Lives in Cricket No 7 - Richard Daft

Chapter Twelve Benefit in Kind For cricketers in 1876, the continuous sunshine came as a strong contrast to the summers that had preceded it. The hard wickets were exactly to the taste of W.G., whose record was extraordinary. In 26 matches he scored 2,622 runs at 62.42, with only two other batsmen – Ephraim Lockwood of Yorkshire and Harry Jupp of Surrey – reaching a thousand runs. In this season, Grace held more catches than any other player, including the wicket-keepers, and took more wickets than every other bowler apart from Alfred Shaw. Richard was fifth in the batting averages of those who played regularly. He played more first-class cricket this season than in any other and reached his highest run aggregate. Often opening the batting – he had typically batted at three, four or five before this season – he scored 976 runs in eighteen first-class matches, at an average of 34.85. In contrast, Notts’ performances were moderate, so they finished third in the championship, with four victories to set against three defeats. As always, their attack, Shaw and Morley, was formidable, but the support bowlers did not provide sufficient contrast. The county’s batsmen did not give Richard much support, apart from the up-and-coming Arthur Shrewsbury, with 460 runs at an average of 27.05, and to a lesser extent, Oscroft, 379 at 23.11. Richard, at the age of 41, was the best professional batsman of the year. A season which turned out to be full of unusual incidents began with an unexpected feat with the ball by Richard, who captured six wickets in the annual Colts’ match, including a hat trick. A month passed before Notts’ first county match against Lancashire at Trent Bridge. In Notts’ first innings, Richard hit up 70 in an excellent display of scientific batting. Forty-four was the next highest score in the match, but after the visitors had achieved a lead of 40 on the first innings, they routed Notts for 128, leaving themselves only 89 to get. For the All England Eleven against the United South of England at Lord’s and in two fixtures called North 72