Famous Cricketers No 76 - J.N.Crawford

1906 Crawford’s first full season for Surrey in the county championship saw him make his first appearances for the Gentlemen against the Players and he was one of six players along with John Gunn, George Hirst, Albert Relf, Wilfred Rhodes and George Thompson to reach the double. While Hirst was the first in his sixteenth match, Crawford in his twenty-sixth on 17 August became the youngest player at 19 years and 259 days to do so. The previous youngest was Charles Studd in his seventeenth match on 10 August 1882 when at 21 years and 251 days he eclipsed W.G.Grace (26 in 1874). Crawford achieved the first of his match doubles of a century and ten wickets in a game when he reached 148 against Gloucester at Bristol and then took 11-148 in Surrey’s innings victory. The hundred was his only three figure score for the season but it was a brilliant innings in which he added 136 in 70 minutes for the eighth wicket with Herbert Strudwick. Crawford displayed great hitting powers but also remarkable self control and his medium-pace bowling often obtained both lift and spin from the pitch. In two games against Yorkshire he revealed his abilities to both restrain top players and make crucial breakthroughs. At The Oval he kept George Hirst to a rigidly defensive game when he was well set and the great all-rounder found it impossible to get him away. Later in the season at Sheffield he engineered a Yorkshire collapse from 1-99 to 6-129 in an accurate spell in which he obtained a rare amount of spin. Own Team O M R W Opp Ct Total Total 34. Surrey v Hampshire, Kennington Oval, May 3, 4, 5 (Surrey won by 337 runs) b C.P.Mead 8 178 - - - - 68 st J.Stone b C.B.Llewellyn 39 331 9 2 18 4 E.G.Wynyard c E.G.Hayes 104 2 C.B.Llewellyn b W.V.Jephson b E.M.C.Ede b 35. Surrey v Northamptonshire, Kennington Oval, May 7, 9 (Surrey won by an innings and 214 runs) b W.East 15 429 17 5 33 3 H.E.Kingston b 136 E.M.Crosse b W.East b 9.1 4 13 6 G.J.Thompson lbw 79 E.M.Crosse b G.A.T.Vials b W.East b T.Horton b W.Wells b 36. Surrey v Leicestershire, Kennington Oval, May 10, 12 (Surrey won by an innings and 270 runs) c J.P.Whiteside b C.J.B.Wood 43 483 13.3 2 43 3 A.E.Knight c T.W.Hayward 127 1 R.Joyce c J.E.Raphael 86 J.P.Whiteside b 37. Surrey v Essex, Kennington Oval, May 14, 15, 16 (Match drawn) c H.A.Carpenter b B.Tremlin 23 287 8 1 32 0 429 not out 18 164-4 38. Surrey v Hampshire, Aldershot, May 17, 18, 19 (Surrey won by ten wickets) b J.R.Badcock 20 292 10 4 19 3 A.J.L.Hill lbw 114 H.A.W.Bowell b W.T.Langford c E.G.Hayes did not bat - 56-0 13 1 41 2 C.B.Llewellyn c G.F.Gamble 231 1 C.Robson b 39. Surrey v Worcestershire, Worcester, May (21), 22, 23 (Match drawn) c F.L.Bowley b R.D.Burrows 25 395 36.1 9 109 7 A.Bird c H.Strudwick 218 F.A.Pearson b H.K.Foster c F.C.Holland E.G.Arnold b 9