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Sporting War and Sporting Peace 1914-1919 - Part One
With what journalist David Frith called their “forest of initials” and the honorific “Mr.”, Gentlemen amateurs played alongside the professional Players in county cricket on either side of the Great War, and against them in three Gentlemen versus Players matches each season. In the first two articles of our new series, volunteer Peter Bloor looks at the contrasting styles and lives of two Gentlemen amateur cricketers.
Part One: Mr. Foster and Mr. Douglas – Two Gentlemen cricketers pre-war
‘New Captains, Promising Youth’
Between the end of the 1913 and the start of the 1914 cricket seasons, five county captains resigned, Messrs. E.W. Dillon, M.C. Bird, G.A.T. Vials, H.K. Foster and J. Shields of Kent, Surrey, Northamptonshire, Worcestershire and Leicestershire respectively. All were amateurs, the Gentlemen, who played county cricket but derived their income from outside the game, in contrast to the professional Players who, as the name suggests, earned their living from it.
All five had resigned to concentrate on their career and business interests - George Vials was a solicitor for example, and Edward Dillon a shipbroker – but all except John Shields declared their intention to play when time and circumstances permitted. This had become a perfectly acceptable attitude to those committees that, having previously disapproved, were now taking ‘a wiser view’ and trying to secure young amateurs for their counties, at least according to the correspondent of the Daily Citizen.
‘Mr. Foster’s magnificent achievement’
Warwickshire’s decision in 1908 to invite young, local amateurs to trials and practice had been proved more than wise by 1911 when one of those amateurs, F.R. (Frank) Foster, won the county its first Championship almost on his own, scoring 1383 runs and taking 116 wickets, heading both their batting and bowling averages. This was Foster’s first season as captain and he was also able to forge a team spirit that carried the team on an undefeated run from the end of June to the title at the end of August.
His contributions during that title run from eighth in the Championship in early July to top included a double century against Mr. Bird’s Surrey, scores of 85 and 62 and bowling figures of four for 56 against H.K. Foster’s Worcestershire, and then a match return of 11 wickets for 81 in the innings win over Mr. Vials’ Northamptonshire which confirmed his side as champions.
Foster’s quick scoring, dashing batting and ability to generate pace off the pitch with his left arm fast-medium bowling won him regular invitations to play for the Gentlemen in their three matches per year against the Players, usually at The Oval, Lord’s and the Scarborough Festival.
These were by no means exhibitions or friendlies but games of ‘stern cricket and nothing else’ and of a standing so high that in 1914 The Times stated that ‘The great cricket match of a season in which there are no Test Matches is that between the Gentlemen and Players at Lord’s.’
The Lord’s fixture followed one previously held at The Oval in which, The Times added, the Players’ side was so strong that it could take on the Australians with a reasonable chance of success. Captained by Ernie Hayes of Surrey it certainly proved more than capable of taking on the Gentlemen and beat them by 241 runs.
‘Mr. Douglas’s fine bowling’
Frank Foster did not play at The Oval, declining his invitation in favour of Warwickshire’s match against Sussex, but he returned to play at Lord’s. Although he certainly contributed to the Gentlemen’s victory it was the batting in the first innings and the bowling throughout of the Essex captain and all-rounder J.W.H.T. (Johnny) Douglas that secured their win. Joining S.G. Smith at the wicket with the Gentlemen’s first innings score on 37 for four, Johnny very sensibly did no more than occupy the crease while his first batting partner and then Frank Foster scored the runs that halted the collapse and gave the lower-order batsmen their opportunity to take their score to 265 all out.
Having helped rescue the match with his 22 runs - scored in an hour and 20 minutes – it was Johnny’s efforts with the ball that won it for them. Bowling with great discipline and almost unchanged on a very hot day he took nine for 105 in the Players’ first innings, keeping a good length throughout while making the ball lift awkwardly off the pitch, with one of his wickets being that of ‘The Master’ Jack Hobbs. Johnny then scored just four in the second innings, but only after S.G. Smith had again attacked the bowling and Frank Foster had added 27 runs to his first innings 37, before Douglas took another four wickets for 67, one of which was again Hobbs, as the Gentlemen won by 134 runs.
Frank Foster also took four wickets, for 50, but this would be the last of these fixtures in which he would play, for at the end of August, nearly one month into the First World War, the Scarborough Festival was abandoned and with it the third Gentlemen versus Players match of 1914. They would resume in 1919 when Johnny Douglas would continue in his wholly unexciting but effective way, but without Frank Foster, whose actions during the war years would end his career and begin, or arguably continue, a pattern of self-destructive behaviour.
References
The quotes and other information in this article are taken from The Times, the Daily Citizen, The Sportsman and other, local newspapers, particularly those from Birmingham, Northampton and Kent 1908-1934, and from the Cricinfo website.
Images – cigarette cards of F.R. Foster and J.W.H.T. Douglas both F.&J. Smith, 1912, and of Jack Hobbs Ogden’s, 1926. Banner image Wills,1929.
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