George Ubsdell

George Ubsdell (4 April 1845 — 15 October 1905) was an English first-class cricketer and umpire.

Ubsdell was born at Southampton in April 1845. A professional cricketer,[1] Ubsdell made his debut in first-class cricket for Hampshire against Sussex at Southampton in 1864, which was Hampshire County Cricket Club's inaugural match in first-class cricket. He played first-class cricket for Hampshire until 1870, making fifteen appearances.[2] Playing as a wicket-keeper in the Hampshire side, he took four catches and made thirteen stumpings, an unusual statistic for a wicket-keeper in that they normally end their career with more catches than stumpings.[3] In a match against Surrey in 1865, he made five stumpings in Surrey's second innings.[4] As a batsman, he scored 170 runs at an average of 6.80, with a highest score of 29.[3] Besides playing county cricket, Ubsdell was engaged as a club cricketer at Hampton Wick (1867 and 1869), Gore Court (1868 and 1870–71), Liverpool (1872), and Childwall (1874–76). He was additionally engaged in a coaching capacity by Marlborough College and Exeter College, Oxford.[1] He was further described as a player by Haygarth in Scores and Biographies as "an excellent hitter to all parts of the field, especially to the off, bowls round-armed, middle-paced, and is also a capital wicket-keeper".[1] Following the end of his first-class career, he spent 12 years as a groundsman at Liverpool Cricket Club's Aigburth Ground.[5] Ubsdell later stood as an umpire in a first-class match between Liverpool and District and the touring Australians in 1882.[6] Ubsdell died at the Palatine Hotel in Garston, Liverpool in October 1905.[5]