2nd not 1st: Essex 1899-1914 (6th ed)

Newman, Leonard William (1891-1964) Born: 15 May 1891, New Southgate, Middlesex. (Cricket Archive has the wrong birth details.) Died 21 March 1964, Barnet, Hertfordshire. Played 1914. His father, Joseph, was a master butcher who at the time of Leonard’s birth had two assistant butchers living in his house. In 1901 Leonard was a boarder at Clacton Grammar School and in 1911 an auctioneer’s clerk living with his brother in Friern Barnet. In 1917 he married Mabel Badcoe and they had son Douglas. In 1939 Leonard was an estate agent and valuer, and Douglas was working for him as a clerk. His only matches for Essex Second XI were away to Cheshire and Glamorgan in the Minor Counties Championship of 1914. He did not contribute a great deal there but was a prolific batsman in club cricket for Alexandra Park CC, scoring over 80,000 runs with 250 centuries. Aged 51, in 1942 he turned out for a British Empire XI alongside Denis Compton, Sonny Avery and Bertie Clarke. Batting and fielding record M I NO RUNS AVE 100s 50s CT ST Champ 2 4 32 8.00 2 Highest score: 18. Nie, William James (‘Jack’, 1880-1935) Born Q3 1880, Bromley-by-Bow. Died Q1 1935, Biggleswade, Bedfordshire. Played 1900. Always known as Jack, he was the son of Francis Joseph Nie and Louisa Harriet Longuehaye. The family for the 20 years after his birth is elusive, but Francis turned up at the Old Bailey as a witness in a case of ‘pocketpicking’ in 1900, when he described himself as ‘ cellar man at the Lord Gough public-house, West Ham’. In the following year they made their sole appearance on censuses, at the Maidenhead pub in Hertford, where Francis had taken over as the licensed victualler. Jack’s occupation in 1901 was given as ‘Nil’, which is rather curious because he had already begun to make a name for himself as a professional sportsman. In 1900 he was appointed as the pro at Chelmsford CC, where against Witham he took 8 for 64 and Essex’s once and future captain AP ‘Bunny’ Lucas hit a ‘magnificent’ 128. It may well have been Jack’s performance here that led to his call-up to Essex 2nd XI for matches against Surrey Seconds and Hampshire Seconds. He took two wickets and held four catches but never played for Essex again. At the end of the season, Chelmsford CC gave him a benefit match in which he took 5 for 56 but the Chelmsford Chronicle was scathing about the attendance, which was woefully poor. Is it to be wondered at? In such matters as these people are penny-wise and pound-foolish. If the committee had inserted an advertisement in the newspapers announcing that the match was to take place, and all about it, a decent gate might have been secured. As it was, very people knew of what was going on. In 1901 and 1902 he opened the bowling in the annual cricket match between Tottenham CC and Tottenham Hotspur FC which was played as a benefit for the cricket groundsman, the appropriately named Alfred Over. In 1901 he played for Spurs against a team including Percy