Hubert Dainton 'Trilby' Freakes (February 2, 1914 - March 10, 1942) was an English

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 rugby union international. Born and bred in South Africa

South Africa

The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...

, he played first-class cricket

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...

 with Eastern Province

Eastern Province cricket team

Eastern Province cricket team is the team representing the Eastern Province in domestic first-class cricket in South Africa.-Honours:* Currie Cup - 1988–89, 1991–92; shared - 1989–90* Standard Bank Cup - 1989–90, 1991–92...

 before going to England.

Cricket

In ten first-class matches from the 1931/32 to 1933/34 Currie Cup seasons, Freakes made 660 runs at 36.66 and took five wickets at 29.00. Three of those were for a representative team called 'The Rest' and he scored a century for them in a match against Transvaal. An opening batsman, he scored two other hundreds, 122 not out versus Natal and 111 against Western Province.

Rugby career

Freakes came to England in 1936 to study at Oxford's Magdalen College, on a Rhodes scholarship. It was there that he earned his nickname 'Trilby' and he captained the University at the 1938/39 Varsity fixtures. He was capped three times for the England national side, the first of which came against Wales at Cardiff in January 1938 when he kicked a conversion. His other two caps came the following year, also in Four Nations games and England would go on to finish joint Champions. Freakes played club rugby for Harlequin

Harlequin F.C.

The Harlequin Football Club is an English rugby union team who play in the top level of English rugby, the Aviva Premiership. Their ground in London is Twickenham Stoop...

 during his career and had spent time at Eastern Province

Mighty Elephants

The Eastern Province Kings are a South African rugby union team that participates in the annual Currie Cup and Vodacom Cup tournaments and are governed by the Eastern Province Rugby Union...

 back when he was in South Africa.

Military and death

Just before the outbreak of war, Freakes joined the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve and in 1941 was promoted to Flying Officer. He was attached to The Royal Air Forces Ferry Command which delivered new aircraft from the factories in Canada and the United States to British air bases. Freakes was killed on the 10th of March 1942 when one of their bombers span into the ground and crashed at Worcestershire's Honeybourne airfield.

External links

• Cricinfo: Hubert Freakes