Fred Fane

FANE, MR. FREDERICK LUTHER, who died on November 27, aged 85, was a prominent figure in cricket for some twenty years before the First World War. Owing to a similarity of initials, Wisden reported his death when he was 79. The man concerned was Francis L. Fane, his cousin. By a coincidence, Mr. Fane's father also once read his own obituary. Educated at Charterhouse, Frederick Fane was in the X1 from 1892 to 1894, and after coming down from Oxford, where he gained a Blue in 1897 and the following year, he played a good deal for Essex, being captain from 1904 to 1906. His best season for the county was that of 1906 when he scored 1,572 runs, average 34.

In 1899 he put together his highest innings, 207 against Leicestershire. At Leyton in 1905, when Essex beat the Australians by 19 runs, Fane ended the match with a remarkable catch at a position approximating to deep long-stop where, with Buckenham bowling very fast, he had placed himself to save possible byes. In the 1907-8 tour of Australia, he captained the M.C.C. side in the first three Test matches when A. O. Jones fell ill. During that tour he scored 774 runs, average 33, hitting 101 against New South Wales. Fane also went to South Africa in 1905-6 and 1909-10, to New Zealand in 1902-3 and the West Indies in 1902. Altogether he played in fourteen Test matches.