18 November 2012

Richard Daft in Radcliffe on Trent, Nottinghamshire

The cricketer Richard Daft (1835–1900) is buried in the cemetery at Radcliffe on Trent, Nottinghamshire, although when I took this photo several years ago the grave was in a rather sorry state, with the cross lying on the ground.
 
Daft was one of the major batsmen of his day, with a career that continued until 1891. He married Mary Parr, the daughter of Butler Parr, a maltster (and former cricketer) whose business he took over on his death in 1872. This was The Brewery in Radcliffe, and a few years after that Daft opened a large sports business in Lister Gate, Nottingham. He went bankrupt in 1897.
 
Daft wrote Kings of Cricket: Reminiscences and Anecdotes with Hints on the Game (Bristol: J. W. Arrowsmith, [1893]), which had illustrations and an introduction by Andrew Lang. And a posthumous publication was A Cricketer's Yarns: To Which have Been Added a Few Genealogical Tables of Nottinghamshire Cricketing Families, ed. by F. S. Ashley-Cooper (London: Chapman & Hall, 1926).

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