Frank Foster

A fine allrounder, a superb medium fast left arm bowler, and a natural hitter. He is best remembered, perhaps for his partnership with Sid Barnes on the 1911-12 Ashes tour, where their pairing was all but unstoppable. His bowling was characterised by pace off the pitch, good length, and generally a leg stump line, backed by a packed leg-side field. He bowled mostly left arm round with considerable swing, and could break the ball back to hit the stumps, but most of his victims were caught in the leg trap. He was at his best when partnered with "Tiger" Smith, his county wicket-keeper, who made some astonishing leg side stumpings from his bowling. He was a free hitter with the bat, but based on sound foundations. He attacked the bowling from the outset, and his finest innings was possibly his triple hundred in a day for his county (a county record that stood until passed by LaraÕs 501). He had contemplated giving up first-class cricket in 1911, but on changing his mind, captained Warwickshire to their first Championship. Only 25 when cricket halted for the first world war, his career was ended by a war-time motor-cycle accident. "..there was about all his cricket an atmosphere of supreme confidence and inexhaustible vitality" wrote HS Altham.
Dave Liverman