Lives in Cricket No 7 - Richard Daft

finished inconclusively. The Prince’s ground-keeper, Tom Box, a famous wicket-keeper in former days, collapsed while on duty on the scoreboard and died. The match was at once abandoned. Richard had shown some fine hitting for 82 in Notts’ first innings. Lancashire provided much tougher opposition at Old Trafford where Notts just held on for a draw. Richard’s visits to the crease brought him totals of only four and nine; the following fixture was in all probability engaging his concentration. The Committee had decided that his testimonial should take the form of a match between North and South at Nottingham and the start date, 17 July, was now imminent. Robert Thoms, the best- known umpire of the day, who stood in Richard’s match, wrote: On making tracks for the ‘Old Trent Bridge’ ground, on the Monday morning, I was struck by the commotion then apparent in the town, and also by the stream of pedestrians and vehicles heavy laden making their way in the same direction; and by the time wickets had been pitched and the ball set rolling, the visitors thus early had taken up all the available seats and best positions for viewing the game, whilst by the dinner-hour the gathering had increased by thousands. I have, during the past twenty years, been planted in some big rings, but never before saw a more densely-packed and enthusiastic body of spectators, the din of whose voices filled the air with an incessant hum; and it is a question if a better attendance has ever been seen at a great match for three consecutive days, either in or out of London. The greatest compliment to Richard was provided by the quality of the two sides as shown on the scorecard, which appears at Appendix Two to this book. The South, in spite of an early collapse, led by 53 on the first innings, but it was anybody’s match when by consistent batting (A.N.Hornby 44, Richard 38, R.P.Smith of Derbyshire 39, Ephraim Lockwood 57 not out) the North left their opponents 190 runs to win in 210 minutes – anybody’s match, that is, but for W.G. First, he and Webbe took apart the attack to the tune of 100 in 66 minutes, and after the dismissal of Webbe, W.G. did as he liked, hitting 114 out of 190 for two in two hours twenty-five minutes. He had given two chances – the first to Richard at long-on. On Monday 5,839 attended; on Tuesday 6,673; and on Wednesday 3,445, with the turnstile takings amounting to £398 18s 6d, and another £40 14s 0d for admission to the pavilion. Benefit in Kind 74