Lives in Cricket No 7 - Richard Daft

Chapter Seventeen Triumph and Tribulation Wisden described Notts’ record in 1880 as ‘splendid’: ten county matches were played, six won, three drawn, and only one lost. Their record ‘entitled the county to the championship honours’ of the year. Of the three drawn games, two were greatly in favour of Notts, while they wound up their season by defeating the Australians, a feat which no other side accomplished that year. They also defeated MCC by an innings. Notts had, indeed, an almost perfect side. The names of the team for the match against Lancashire at Trent Bridge included nine men who already had played or would play in Test Matches, which number did not include Richard, whose prime was past by the time international cricket started. The side comprised Oscroft, Scotton, Shrewsbury, Gunn, Selby, Barnes, Daft, Flowers, Shaw, Sherwin and Morley. It batted down to number nine, but the team’s greatest strength still lay in the attack: Shaw and Fred Morley. Apart from county games, the early part of the summer featured two matches between Daft’s American Eleven and Eleven of England. In the first, played at Lord’s in mid-May before a large crowd, the Eleven of England had all the best of the game. Richard made two and four, and England’s more consistent first innings was good enough to bring them victory by 94 runs. Richard’s men were much more themselves a fortnight later at The Oval, although rain had the biggest role in the proceedings. At the start, Richard played an innings of 38; only Billy Barnes with an aggressive 42 gave much support. In the second innings, Richard’s side gave another mediocre performance, leaving their opponents only 106. In conditions all against good cricket, England slithered to 42 for five, with Humphrey out of the match, injured, so Richard’s side had the best of it. In the championship, Notts beat Lancashire and Middlesex twice and Yorkshire and Surrey once each. A feature of the season was the county’s outstanding fielding: Sherwin at last established himself as wicket-keeper and this unquestionably helped sharpen 96