Famous Cricketers No 76 - J.N.Crawford

1921 In his final first-class season Crawford again appeared in only two matches. His unavailability in championship matches for Surrey related to him going to Rochdale. The Dunlop rubber company had employed him as a manager in their mills in Sudden and he appeared for Rochdale in both the 1920 and 1921 seasons as an amateur but only occasionally revealed glimpses of his all-round skills. The Rochdale professional at the time was the Lancashire and England player Cecil Parkin. Crawford ended his first-class career at The Oval where he had begun it, and in a major match for the Gentlemen against the Players. However, the Gentlemen’s side which was scarcely representative were defeated by an innings. A sidelight to the season was that all Repton’s distinguished cricketers except one joined the Repton Pilgrims on the foundation of the club. The exception was Crawford, who was made a member in 1952, although he never played a game for the club. Own Team O M R W Opp Ct Total Total 209. Surrey v Australians, Kennington Oval, June 18, 20, 21 (Australians won by 78 runs) c J.M.Gregory b A.A.Mailey 1 175 12 1 50 1 J.M.Taylor c A.Jeacocke 213 run out 28 118 5 0 18 0 158 210. Gentlemen v Players, Kennington Oval, June 29, 30, July 1 (Players won by an innings and 3 runs) c C.Hallows b W.Hitch 42 404 19 0 69 1 J.W.Hitch b 608-8d b T.J.Durston 5 201 SEASON’S AVERAGES Batting and Fielding M I NO Runs HS Ave 100 50 Ct Gentlemen v Players 1 2 0 47 42 23.50 - - - Other Surrey matches 1 2 0 29 28 14.50 - - - Season 2 4 0 76 42 19.00 - - - Career 210 325 34 9488 232 32.60 15 43 162 Bowling O M R W BB Ave 5i 10m Gentlemen v Players 19 0 69 1 1-69 69.00 - - Other Surrey matches 17 1 68 1 1-50 68.00 - - Season 36 1 137 2 1-50 68.50 - - Career 5903.5 1294 16842 815 8-24 20.66 57 12 Postscript - A Cricketing Hero Boys Own Magazine for November 1909 no doubt featured a heroic British public school type dealing with ‘unruly natives’ attempting to disturb the imperial scheme of things in some distant colonial outpost. Certainly in 1910 David Crawford was about to debut in print as that kind of hero in the John Buchan shocker Prester John . That’s one way of looking at heroes. On another definition, heroes are typed as individuals (not exclusively male) who make a return trip to confront their destiny, bringing back with them from distant parts a boon or gift which addresses some severe lack experienced at their point of origin. J.N. (Jack) Crawford was in many respects a Boys Own hero —Edwardian schoolboy cricket star; capped by his county club, Surrey, at 17; played for the Gentlemen at 18; youngest player to the double at the time and Test player at 19; Wisden Cricketer of the Year at 20; and occasional Surrey captain by 22 — the list of heroic on-field achievements is lengthy. In other respects his career conformed to neither model. After quarrelling with Surrey Jack Crawford arrived in South Australia just as Buchan sent his near namesake to South Africa to start anew. But where fictional deeds of derring-do enriched the imaginary emigrant, in the real world the expatriate’s career effectively stalled — despite a consistently high level of performance — over the period (1909-17) of his exile from England. Whereas H.H.Munro (Saki) ended both the fictional exile 36