Famous Cricketers No 80 - E.G.Wynyard

In Wynyard’s biography in Scores and Biographies (vol.XIV, pp.546-547), Arthur Haygarth says: “He is a fine free hitter, and a splendid field, generally at cover point.” Haygarth mentions two double centuries in minor matches, 233 for Incogniti v Phœnix Park in Dublin in August 1887, and 237 for the 8th King’s Regiment v 23rd Royal Fusiliers in India in December 1887 (venue not given). In his addendum in volume XVI (p.xliii), Haygarth adds that in a match for the R.M.C. Staff against the Staff College on 30th May 1896 Wynyard scored 261 not out while in a match between the Staff College and the Old Carthusians at Camberley on 22nd June 1898 he made 205 retired. Wynyard himself kept a record of his doings and claimed to have scored 150 centuries in all classes of cricket. Wynyard’s obituary in the 1937 Wisden states: “A fine, free hitter, Major Wynyard used a great variety of strokes, especially those in front of the wicket. He had a grand drive, a powerful hook, a good cut, back strokes of a forcing description and a rare pull in making which he dropped to his right knee and drove the ball on the half volley over mid-on. He developed also a special method of hitting left-handed bowling over cover point in most effective fashion. While he could field admirably anywhere, he excelled at slip and at mid-on.” H.S.Altham gives the following description of Wynyard in Hampshire County Cricket: The Official History (p.49): “A man of arresting presence and strong personality. Though never a good starter, he was a pugnacious batsman of high quality, combining with a strong and watchful defence a wide variety of attacking strokes of which the most individual was the pull-drive when he would drop on his right knee to pick up the over-pitched, or even at times the good length ball on or outside the off stump and hit it like a good iron-shot wide of mid-on; alternatively, he might drive ‘skimmers’ over mid-off or extra-cover. He was a fine slip field, could keep wicket very adequately and liked bowling lobs.” Altham, incidentally, should know about the lobs as he was Wynyard’s final first-class victim in 1912! Sir Pelham Warner stated that Wynyard was a superb fieldsman in almost any position, especially in the slips and at short-leg so that it will be seen from these descriptions that Wynyard began as a cover-point but in later years gravitated to the slips and short-leg. In addition he was Hampshire’s regular wicketkeeper in 1890 and filled this post occasionally in other seasons. A more personal view of Wynyard was given by his younger friend and fellow Free Forester Sir J.C.Masterman, later an Oxford don and author of a classic detective story set in the university. In Blackwood’s Magazine for 1974 he recalled: “I did not see him in his great days but even in 1923 in Canada there were traces of greatness to be seen. He played in only a couple of matches but in one of these he made a shot which few could have equalled. The bowler was medium or slow-medium and he delivered a half-volley just outside the leg stump. Ranji would have glanced the ball past fine leg with almost majestic contempt; Teddy treated it differently. He jumped off both feet and made a half-turn to his left in the air, and then, coming to ground exactly at the right moment, drove - yes, drove - the ball for six between fine and long leg. Surely a miracle of timing. Incredible, you might say, but I saw him do it - and he was sixty-two.” Masterman continued: “As a captain the word martinet is far too weak to express his dominant personality. Woe betide the young cricketer who was heard to murmur that his best place in the batting order was three or four. In his firm hand Teddy would write his name in the score-book number eleven. Once in a match between I Zingari and the Lords & Commons a strong wind was blowing down the ground. I Zingari had two opening fast bowlers in the side and they were engaged in a friendly discussion as to which deserved to have the wind to help him. The side went onto the field and Teddy opened the bowling himself with lobs and with the wind behind him.” Earlier in his article, Masterman lamented the fact that Wynyard had to decline the invitation to captain England in Australia in 1907/08, saying: “I have always thought that that tour might and ought to have been the crown of his cricket career. Had he been able to go and had he been in form, he would, I think, be numbered among the cricket immortals.” Wynyard’s personality was summed up in these words: “His devotion to cricket was boundless and he knew more about the game than anyone I had met up to that time. He was by nature an autocrat, supremely confident in his own judgment, a fierce competitor and insistent on the full rigour of the game, sometimes cantankerous and irascible but always staunch 8