7 - Richard Daft

only one to judge and his decision, right or wrong, should have been respected.’ ‘Green Lilly’ later criticised Richard for failing to control the Notts players during this incident. Richard’s only innings of note for the county was 47 against Gloucestershire at Trent Bridge at the end of July. With Selby, Richard put on 69 which won the match for Notts. Even then W.G. caused his opponents some qualms: he took four of the six wickets to fall, including that of Richard, who went in to bat with 17 to win. It was 7.20 pm: no doubt Richard intended to finish off the match that evening, but W.G., sticking when it suited him, to the strict letter of the law refused to finish the match – after all, it might rain overnight. It didn’t, and Notts shuffled to victory next day in 40 minutes, Richard contributing four before being caught and bowled – by W.G. He batted better in the two great matches in which he turned out in London. The first was for Notts against MCC at Lord’s in June. Yet, even when he did well, there was a patronising tone in the reports: ‘Daft appeared somewhat nervous on commencing his first innings, and it was sometime before he settled down. . . . His 25 runs . . . were not made in his old form, but in his second innings he quickly got into something like it, saw seven wickets fall, and took out his bat.’ Richard’s scores of 25 and 35 not out were excellent in a low-scoring match, but the real hero was Alfred Shaw whose second-innings figures were seven wickets for seven runs; nevertheless, MCC were successful by 62 runs. On 5 July, 1875, at Lord’s, Richard for the first time captained the Players against the Gentlemen. Batting second, the Players led by 17 on the first innings. When he went in to bat ‘Daft was greeted with a hearty cheer. He played the remaining three balls (chippers) of Mr. Francis’ over in good form.’ Among those in the field was Lord Harris. He recorded how Richard’s first two balls were two rasping shooters which he successfully stopped. He went on to score 28 before hitting his wicket, but the Players were overwhelmed by W.G.’s score of 152 in the Gentlemen’s second innings of 444. Later, Richard fell to A.W. Ridley for a duck, as W.G. completed 12 wickets in the match, which produced a hiding for the Players by 262 runs. Later on, in September, he captained North versus South at Loughborough: his side won by 125 runs, despite W.G. taking fourteen wickets in the match. 70 Gentlemen and Players