12 AUGUST 1949, Page 15

POUGHER OF LEICESTER

SIR,—Allow me to set at rest all doubts about Pougher of Leicester. Never mind Wisden. I know that he existed, because many years ago I met the man, and a very nice man he was, too. I met him on a cigarette card, which at that time was one of the most valuable means of disseminating useful knowledge. I regret that I can remember. little about him, except that he wore the kind of herbaceous-border moustache which was de rigueur among the best professionals of the day, though I do not think that he spiked it at the ends, as the more virile ones did. He impressed himself on my memory because, not having the least idea how to pronounce his name, I dared not mention it in the company of the learned, and this was a mortification. I have remained in that torturing doubt ever since, though from the first I inclined, and still incline, to " Dougher's " school of thought. I can see no possible alternatives to Puffer except Power, Power or Pogger, and none of them convinces me. It would not surprise me, however, to learn that he really called himself something--e.g., Peterborough - which the most ingenious imagination would never have guessed.—Yours faithfully,