The Demobilised Officers cricket team was a cricket team formed of first-class cricketers who had fought in the First World War and following its conclusion had been demobilised. The team played a single first-class match against a combined Army and Navy cricket team at Lord's in 1919. [1] The eleven players who represented the team in the match were Richard Twining (later President of the Marylebone Cricket Club and Middlesex), Mordaunt Doll, Harry Altham, John Morrison, Gilbert Ashton, Claude Burton, Frank Mann, Stanley Saville, Eric Martin, Sidney Bollon and Wilfrid Lord. [2] All except Bollon had previously played first-class cricket, with Mann the only member of the team to later play international cricket, making five Test appearances for England. The Army and Navy batted first, making 231 all out, with Bollon taking five wickets with figures of 5/59, while Ashton backed him up with 4/95. Responding in their first-innings, the Demobilised Officers made 212 all out, with Ashton top scoring in the innings with 95. The Army and Navy reached 124/2 in their second-innings, at which point the match was declared a draw. [2] The team played no further matches after this.
Greville Thomas Scott Stevens was an English amateur cricketer who played for Middlesex, the University of Oxford and England. A leg-spin and googly bowler and attacking batsman, he captained England in one Test match, in South Africa in 1927. He was widely regarded as one of the leading amateur cricketers of his generation who, because of his commitments outside cricket, was unable to fulfil his potential and left the game early.
Christopher Heseltine was an English Test cricketer, cricket administrator, and British Army officer. Heseltine made his debut in first-class cricket for the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) in 1892, a club he would go onto have a long association with in both a playing and administrative capacity. He played his county cricket for Hampshire County Cricket Club between 1895 and 1914, developing late as a successful fast bowler in first-class cricket. A close acquaintance of Lord Hawke, he accompanied him on three tours abroad, including to South Africa in 1895–96, making two Test match appearances for England against South Africa, in which he took a five wicket haul on debut. During his first-class career he played in 79 matches and took 170 wickets. He was later a member of the MCC committee and had two spells as president of Hampshire.
Henry William "Harry" Lee was a professional English cricketer who played first-class cricket for the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) and Middlesex County Cricket Club between 1911 and 1934. He made one Test appearance for England, in 1931. An all-rounder, Lee was a right-handed batsman and bowled both off break and slow-medium pace bowling with his right arm. He scored 1,000 runs in a season on thirteen occasions. Part of the County Championship winning sides in 1920 and 1921, Lee aggregated 20,158 runs and took 401 wickets in first-class cricket.
John Lindsay Bryan was an English schoolteacher and cricketer who played for Cambridge University and Kent County Cricket Club. Bryan served in the British Army in both World War I and World War II and won the Military Cross in 1918.
When the First World War ended in November 1918, thousands of Australian servicemen were in Europe as members of the First Australian Imperial Force (AIF) and many remained until the spring of 1919. In England, a new first-class cricket season was planned, the first since 1914, and an idea that came to fruition was the formation of an Australian touring side made up of servicemen. Agreement was reached with the Australian Corps HQ in London, commanded by Field Marshal William Birdwood, 1st Baron Birdwood, and the Australian Imperial Force Touring XI was formed, initially under the captaincy of pre-war Test player Charlie Kelleway. Kelleway departed after only six matches following a dispute about the fixtures list. A players' meeting elected future Test player Herbie Collins as team captain for the remainder of the tour, despite the fact that Collins' military rank was lance corporal and there were seven officers in the party. The bulk of the team remained intact for nearly nine months from May 1919, playing 33 matches in Great Britain, ten in South Africa on their way home and then another three in Australia itself before disbanding in February 1920. Of the 46 matches, 39 are adjudged first-class and the team had only four defeats, all of these in England. The players lived on their army pay and all profits from gate money went to an AIF Sports Control Board.
1919 was the 26th season of County Championship cricket in England and the first since 1914. The authorities had doubted if cricket would remain popular after a four-year break and the strain of war. It was decided that County Championship matches should be reduced from three days' duration to two, but cricket had not lost its popularity and the two-day experiment was a failure. Yorkshire finished the season as champions, topping the table by four percentage points. No Test cricket was played but an Australian Imperial Forces team toured England, playing matches from mid-May until mid-September. Andy Ducat, Patsy Hendren, Percy Holmes, Herbert Sutcliffe and Ernest Tyldesley were named in the 1920 edition of Wisden Cricketers' Almanack as the Five Cricketers of the Year for their 1919 performances.
The 1787 cricket season in England is noteworthy for the foundation of Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) after the opening of Thomas Lord's first ground in the parish of Marylebone, north of London. MCC soon became the sport's governing body with the new ground as its feature venue. The first match known to have been played at Lord's was on Monday, 21 May, between the White Conduit Club and a Middlesex county team. The first match known to involve a team representing MCC was against White Conduit on Monday, 30 July. Including these two, reports and/or match scorecards have survived of numerous eleven-a-side matches played in 1787. Eleven are retrospectively, but unofficially, recognised as first-class.
Robert Claude Burton was an English first-class cricketer, who played for Oxford University and Yorkshire.
Edward Humphreys, known as Punter Humphreys, was an English professional cricketer who played first-class cricket for Kent County Cricket Club between 1899 and 1920. He played nearly 400 first-class matches and coached cricket after his retirement.
Claude Thesiger Ashton was an English amateur footballer and first-class cricketer. As footballer he played for Corinthians in several different positions including goalkeeper and centre forward, although his preferred position was wing-half. He made one appearance for the England national team in 1925 when he was appointed team captain. As a cricketer he played for Cambridge University and Essex. A pre-war officer of the Auxiliary Air Force, he died as a result of a mid-air collision in a training accident in the Second World War.
Colonel William Alexander Camac Wilkinson, was a highly decorated British Army officer and English cricketer. Australian-born, he served with the British Army in both the First and Second World Wars. After the Second World War he spent some time in Graz, Austria, as Senior Military Government Officer in the occupation forces.
The military career of Keith Miller, an Australian Test cricketer and Australian rules footballer, lasted from August 1940 until June 1946, when World War II interrupted his sporting career. Miller enlisted in the Militia, before switching to the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF), where he served from November 1941 until 1946 when he was discharged with the rank of flying officer. Miller trained as a fighter pilot, and in the last month of the European theatre of war, he flew combat missions over German installations. However, Miller was more notable for his efforts as a cricketer, representing the Royal Australian Air Force cricket team and after VE Day, the Australian Services in the Victory Tests of 1945, followed by a tour of the Indian subcontinent and Australia before being demobilised.
Oswald Wykeham Cornwallis was an English Royal Navy officer and amateur cricketer. He was born in 1894 at Linton Park in Kent, the third son of Mabel and Fiennes Cornwallis. His father was the Member of Parliament for Maidstone and would later become a peer. He served in both the First and Second World Wars.
Commander Philip Hastings Irwin was an English cricketer and Royal Navy officer. Irwin was a right-handed batsman. He was born at Didsbury, Lancashire.
Lieutenant-Colonel Harry Samuel Lewis Barclay was an Australian-born army officer and sportsman who played first-class cricket and was a quarter-finalist at the 1925 Wimbledon Championships.
The Army and Navy cricket team was a cricket team formed from the combination of the British Army and the Royal Navy, with its players being selected from either of these branches of the British Armed Forces. The team first appeared in a first-class match in 1910 against a combined Oxford and Cambridge Universities cricket team at the Officers Club Services Ground, Aldershot. The team played two further first-class matches, in 1911 in a repeat of the 1910 fixture, though this time played at the United Services Recreation Ground, Portsmouth, and following World War I against the Demobilised Officers at Lord's. The team won its first two fixtures and drew its third.
Charles Frederick Roy Cowan was a Welsh-born English cricketer who played first-class cricket in 27 matches for Warwickshire between 1909 and 1921, and in two matches for armed forces cricket teams in 1919. He was born at Glangrwyney, Crickhowell, Brecknockshire and died in hospital at Leamington Spa, Warwickshire.
Ronald MacDonell Pryor was a Brazilian cricketer who played a number of international matches for the Brazilian national side. In 1932, he toured England with a combined South American team, making a single first-class appearance on tour.
Arthur Stanley Cantrell was an English first-class cricketer and Royal Marines officer. Cantrell was commissioned into the Royal Marine Artillery and served during the First World War. His military service with the Royal Marines lasted until his retirement in 1934, though he did later come out of retirement to serve in the Second World War. Cantrell also played first-class cricket for the Royal Navy Cricket Club between 1913–1929, making fourteen appearances.
Sidney Bollon was an English first-class cricketer.