A. P. Lucas

Who was A. P. Lucas?

Alfred Perry Lucas was an English first-class cricketer from 1874 to 1907, playing for Cambridge University, Surrey, Middlesex and Essex. He also played five Test matches for England.

Lucas was educated at Uppingham School and Clare College, Cambridge. Even as a seventeen-year-old, Lucas proved himself an exceptional batsman with an innings of 136 against MCC and in a review when Greville Stevens was picked as a schoolboy for the Gentlemen in 1919, was described as good enough to be selected himself. Lucas did play twice for Surrey and caused a sensation at Prince’s with an innings of 48 against Alfred Shaw and Fred Morley at their best.

His reputation established, Lucas, eighteen, went to Cambridge University in 1875 and solidified his reputation as a batsman with the rare gift of combining style with extremely solid defence for both the University and in the holidays for Surrey. 1876 saw Lucas advance into the top league of batsmen, with 818 runs at an average of thirty being exceptional for the time and placing him among the top batsmen in the game.

1877 saw Lucas make a further advance, being in average behind only the incomparable WG Grace and achieving his highest first class aggregagte for a season of 832 runs. He also showed himself a useful slow bowler, taking 34 wickets for less than fourteen each, and as late as 1882 achieved his best first-class bowling of six wickets for ten runs against his old University for the “Gentlemen of England” – ironically Lucas also achieved his highest first-class score of 145 in the same match! However, opinions as to the quality of Lucas’ bowling were not positive even then and he almost never bowled after 1882. Still, Lucas’ batting in the middle to late 1870s was good enough for him to be a regular for the Gentlemen from 1876 and to play for “England” teams against a combined Kent and Gloucestershire team in 1876 and against Gloucestershire alone the following year. Business prevented Lucas touring Australia with the first Test-playing team in 1876/1877, but despite being rather disappointing in his last year at Cambridge Lucas made his only tour in 1878/1879 under Lord Harris, when he did much more bowling than he would ordinarily have done owing to the absence of any specialist bowler except Tom Emmett.