Engaged as the professional for Nottingham Commercial CC in 1888 to 1890, Frank Needham was selected by the Notts CCC Committee to represent the County in the Colts of North v Colts of South match at Lord’s on May 1889. He never appeared in the Notts Colts XXII but his left-arm medium-pace bowling was most effective v Yorkshire Colts at Trent Bridge in June 1889, for he had figures of 6-17. His First-Class debut came, at the age of 28, for Notts v Middlesex at Lord’s in May 1890, when he stood in for Dick Attewell, taking 4-62 in Middlesex’s first innings. He played in two other First-Class games for the County that season; taking a Notts best 4-28 v Gloucestershire at Clifton College. Needham had figures of 33-24-19-7 for Notts v Next XVI later on in 1890. He made a further two further First-Class appearances for Notts in 1891, having an analysis of 4-52 v Surrey at Trent Bridge. His last game was v MCC at Lord’s in June. In those five matches for Notts he scored 33 runs @4.12 and took 16 wickets @14.62.
In 1890, Needham had the remarkable figures of 10-10-0-7 for Nottingham Commercial v Nottingham Forest. From 1891 to 1923, he was engaged on the ground staff at Lord’s; during this long period he played in two First-Class matches in 1891 and his final First-Class fixture was 10 years later for MCC v London County at Crystal Palace in August 1901. In eight First-Class games he scored 49 runs @4.08 and took 24 wickets @18.41, with a career best of 5-44 for H Philipson’s XI v Oxford University in the Parks in May 1891.
Frank Needham was born on 27 August 1861 in Arnold and died in the same town on 15 October 1923, aged 62 years
June 2020
Nottinghamshire First-Class Number: 212