More about Frank

posted by John Winn

'While all the other members of the team returned to England, FW Milligan stayed behind'. Thus reads the last sentence on page 466 of the 1900 Wisden and concludes its report on 'Lord Hawke's Team in South Africa', a tour that began in Cape Town on Christmas Eve with a match against 13 of Western Province and concluded in early April with the second of two matches against South Africa at the same venue.

In my last post I made reference to Frank Milligan who played in both the test matches and who was killed when part of Colonel Plumer's force attempting to relieve Mafeking on March 30th 1900. Thus the match at Newlands was Milligan's last match and a remarkable game it was for England despite being  dismissed for 92 in their first innings won the match by 210 runs. Milligan was dismissed for nought in that innings but batting at eight made 38 useful runs in the second knock. He bowled only two overs in the match but made what Wisden describes as 'an extraordinary catch at long on just securing the ball (while) leaning back on the ropes'. South Africa were bowled out for 35 in their second innings.

Milligan's death is reported in the 1901 Wisden but in fewer than ten lines which seems somewhat parsimonious for a cricketer good enough to represent his country and the Gentlemen and play 95 games for Yorkshire. His last first class match in England was at Scarborough in September 1898 against CI Thornton's XI, a match in which he did not shine but the previous week at the same ground he had taken seven for 61 against The Players in a match won by The Gentlemen. His last championship match was at Hove, a game won by Yorkshire by 192 runs. Spectators at the game would have enjoyed an innings of 179 not out by CB Fry and those favouring the white rose much appreciated 150 by JT Brown. Brown was in decent nick at this time for just a week earlier at Queen's Park Chesterfield he made 300 before being out hit wicket. That 300 was part of what was then the record first wicket stand of 554 made with Tunnicliffe who was out for 243.

Coldham's biography of Lord Hawke gives a fuller picture of Milligan as a cricketer. He is described as 'a cricketer in the nineteenth century mould; all bustle and unthinking aggression He bowled fast, batted with abandon and in the field was a bundle of reckless energy, his whole hearted cricket made him an instant favourite among the crowds'. It is a shame that Wisden could not find space to tell us a little more about such an exciting cricketer.

The Third Man

posted by John Winn

Under Births and Deaths of Cricketers the 1926 Wisden lists 13 players with the surname Hearne, many of whom were related. One of the thirteen was Walter Hearne whose obituary appears in that edition. My interest in Walter stems from the match between Yorkshire and Kent played in the city of York in 1890, the last first class match to be held in the city until this summer when Warwickshire came to town.

Regular readers may recall that in previous postings about this match I have commented on the fact that three Kent players arrived too late to bat in their side's first innings. I have posted potted biographies of two of the late arrivals, Stanley Christopherson and William Spottiswoode in earlier postings, Walter Hearne, a man from a very different walk of life, was the third to turn up late. Hearne's career seems to have been plagued by injury and illness and he died at the relatively young age of 61 at Canterbury on April 2nd 1925. His playing career had been cut short by a knee injury and Wisden says that but for that he might have 'played nearly as long for Kent as did his brother JT Hearne for Middlesex'. He had trials for Kent as early as 1887 but it was some years before he gained a regular place in the side. The game at York was one of only two that he played that year and in 1895 he missed a whole season. The cruel end came the following year when batting against Yorkshire at Headingley  and 34 not out, he was forced to retire hurt and that effectively ended his career. For the record Yorkshire won the match by 9 wickets with Lord Hawke unbeaten on 110 in the first innings. Seven wickets in the match for Mr FW Milligan.

 Frank Milligan is an interesting character I have not come across before. Despite having been born in Hampshire he played 95 first class games for Yorkshire and two tests for England on their 1898-99 tour of South Africa. He did not return home after the tour and holding the rank of lieutenant he was killed during the Second Boer War at Ramatlabama near Mafeking in 1900. There are too memorials to him in Bradford. 

Walter Hearne

Hearne was a right arm medium pace bowler whose best season was in 1894 when he took 116 wickets at a cost of 13.34. His playing days behind him Walter became Kent's scorer a position he held until the end of his life. 

Finally I have this last week I have been in touch with David Thorpe who is currently in New Zealand and who has been watching cricket on South Island. David raises the interesting question whether Invercargill at 46 degrees south is the furthest south first class cricket has been played. A glance at the map suggests that it is highly likely. If so what is the furthest north? 

1996 and all that (Part two)

Posted by Tony Hutton

Continuing the nostalgia theme of my previous blog from July 1996, when I toured the West Midlands and Monmouthshire on what might be called a vintage cricketing journey, we re-start proceedings on day five. The first half of the day was spent at the Bulls Head ground, home of Coventry and North Warwickshire, where Warwickshire seconds were playing Kent seconds. This was day two of a three day match and we had missed a hat-trick by Darren Alltree for Warwickshire on the first day. He was a left arm quick bowler who played regular second team cricket but never quite made it as a first team player. Kent, coached by Alan Ealham, recovered from early set backs to win the game with help from another left armer Tim Wren who took five wickets.

Coventry and North Warwickshire.

Later in the day we moved on to Old Hill, just in Staffordshire, where the home side were playing Buckinghamshire in a Minor Counties game. This was a low scoring encounter which Bucks eventually won by five wickets. Old Hill has produced several county cricketers of note, none more famous than Warwickshire and England leg spinner Eric Hollies.

Old Hill cricket club.

Day six was a Nat West Trophy game at New Road between Worcestershire and Hampshire and the hero here was Robin Smith with a wonderful innings of 158, taking the visitors well past 300 in their sixty overs. Worcester never threatened and were bowled out for 203 thanks to Cardigan Connor and Kevin James.

Day seven was a much more light hearted occasion, at yet another new ground, The Bottoms at Pershore, which staged a benefit match for Stephen Rhodes, the Worcestershire wicketkeeper. Back to New Road the following day for another one day Bain Hogg Trophy game with Worcester seconds comfortably beating Glamorgan seconds. Further entertainment was provided on the ground next door where Kings School, Worcester were taking on their old boys' side.

Pershore cricket club.

Saturday then provided us with the chance of visiting four league grounds which were all new to me.
Firstly Stourbridge, which used to host county championship games, and also produced many Worcestershire players over the years. Then onto Barnt Green, a very pleasant spot which became a regular second eleven venue. Then Ombersley, just outside Worcester, who ran up a huge score on a ground which also hosted a few Worcester seconds' games. Finally back into Herefordshire to visit the Full Pitcher (name of the pub adjoining the ground) where Ledbury were taking on Knighton in another close encounter..

For me the highlight of the whole trip came the next day with my first ever visit to Brockhampton, a tiny village between Hereford and Ross on Wye, where Herefordshire were playing Wiltshire in the Minor Counties. What a delightful spot, which remains one of my all time favourite grounds and really sold me on the benefits of  watching Minor Counties cricket. Only time to watch the first day, but pleased to learn Herefordshire eventually won by just one wicket at the end of the game.

Three pictures of Brockhampton in 1996.

Just one more game to add as we headed for home on the Monday, calling in at Seth Somers Park, Halesowen for yet another second eleven game this time between Worcester and Hampshire. This turned out to be a very high scoring three day game with Hampshire winning by just 38 runs. Liam Botham, son of Ian, made two fifties for Hampshire but star of the show for Worcester was Vikram Solanki with 156. Nice to visit again a ground where I once had the pleasure of playing against the great Eric Hollies, well after he retired from county cricket.

Halesowen cricket club.

A wonderful holiday visiting some picturesque grounds in the middle of the beautiful countyside of Worcestershire and Herefordshire. Such happy memories which go some way to forgetting the parlous state in which cricket finds itself today.

Nostalgia - the cure for cricket's current ills.

Posted by Tony Hutton

Trying hard to think of something positive to write rather than concentrating on the rather wayward thinking of both the ECB and Yorkshire County cricket club, a further bombshell dropped this week with the announcement that the traditional opening game of the ENGLISH season, between MCC and the champion county, Essex, will next year take place in Colombo, Sri Lanka.

This is to recognise the fact that MCC's current president is the admirable Sri Lankan Kumar Sangakkara. We can only hope that the next president is not the man in the moon!

However enough of all that. I have been sorting through some old photo albums in my vast collection of cricket ground pictures and came across some pictures from July 1996. I had embarked on a journey across the West Midlands, and even into Wales, for a wonderful cricket tour which took in twenty different grounds over a ten day period.

Strange to say not one county championship game was on my itinerary, which covered Nat West Trophy, Minor Counties, County Second Elevens, many league cricket games, a couple of school games and a benefit match. Day one, en route to our hotel in Ross-on-Wye, we called in first at St Godwalds Park, Bromsgrove where Worcester seconds were playing Gloucester seconds in what was then the Bain Hogg one day trophy. Worcester knocked up a good score but the game was halted by rain later in the day. By which time we had ventured into Wales to see Glamorgan seconds playing Hampshire seconds at Monmouth School in the same competition.

Two pictures of the Monmouth School ground.

An attractive ground, but the weather reduced the overs with Hampshire winning on faster scoring rate. Remember chatting to Tim Tremlett, then the Hampshire second eleven coach, who told me something about all his players. The following day, Saturday, we managed to fit in two league games and a school game. The league games were both on Herefordshire Minor Counties grounds at Eastnor and Colwall, under the wonderful Malvern Hills and then on into Malvern itself to see the college side taking on Free Foresters. All delightful places to watch cricket and definitely ones to return to in the future.

Two pictures of the Eastnor ground.

Two pictures of the Colwall ground.

Malvern College ground.

Sunday was spent watching Herefordshire play Devon at the Hereford Racecourse ground. A rather strange atmosphere with cricket in the middle of the course and seeming a long way from the spectators. However Worcestershire did play a first class match there some time previously. On this occasion Hereford did well to beat a very strong Devon side captained by Peter Roebuck formerly of Somerset. Roebuck turned himself into a bowler in Minor Counties cricket and took three wickets in each innings.

Then it was back into Wales for a Minor Counties game at Pontypridd (Ynysangharad Park to be precise) Wales v Shropshire for whom former Warwickshire man Asif Din scored a century. On the same day Glamorgan seconds were playing Leicester seconds at Usk (merely The Cricket Field). Here we saw a forgotten man, Vince Clarke, score 189 for Leicester. Despite playing for three counties during the 1990s he never became a regular county cricketer.

 Pontypridd ground.

The cricket field, Usk.

Before I get too carried away with this look at cricket in the past, I will call it a day for now and finish this journey in part two.

Danby make it at the first attempt

In early June I reported on a visit I made to the north eastern corner of Yorkshire to complete my set of all the grounds in The Langbaurgh League. Two  more contrasting grounds it is hard to imagine and the two home clubs that I saw that day, Dormanstown and Danby have experienced contrasting fortunes on the cricket field since my early season trip.

First call on the first Saturday in June was at  Dormanstown on the outskirts of Redcar where Kildale were the visitors in a match that at that time was between two sides that had found the early season going rather tough. Dormanstown won comfortably that day but the two clubs remained relegation candidates throughout the campaign and only the hapless Ingleby Greenhow who failed to win a match all season saved one from relegation. Both teams finished on 26 points and with five wins apiece were separated only by their run wicket differential which went in favour of Kildale. So Dormanstown, who until recently were members of the now defunct Cleveland League, find themselves back in Division Two after only one season in the top flight while Kildale live to fight another season at least in that august company.

Meanwhile not too far away but in the North Yorkshire National Park, Danby, newcomers to the league in 2019, have won promotion at the first bite. On the day of my visit Danby were easy winners over Thimbleby, a result that left them third and Thimbleby near the bottom. The final table for Division Two shows Danby second to Hartlepool Power Station and thus promoted while only Norton IV keep Thimbleby off the bottom, one place lower than they finished in 2018.

Danby take the field after tea.

Meanwhile although the 2019 county championship season only finished three weeks ago amongst the twitterati at least thoughts have turned to next season's fixtures and in particular the system whereby it will be decided who plays who twice in the now ten team first division. There is even a rumour that Yorkshire might play Lancashire at Scarborough, something that hasn't happened since 1991. Looking back to that occasion on the third to sixth of September 28 years ago, Yorkshire captained by Martin Moxon won the toss and after being 18 for 3 ran up over 500 with centuries for Byas and Robinson (P). Lancashire declared 98 behind and this time it was Moxon's turn to  reach three figures. Needing 343 to win Lancashire slumped to 129 for 8, Darren Gough the main destroyer, but thanks to an Ian Austin century with support from John Fitton and Peter Martin the last two wickets added 165 to keep things interesting. With Yorkshire looking worried Peter Hartley snaffled the last wicket to conclude four wonderful day's entertainment. 1442 runs in the match from 406 overs suggests cracking stuff  and faster over rates than twenty first century crowds are used to.

End of season sunk without trace.

Posted by Tony Hutton

Arthington cricket club's traditional end of season festival was unfortunately curtailed somewhat by the weather. The game at Burton Salmon on Saturday 5th October (which I unfortunately missed) did take place, but the subsequent games scheduled for Harewood House were washed out by the rain. As I have been a regular spectator for almost the full thirty years of this happy end of season event, it is sad to record that the often sunny mid-October weather for once deserted us. We are assured that next season the festival will return to the club's own ground following the recent renovations supervised by the ubiquitous David Hodgson (groundsman supreme).

For the record Burton Salmon were bowled out for a modest 116 with three wickets each for Simon Mace and Nick Briggs and despite another duck for Andy Stoddart, Arthington cantered to a rather easy five wicket victory thanks to 32 not out from Andy Conboy. So there we are all done and dusted, with the next live cricket in these parts not scheduled until Boxing Day when as ever, and whatever the weather, North Leeds will take on the Northern Cricket Society.

Of course we are already well into the various cricket societies evening speaker's events and although the much anticipated visit of Fred Rumsey and Stephen Chalke to the Northern at Headingley had to be cancelled an excellent replacement came off the sub's bench at the last minute in the shape of Brian Sanderson.

Brian, who does an amazing amount of work for the Yorkshire Archives Committee, did a very interesting talk on the career of Ted Peate one of the first of Yorkshire's long line of slow left arm bowlers. He had a long and illustrious career but is most famously remembered for being the last man out in England's second innings of the final Test of 1882 at the Oval. With only seven required for victory he tried a big hit and was bowled rather than giving the more experienced batsman at the other end the chance to get the runs. It was after that game that the famous newspaper quotation created the notion of the 'Ashes' of English cricket which continues to this day.

While next season seems a long way off and is perhaps being looked forward to with some apprehension, I am sure that those of us who watch cricket at all levels will always find sufficient games of 'proper cricket' to watch throughout the season. It seems unlikely that we will spend much time watching Yorkshire's first eleven, as we are threatened by the powers that be with even more imports for next season. It did not actually happen last season, but Yorkshire could well have fielded a team of eleven 'imports' from other counties or countries. Hopefully a return to sanity might happen one day but somehow I doubt it. Winter well.

Cricket lingers on in Yorkshire

Posted by Tony Hutton

As John Winn has mentioned cricket in Yorkshire still lingers on well into October with the traditional Arthington Festival, for the first time in living memory, upping sticks after playing only one game at home on Sunday 15th September. Essential work on the square, which has been in constant use until mid-October for more years than I can remember, has meant this year's fixtures being spread elsewhere.

The one home game against Romany was a high scoring affair in which the home team, after the early loss of Geoffrey Barker, put on a second wicket partnership of 125. Star of the show was very much Kamrosh Khan with an inning of 109 before retiring. His partner Ayoub Khan made only 28 of the big partnership but played his part to perfection. This was followed by some big hitting from Tom Conboy who made exactly 50 (with nine fours and two sixes) and 48 from Gareth Meredith (with seven fours and one six).

Arthington completed their forty overs with a grand total of 293-4, which seemed a distant prospect when Romany opened their innings. However the first four batsman all came out with guns blazing and Richard Leach and Thomas Egerton put on 127 for the second wicket matching Arthington's effort for the same wicket. At one stage the Romany score was 201-3 but the later batsmen could not give much assistance and following three run outs, Arthington were winners by the margin of 44 runs.

East Keswick pavilion.

I missed out on the next weekend's fixtures, both of which were played on the nearby ground of East Keswick. Arthington had an easy 7 wicket victory over Cambridge Methodists on Saturday 21/9 after bowling the visitors out for  99, with the help of a Boycott like innings from Andy Stoddart with 24 not out in almost as many overs, together with Steve Bindman's umpiring. I missed this game due to the league final at Headingley and also Sunday's game due to the poor weather.

The weather did not deter the players in the match on Sunday 22/9 with Halifax Nomads, for whom Harry Wilkinson made 123 not out in a total of 185-3. The rain intensified and eventually the game was abandoned with Arthington on 128-3. I was able to see some part of the game with The Hawks on Saturday 28/9, also played at East Keswick, which is a much larger ground than I remembered.

Geoff Barker in hot pursuit at East Keswick.

The Hawks fielded a team of well known league cricketers of varying vintages, together with guest star Steven Bindman. Ian Priestley, together with his son Ricky, and Charlie Parker have all represented Pudsey St. Lawrence. David ('Ted') Lester stalwart with Menston for many years captained the side. Also Dennis Rock, a big hitter, who I remember seeing with Horsforth Hall Park many years ago, together with Damon Reeve now with Otley and Chris Wain another stalwart of the Airedale and Wharfedale League.

The trees beginning to turn at East Keswick.

Despite 51 from Parker, the visitors were all out for 133 in the last over of a 35 overs per side game.
However the Hawk's bowling attack proved far too good for Arthington, although another guest star James van der Merwe made 34 and Andrew Stoddart another backs to the wall effort of 21. They rather crept their way to a total of 113-7 at the end of the 35th over and Hawks were declared the winners by 20 runs. Damon Reeve's figures of 3-8 in seven overs definitely took the bowling honours.

More runs for the Hawks.

I assume that the heavy rain washed out the scheduled game with The Druids on Sunday 29/9, but do not despair yet more cricket is planned for the next two weekends. Arthington will travel further afield on Saturday 6/10 with a game at Burton Salmon and on Sunday 7/10 will face King James' of Bishop Auckland at Harewood House. Suggestions are that play will take place whatever the weather, but that remains to be seen.

Finally the season will eventually come to an end on the weekend of 13th/14th October with a game between Arthington and St. George's Church again at Harewood House. Apparently play will take place on the better day according the weather forecast and may even stretch into a two day affair.