Guy Earle
Encyclopedia
Guy Fife Earle, born at Newcastle upon Tyne
on 24 August 1891 and died at Maperton
, Wincanton
, Somerset
, on 30 December 1966, played first-class
cricket
for Surrey
and Somerset
for 20 years before and after the First World War. He also played in India, Sri Lanka, Australia and New Zealand as a member of official Marylebone Cricket Club
touring teams, though he did not play Test cricket
.
and was in the school's cricket team as a fast bowler and middle order batsman for four years. He was captain of Harrow against Eton College
in the Eton v Harrow
match at Lord's in 1910, known as Fowler's match
, when Eton pulled off a sensational victory: having followed on 165 runs behind, Eton were only four runs ahead when the ninth wicket of the second innings fell and eventually set Harrow a target of just 55 to win. The Eton bowler Robert Fowler
then took eight Harrow wickets for 23 as Harrow were all out for 45, leaving Eton winners by nine runs. The match is the subject of an article at www.cricinfo.com, in which Earle's captaincy, and specifically the decision to remove Harold Alexander, later Earl Alexander of Tunis
, from the Harrow bowling attack and to bowl himself, was seen as a contributory factor in Eton's recovery.
In 1911, Earle appeared twice in first-class cricket for Surrey, taking four wickets in the two games. But he played no more first-class cricket before the First World War.
Earle served in the Rifle Brigade during the First World War, reaching the rank of captain before his discharge in 1919. In 1916 he is recorded as being on half-pay because of illness. Another source says that he was wounded in the war.
and Oxford University
at The Oval
. In the Cambridge match, he took five second innings wickets for 137 runs as Cambridge ran up a total of 460 for six: this was his only five-wicket-innings return in first-class cricket and therefore these remained as his career-best bowling figures.
In 1922, Earle played in one match for Somerset, and from 1923 onwards he appeared fairly regularly for the county until the end of the 1929 season. His role at Somerset was primarily as a hard-hitting middle-order batsman, and though he took useful wickets in his first four seasons in Somerset, he bowled more than 160 overs in only one season, 1926.
Earle's only century for Somerset came in his first regular season, 1923. In the match against Gloucestershire
at Bristol
, he came to the wicket with Somerset at 331 for five, with Dar Lyon
having already scored a century. Wisden
, normally staid in its prose, reported that Earle was "amazing": he made 76 in "just over half an hour" to the close of play and then, when Somerset batted on into the second day, went on himself to finish with 111.
By the mid-1920s, Earle was playing cricket in the majority of matches for Somerset and in 1926 he played in 28 games, reaching 893 runs at an average of 21.78 in the season and also taking 30 wickets, both of them his highest season aggregates. Wisden referred to his "exceptional driving" and, 40 years later, wrote that "while by no means a stylist, (he) used his considerable physique to hit the ball tremendously hard".
After 1926, Earle was less effective in county cricket, and his highest score in his last four English seasons of regular cricket – 1927, 1928, 1929 and 1931 – was only 67, made in the match against Lancashire
at Old Trafford in 1927. Unusually for Earle, in this innings he was not out: he was unbeaten in only seven of his 295 first-class innings, a very low percentage for a No 6 or No 7 batsman.
, who played several non-first-class matches in North American cricketing strongholds around New York
and Philadelphia.
More serious in cricketing terms was the official MCC
tour to India, which lasted from October 1926 to the end of February 1927. The Imperial Cricket Conference in London in 1926 had decided to encourage India, New Zealand and the West Indies to develop their local cricket infrastructures with a view to widening the number of Test cricket
-playing countries, which had until then been restricted to England
, Australia
and South Africa
and the MCC tour was part of this encouragement. Matches were also played in Ceylon
and in territories that later became Pakistan
and Burma. The MCC team was a strong one, captained by the England captain Arthur Gilligan
and including Test players Bob Wyatt
, Maurice Tate
and Andrew Sandham. Earle held his own in this exalted company, making 767 runs at the, for him, high average of 34.86 runs per innings; his bowling was scarcely used at all. The batting included an innings of 130, the highest score of his first-class career and his second century, in the match against the Hindus
at the Bombay Gymkhana
ground in Mumbai
. The innings included 26 runs from five consecutive balls, and he hit eight sixes and 11 fours; he put on 154 in 65 minutes with Tate. Despite this innings, he was not picked for the two representative matches against "All-India" which were the forerunners of Test cricket: a result of the tour was that Gilligan reported back to MCC that India appeared ready for Test cricket, though the failure to form a cricket board in India until 1928 meant the tour of England by an All-India side that year still not feature any Tests.
Three years later, Earle was a member of a similar MCC tour in 1929-30, this time to New Zealand, with matches played on the journey in both Sri Lanka and Australia. This tour coincided with a similar MCC tour to the West Indies and on both tours the representative matches were judged to be Test matches, though several regular England players sat out both tours and other players received their only Test caps by playing in the matches on the twin tours. Earle was not one of these players: in seven first-class matches in Australia and New Zealand, he failed to pass 50 in any innings and he was not picked for any of the four matches against New Zealand
. In one of the matches in Australia on the way to New Zealand, Earle hit Australian spin bowler Clarrie Grimmett
for 22 runs in an over, with three sixes; in New Zealand, he scored 98 in 40 minutes in a minor match against Taranaki.
The travelling went on. In both 1932 and 1934, he went on the tours of Egypt
organised by Hubert Martineau
, though the matches were not judged to be first-class. On the first of these, he was badly hurt in a motorcycle accident, and that forced his retirement from first-class cricket.
In the Second World War, Earle returned to the services, this time in the Royal Air Force. He is recorded as a squadron leader
of the Auxiliary Air Force transferring from the Balloon Branch to administrative and special duties in 1941. And then he is recorded as standing down from his commission in 1945.
Newcastle upon Tyne
Newcastle upon Tyne is a city and metropolitan borough of Tyne and Wear, in North East England. Historically a part of Northumberland, it is situated on the north bank of the River Tyne...
on 24 August 1891 and died at Maperton
Maperton
Maperton is a village and civil parish in Somerset, England, situated south west of Wincanton in the South Somerset district. The village has a population of 150. However this number includes Elliscombe House care home which alone has an average of 40 residents.-History:The name of the village...
, Wincanton
Wincanton
Wincanton is a small town in south Somerset, southwest England. The town lies on the A303 road, the main route between London and South West England, and has some light industry...
, Somerset
Somerset
The ceremonial and non-metropolitan county of Somerset in South West England borders Bristol and Gloucestershire to the north, Wiltshire to the east, Dorset to the south-east, and Devon to the south-west. It is partly bounded to the north and west by the Bristol Channel and the estuary of the...
, on 30 December 1966, played first-class
First-class cricket
First-class cricket is a class of cricket that consists of matches of three or more days' scheduled duration, that are between two sides of eleven players and are officially adjudged first-class by virtue of the standard of the competing teams...
cricket
Cricket
Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of 11 players on an oval-shaped field, at the centre of which is a rectangular 22-yard long pitch. One team bats, trying to score as many runs as possible while the other team bowls and fields, trying to dismiss the batsmen and thus limit the...
for Surrey
Surrey County Cricket Club
Surrey County Cricket Club is one of the 18 professional county clubs which make up the English and Welsh domestic cricket structure, representing the historic county of Surrey. Its limited overs team is called the Surrey Lions...
and Somerset
Somerset County Cricket Club
Somerset County Cricket Club is one of the 18 major county clubs which make up the English and Welsh domestic cricket structure, representing the historic county of Somerset...
for 20 years before and after the First World War. He also played in India, Sri Lanka, Australia and New Zealand as a member of official Marylebone Cricket Club
Marylebone Cricket Club
Marylebone Cricket Club is a cricket club in London founded in 1787. Its influence and longevity now witness it as a private members' club dedicated to the development of cricket. It owns, and is based at, Lord's Cricket Ground in St John's Wood, London NW8. MCC was formerly the governing body of...
touring teams, though he did not play Test cricket
Test cricket
Test cricket is the longest form of the sport of cricket. Test matches are played between national representative teams with "Test status", as determined by the International Cricket Council , with four innings played between two teams of 11 players over a period of up to a maximum five days...
.
School and early cricket
Earle was educated at Harrow SchoolHarrow School
Harrow School, commonly known simply as "Harrow", is an English independent school for boys situated in the town of Harrow, in north-west London.. The school is of worldwide renown. There is some evidence that there has been a school on the site since 1243 but the Harrow School we know today was...
and was in the school's cricket team as a fast bowler and middle order batsman for four years. He was captain of Harrow against Eton College
Eton College
Eton College, often referred to simply as Eton, is a British independent school for boys aged 13 to 18. It was founded in 1440 by King Henry VI as "The King's College of Our Lady of Eton besides Wyndsor"....
in the Eton v Harrow
Eton v Harrow
The Eton v Harrow cricket match is an annual cricket match between Eton College and Harrow School. It one of the longest-running annual cricket fixtures in the world. It is the last annual school cricket match played at Lord's Cricket Ground...
match at Lord's in 1910, known as Fowler's match
Fowler's match
Fowler's match is the name given to the two-day Eton v Harrow cricket match held at Lord's on Friday 8 and Saturday 9 July 1910. The match is named after the captain of Eton College, Robert St Leger Fowler, whose outstanding all round batting and bowling performance allowed Eton to win the match...
, when Eton pulled off a sensational victory: having followed on 165 runs behind, Eton were only four runs ahead when the ninth wicket of the second innings fell and eventually set Harrow a target of just 55 to win. The Eton bowler Robert Fowler
Robert Fowler (cricketer)
Captain Robert St Leger Fowler MC was an Irish cricketer, regarded as the best Irish cricketer not to have represented Ireland itself. Fowler was a right-handed batsman who bowled right-arm off break...
then took eight Harrow wickets for 23 as Harrow were all out for 45, leaving Eton winners by nine runs. The match is the subject of an article at www.cricinfo.com, in which Earle's captaincy, and specifically the decision to remove Harold Alexander, later Earl Alexander of Tunis
Harold Alexander, 1st Earl Alexander of Tunis
Field Marshal Harold Rupert Leofric George Alexander, 1st Earl Alexander of Tunis was a British military commander and field marshal of Anglo-Irish descent who served with distinction in both world wars and, afterwards, as Governor General of Canada, the 17th since Canadian...
, from the Harrow bowling attack and to bowl himself, was seen as a contributory factor in Eton's recovery.
In 1911, Earle appeared twice in first-class cricket for Surrey, taking four wickets in the two games. But he played no more first-class cricket before the First World War.
Earle served in the Rifle Brigade during the First World War, reaching the rank of captain before his discharge in 1919. In 1916 he is recorded as being on half-pay because of illness. Another source says that he was wounded in the war.
Return to cricket
Before his discharge from the services, Earle played in a non-first-class match for the Royal Air Force against the Army, opening the bowling and top-scoring in a poor RAF first innings. In 1921, he returned to first-class cricket with Surrey, playing in two matches against Cambridge UniversityCambridge University Cricket Club
Cambridge University Cricket Club is a first-class cricket team. It now plays all but one of its first-class cricket matches as part of the Cambridge University Centre of Cricketing Excellence , which includes Anglia Ruskin University...
and Oxford University
Oxford University Cricket Club
Oxford University Cricket Club is a first-class cricket team, representing the University of Oxford. It plays its home games at the University Parks in Oxford, England...
at The Oval
The Oval
The Kia Oval, still commonly referred to by its original name of The Oval, is an international cricket ground in Kennington, in the London Borough of Lambeth. In the past it was also sometimes called the Kennington Oval...
. In the Cambridge match, he took five second innings wickets for 137 runs as Cambridge ran up a total of 460 for six: this was his only five-wicket-innings return in first-class cricket and therefore these remained as his career-best bowling figures.
In 1922, Earle played in one match for Somerset, and from 1923 onwards he appeared fairly regularly for the county until the end of the 1929 season. His role at Somerset was primarily as a hard-hitting middle-order batsman, and though he took useful wickets in his first four seasons in Somerset, he bowled more than 160 overs in only one season, 1926.
Earle's only century for Somerset came in his first regular season, 1923. In the match against Gloucestershire
Gloucestershire County Cricket Club
Gloucestershire County Cricket Club is one of the 18 major county clubs which make up the English and Welsh national cricket structure, representing the historic county of Gloucestershire. Its limited overs team is called the Gloucestershire Gladiators....
at Bristol
County Cricket Ground, Bristol
The County Cricket Ground is a cricket venue in Bristol, England. It is in the district of Ashley Down. The ground is home to the Gloucestershire County Cricket Club....
, he came to the wicket with Somerset at 331 for five, with Dar Lyon
Dar Lyon
Malcolm Douglas Lyon , generally known as Dar Lyon was an English first-class cricketer who played for Somerset County Cricket Club through the 1920s...
having already scored a century. Wisden
Wisden Cricketers' Almanack
Wisden Cricketers' Almanack is a cricket reference book published annually in the United Kingdom...
, normally staid in its prose, reported that Earle was "amazing": he made 76 in "just over half an hour" to the close of play and then, when Somerset batted on into the second day, went on himself to finish with 111.
By the mid-1920s, Earle was playing cricket in the majority of matches for Somerset and in 1926 he played in 28 games, reaching 893 runs at an average of 21.78 in the season and also taking 30 wickets, both of them his highest season aggregates. Wisden referred to his "exceptional driving" and, 40 years later, wrote that "while by no means a stylist, (he) used his considerable physique to hit the ball tremendously hard".
After 1926, Earle was less effective in county cricket, and his highest score in his last four English seasons of regular cricket – 1927, 1928, 1929 and 1931 – was only 67, made in the match against Lancashire
Lancashire County Cricket Club
Lancashire County Cricket Club represents the historic county of Lancashire in cricket's County Championship. The club was founded in 1864 as a successor to Manchester Cricket Club and has played at Old Trafford since then...
at Old Trafford in 1927. Unusually for Earle, in this innings he was not out: he was unbeaten in only seven of his 295 first-class innings, a very low percentage for a No 6 or No 7 batsman.
Overseas cricket
Much of Earle's cricket in his Somerset days was played for amateur and touring sides, and he continued with this cricket after he stopped playing for Somerset in 1931. His first overseas venture was a short tour to the Netherlands with the Free Foresters cricket team in 1921, and he repeated the venture a year later. At the end of the 1924 season, he was a member of another amateur touring team, the IncognitiIncogniti
The Incogniti cricket club was founded in 1861, claims to be the third oldest "wandering" cricket club – a nomadic cricket club without its own home ground – after I Zingari and Free Foresters ....
, who played several non-first-class matches in North American cricketing strongholds around New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
and Philadelphia.
More serious in cricketing terms was the official MCC
Marylebone Cricket Club
Marylebone Cricket Club is a cricket club in London founded in 1787. Its influence and longevity now witness it as a private members' club dedicated to the development of cricket. It owns, and is based at, Lord's Cricket Ground in St John's Wood, London NW8. MCC was formerly the governing body of...
tour to India, which lasted from October 1926 to the end of February 1927. The Imperial Cricket Conference in London in 1926 had decided to encourage India, New Zealand and the West Indies to develop their local cricket infrastructures with a view to widening the number of Test cricket
Test cricket
Test cricket is the longest form of the sport of cricket. Test matches are played between national representative teams with "Test status", as determined by the International Cricket Council , with four innings played between two teams of 11 players over a period of up to a maximum five days...
-playing countries, which had until then been restricted to England
English cricket team
The England and Wales cricket team is a cricket team which represents England and Wales. Until 1992 it also represented Scotland. Since 1 January 1997 it has been governed by the England and Wales Cricket Board , having been previously governed by Marylebone Cricket Club from 1903 until the end...
, Australia
Australian cricket team
The Australian cricket team is the national cricket team of Australia. It is the joint oldest team in Test cricket, having played in the first Test match in 1877...
and South Africa
South African cricket team
The South African national cricket team represent South Africa in international cricket. They are administrated by Cricket South Africa.South Africa is a full member of the International Cricket Council, also known as ICC, with Test and One Day International, or ODI, status...
and the MCC tour was part of this encouragement. Matches were also played in Ceylon
Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka is a country off the southern coast of the Indian subcontinent. Known until 1972 as Ceylon , Sri Lanka is an island surrounded by the Indian Ocean, the Gulf of Mannar and the Palk Strait, and lies in the vicinity of India and the...
and in territories that later became Pakistan
Pakistan
Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...
and Burma. The MCC team was a strong one, captained by the England captain Arthur Gilligan
Arthur Gilligan
Arthur Edward Robert Gilligan was an English cricketer who played for Cambridge University, Sussex, Surrey and England....
and including Test players Bob Wyatt
Bob Wyatt
Robert "Bob" Elliott Storey Wyatt was an English cricket player. He played for Warwickshire, Worcestershire, and the English cricket team....
, Maurice Tate
Maurice Tate
Maurice William Tate was a Sussex and England cricketer of the 1920s and 1930s and the leader of England's Test bowling attack for a long time during this period...
and Andrew Sandham. Earle held his own in this exalted company, making 767 runs at the, for him, high average of 34.86 runs per innings; his bowling was scarcely used at all. The batting included an innings of 130, the highest score of his first-class career and his second century, in the match against the Hindus
Hindus cricket team
The Hindus cricket team was an Indian first-class cricket team which took part in the annual Bombay tournament. The team was founded by members of the Hindu community in Bombay....
at the Bombay Gymkhana
Bombay Gymkhana
Bombay Gymkhana ,, established in 1875, is one of the premiere gymkhanas in the city of Mumbai, India. It is located in the South Mumbai area and was originally built as a British-only club, designed by English architect, Claude Batley. The Gymkhana Grounds lie in the southern end of the Azad Maidan...
ground in Mumbai
Mumbai
Mumbai , formerly known as Bombay in English, is the capital of the Indian state of Maharashtra. It is the most populous city in India, and the fourth most populous city in the world, with a total metropolitan area population of approximately 20.5 million...
. The innings included 26 runs from five consecutive balls, and he hit eight sixes and 11 fours; he put on 154 in 65 minutes with Tate. Despite this innings, he was not picked for the two representative matches against "All-India" which were the forerunners of Test cricket: a result of the tour was that Gilligan reported back to MCC that India appeared ready for Test cricket, though the failure to form a cricket board in India until 1928 meant the tour of England by an All-India side that year still not feature any Tests.
Three years later, Earle was a member of a similar MCC tour in 1929-30, this time to New Zealand, with matches played on the journey in both Sri Lanka and Australia. This tour coincided with a similar MCC tour to the West Indies and on both tours the representative matches were judged to be Test matches, though several regular England players sat out both tours and other players received their only Test caps by playing in the matches on the twin tours. Earle was not one of these players: in seven first-class matches in Australia and New Zealand, he failed to pass 50 in any innings and he was not picked for any of the four matches against New Zealand
New Zealand cricket team
The New Zealand cricket team, nicknamed the Black Caps, are the national cricket team representing New Zealand. They played their first in 1930 against England in Christchurch, New Zealand, becoming the fifth country to play Test cricket. It took the team until 1955–56 to win a Test, against the...
. In one of the matches in Australia on the way to New Zealand, Earle hit Australian spin bowler Clarrie Grimmett
Clarrie Grimmett
Clarence Victor "Clarrie" Grimmett was a cricketer; although born in New Zealand, he played most of his cricket in Australia. He is thought by many to be one of the finest early spin bowlers, and usually credited as the developer of the flipper.Grimmett was born in Caversham a suburb of Dunedin,...
for 22 runs in an over, with three sixes; in New Zealand, he scored 98 in 40 minutes in a minor match against Taranaki.
The travelling went on. In both 1932 and 1934, he went on the tours of Egypt
Egypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
organised by Hubert Martineau
Hubert Martineau
Hubert Melville Martineau was an English patron of cricket and organiser of his own team. He also played three first-class matches between 1931 and 1932...
, though the matches were not judged to be first-class. On the first of these, he was badly hurt in a motorcycle accident, and that forced his retirement from first-class cricket.
Private and later life
Earle was married three times, his first two marriages ending in divorce. In 1918, he married Isabel Bridget Broughton-Knight, known as Bridget. They had a daughter, Audrey, in 1920, but divorced in 1922. He then married Helen Elliot in 1924, but they divorced in 1927. The next year she married Earle's Somerset cricket colleague Dar Lyon. Finally, he married Bridget Joan Sherston in 1935 and they had two daughters and a son between 1940 and 1945.In the Second World War, Earle returned to the services, this time in the Royal Air Force. He is recorded as a squadron leader
Squadron Leader
Squadron Leader is a commissioned rank in the Royal Air Force and the air forces of many countries which have historical British influence. It is also sometimes used as the English translation of an equivalent rank in countries which have a non-English air force-specific rank structure. In these...
of the Auxiliary Air Force transferring from the Balloon Branch to administrative and special duties in 1941. And then he is recorded as standing down from his commission in 1945.