Lives in Cricket No 7 - Richard Daft

Chapter Thirteen Notts Without Shaw A notable absentee from the celebrations was Alfred Shaw, who was touring Australia and New Zealand, in the course of which he bowled the first delivery in Test cricket. Unfortunately for his county, he succumbed to bronchitis on his return and could not shake it off. His absence from the Notts team in 1877, apart from the first two matches (in which he captured 16 wickets) greatly weakened the side. As many as fifteen bowlers were tried for Notts, but the batting was also below its usual standard. Richard finished easily at the top of the batting, scoring 539 runs, but his average fell from 40 to 24. This was partly due to the prevalence of damp wickets which affected all the leading batsmen. Richard’s principal fault was continually getting out when he seemed to have settled. He did best in the season’s major match, Gentlemen v Players at Lord’s. As captain, he played a celebrated innings when the Players opened the match. In first, he saw Ephraim Lockwood, Arthur Shrewsbury and Harry Jupp dismissed cheaply. After lunch, 18 overs were bowled from which only three runs were scored and it was 4 pm before the Players sent up the 100. At 4.48 pm, Richard was caught at mid-off for 64, out of 129 for seven. Those were the days when skill, whether in attack or defence, was fully appreciated. He hit only two fours and ran 29 singles in his first fifty of the season. The score finally scrambled to 192. On the third day, the Gentlemen, left 143 to win, scraped through by one wicket. Next, his county endured a horrendous match with Lancashire at Old Trafford. His scores, of 19 and 26, were the highest in each Notts innings – which totalled 68 and 67! However, the pitch was very bad –Selby was hit in the mouth and retired hurt. In mid-June came a cameo of an exchange between Richard and Lord Harris when Notts met Kent at Canterbury. His Lordship, who was a fine batsman and the arbiter of English cricket for over fifty years, described their confrontation: ‘There was an extremely fast UNDERHAND bowler, mostly along the ground, Crowhurst by 79