Ernest Smith (cricketer, born 1869)

Ernest Smith (19 October 1869 – 9 April 1945) was an English amateur first-class cricketer, who played twenty one games for Oxford University from 1888 to 1891, 154 matches for Yorkshire County Cricket Club from 1888 to 1907,[1] and four for the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) from 1892 to 1902.

Ernest Smith
Personal information
Born19 October 1869
Morley, West Riding of Yorkshire, England
Died9 April 1945 (aged 75)
Eastbourne, Sussex, England
Height6 ft 1 in (1.85 m)
BattingRight-handed
BowlingRight-arm fast
RelationsA. E. Smith (brother)
Domestic team information
YearsTeam
1888–1891Oxford University
1888–1907Yorkshire County Cricket Club
1892–1902Marylebone Cricket Club
Career statistics
Competition First-class
Matches 242
Runs scored 7686
Batting average 21.46
100s/50s 6/22
Top score 164
Balls bowled 22774
Wickets 454
Bowling average 25.69
5 wickets in innings 22
10 wickets in match 3
Best bowling 7/40
Catches/stumpings 174/0
Source: Ernest Smith. Cricinfo

Smith was born in Morley, West Riding of Yorkshire, and educated at Clifton College[2] and University College, Oxford.[3] In a first-class career that lasted from 1888, when he was 18, till 1928, when he was 58, he also played cricket for Oxford and Cambridge Universities Past and Present (1890), fifteen matches for The Gentlemen (1891–1906), North of England (1891–1908), Gentlemen of England (1891–1910) and C. I. Thornton's XI (1892–1899) and, among other teams, twenty-seven games for H. D. G. Leveson-Gower's XI (1909–1928).[4]

In 242 first-class matches, Smith scored 7,686 runs at 21.46, with a highest score of 164 not out for H. D. G. Leveson-Gower's XI against Cambridge University in 1912.[5] In 1891 he scored 154 for North against South, he and Charles de Trafford adding 254 in 105 minutes.[6] A right-arm fast bowler, Smith took 454 wickets at 25.69, with a best return of 7 for 40 for Yorkshire against MCC in 1893.[7] For Oxford University in 1890 he took 13 for 146 in the match against Lancashire.[6] Standing six feet one inch tall, he was also a good fieldsman.[8]

Smith was a schoolteacher who played most of his cricket during the summer school holidays. In 1958 A. A. Thomson said of him: "Ernest was one of that devoted band of August schoolmasters – happily they survive to-day – who pack their boys off home and add a kind of academic gaiety to the month's cricket." He added that Smith could "defend like a lowered portcullis if Yorkshire were in serious trouble" or bat "like a charging cavalry leader".[9]

Smith died in April 1945 in Eastbourne, Sussex. His brother, A. E. Smith, played one first-class game for the "English Residents" in Philadelphia in 1890.[10]

References
  1. Warner, David (2011). The Yorkshire County Cricket Club: 2011 Yearbook (113th ed.). Ilkley, Yorkshire: Great Northern Books. p. 378. ISBN 978-1-905080-85-4.
  2. "Clifton College Register" Muirhead, J.A.O. p121: Bristol; J.W Arrowsmith for Old Cliftonian Society; April, 1948
  3. SMITH, Ernest, Who Was Who, A & C Black, 1920–2016 (online edition, Oxford University Press, 2020)
  4. "First-Class Matches played by Ernest Smith". CricketArchive. Retrieved 28 May 2019.
  5. "HDG Leveson-Gower's XI v Cambridge University 1912". Cricinfo. Retrieved 28 May 2019.
  6. "Wisden – Obituaries in 1945". Cricinfo. Retrieved 28 May 2019.
  7. "Yorkshire v MCC 1893". CricketArchive. Retrieved 28 May 2019.
  8. "Obituary", The Cricketer, 5 May 1945, p. 32.
  9. A. A. Thomson, Odd Men In, Sportsmans Book Club, London, 1958, p. 173.
  10. "AE Smith". CricketArchive.
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