Edwin Mills

EDWIN MILLS, the Notts and Surrey player, died on January 26th. He was born on the 6th of March, 1857, and was thus nearly 42 years of age. At the outset of his career Mills was regarded as an all-round cricketer of great promise, but he never fulfilled the hopes that had been formed of him. Like William Attewell and C. Shore , the left-handed bowler who has for years past done such great things for Norfolk, Mills came to the front during the strike of the leading Notts players in 1881 . He did well for Notts that season, taking 32 wickets in eight matches and scoring 197 runs with an average of 15, but he did not prove good enough to keep his place in the eleven when the chief Notts players had made up their differences with the Committee. He afterwards took an engagement at the Oval and qualified for Surrey by residence, but here again, though he made some appearances in county matches, he fell short of the standard demanded. He was a left-handed bowler of medium pace, and a very hard hitter. He was associated with Barnes in a wonderful finish at Lord"s, in a match between Notts and the M. C. C. in June, 1882 . Notts went in the second afternoon at ten minutes past five to get 164 to win. and it was arranged to play on till half-past seven if there was a chance of finishing, and afterwards to go on still later if the light remained fit for cricket. Notts lost seven wickets for 54 runs and the match seemed all over. However, on Mills becoming Barnes"s partner, 99 runs were added before Mills was bowled. In the end Notts won by one wicket, the match finishing in semi-darkness at eight minutes to eight.