Frank Mitchell - School, University and Yorkshire

School, University and Yorkshire

Mitchell was schooled at St Peter's School in York and captained the school side for two years before moving to Brighton, where he took up employment as a schoolmaster for another two years. This meant that when he went up to Cambridge University, where he was admitted to Caius College, he was older and more experienced than many of his contemporaries, and he swiftly moved into the University side, where he remained from 1894 to 1897. It was as captain of the University side in 1896 that Mitchell became mired in a little controversy when he instructed his bowler to give away runs so that Oxford University would not be required to follow-on their innings (at the time sides surrendering an 80 run deficit in the first innings were required to follow-on). Protests came from both the Pavilion and in newspapers about this. The tactic itself, however, did not help Cambridge win - they went on to lose the match by four wickets.

In 1894 Mitchell first played for Yorkshire, and in 1898-99 he was selected to tour South Africa with Lord Hawke. It was on this tour that he played two representative matches for England that later became recognized as official Test matches. His performance on that tour helped consolidate his place in the Yorkshire squad for the following season.