All in a Day's Cricket by Brian Levison

Author:Brian Levison
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781780339061
Publisher: Constable & Robinson

The Three Pears

A. A. THOMSON

A. A. Thomson was a writer and journalist. One or another of the seven Foster brothers played for Worcestershire from the end of the nineteenth century to the 1930s. From Cricket Bouquet (1961).

WORCESTER AT ITS best is among the most enchanting spots in the world, and Worcestershire cricket was one of the glories of the Golden Age. If it has not been so glorious since, the change may well have been due to those changes which have taken place generally in the world at large rather than in the pleasant western county. Worcestershire rose grandly to the upper reaches under the aegis of the illustrious brotherhood of the Fosters. It is an ancient pleasantry that Worcestershire at the turn of the century was known as Fostershire. In the seven sons of a country parson lay something virile, civilised and indestructible in the history of nineteenth-century England. Worcestershire folk regard the Fosters as the greatest of cricketing families, though Northamptonshire admirers of the Kingstons might dispute the claim and the men of Gloucestershire might scorn it. But if the Graces were Himalayas the Fosters were at least Alps. The Worcestershire in which they flourished was an integral part of the larger landscape of English country life. How else could you have had three wicket-keepers named Straw and Bale with Gaukrodger intervening? With authentic names like these behind the stumps, you might happily hope to find Snug and Joiner at point and Flute and Bellows-mender at cover. Something of the magic of the Dream must have gleamed over Fostershire cricket: honest, earthy, rustic English magic, but magic nevertheless, to be found in a ‘wood near Athens’, or an enchanted cricket ground on the bank of the Severn. The Fosters were a truly remarkable body of cricketers; for, of them all, four (G.N., M.K., N.J.A. and B.S., who, being an actor by profession, lived in London and played for Middlesex) were good; two (say H.K. and W.L.) were very good and one (R.E., the third brother in age) was undeniably great. Their batting was of the polished, cultured kind which history has associated with the Malvern school; indeed, the Fosters were the firmest builders of the renowned Malvern tradition. Three of them played regularly in Worcestershire’s first season among the top people and in an early game of that summer R.E. and W.L. each scored a century in each innings.

Mr. W. L. Foster c Webb b Baldwin . .

142 not out

172

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.