Robert Carpenter (cricketer)
Encyclopedia
Mill Road, Cambridge
Mill Road is a street in southeast Cambridge, England. It runs southeast from near to Parker's Piece, at the junction with Gonville Place, East Road, and Parkside. It crosses the main railway line and links to the city's ring road . It passes through the wards of Petersfield and Romsey, which are...
, Cambridge
Cambridge
The city of Cambridge is a university town and the administrative centre of the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It lies in East Anglia about north of London. Cambridge is at the heart of the high-technology centre known as Silicon Fen – a play on Silicon Valley and the fens surrounding the...
– 14 July 1901 in Cambridge) was a noted English
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...
cricketer and umpire.
A right-handed batsman and occasional wicket-keeper, he played for Cambridgeshire
Cambridgeshire County Cricket Club
Cambridgeshire County Cricket Club is one of the county clubs which make up the Minor Counties in the English domestic cricket structure, representing the historic county of Cambridgeshire and playing in the Minor Counties Championship and the MCCA Knockout Trophy.The club is based at The Avenue...
during its brief period as a first-class county in the 1850s and 1860s, as well as for the United All-England Eleven. He umpired in two Tests
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...
between England and Australia in the 1880s.
Carpenter's known first-class career spanned the 1855
1855 English cricket season
The 1855 English cricket season was a successful one for Sussex, largely thanks to the combined efforts of Dean and Wisden-First-class matches:* -Leading batsmen:John Wisden was the leading runscorer with 422 @ 28.13...
to 1876 seasons
1876 English cricket season
The 1876 English cricket season saw WG Grace become the first player to score 2000 runs and take 100 wickets in a season: 2622 runs and 130 wickets in 26 matches.-Events:14 January. Formation of Essex CCC at a meeting in the Shire Hall, Chelmsford...
. He scored 5220 runs in 141 matches @ 24.39, making four centuries with a highest score of 134. He took 190 catches and made 2 stumpings.
At the end of the 1859 English cricket season
1859 English cricket season
The 1859 English cricket season saw one of the sport's most remarkable all-round performances by V E Walker.-First-class matches:* -Events:* 1 March. Formation of the present Kent CCC.* 21, 22 & 23 July...
, Carpenter was one of the 12 players who took part in cricket's first-ever overseas tour when an England cricket team led by George Parr
George Parr (cricketer)
George Parr was an English cricketer, whose first-class career lasted from 1844 to 1870....
visited North America. He also toured Australia with Parr in 1863.
In the early 1860s, Carpenter and his Cambridgeshire contemporary Thomas Hayward
Thomas Hayward (cricketer)
Thomas Hayward was a Cambridgeshire and All-England Eleven cricketer who was generally reckoned to be one of the outstanding batsmen of the 1850s and 1860s. In the early 1860s, he and Robert Carpenter, his Cambridgeshire colleague, were rated as the two finest batsmen in England...
were rated as the finest batsmen in England. Richard Daft
Richard Daft
Richard Daft was an English cricketer. He was one of the best batsmen of his day, the peak of his first-class career being the 1860s and early 1870s...
was among those ranking them as equal first, but George Parr reckoned Carpenter the better of the two. W. G. Grace
W. G. Grace
William Gilbert Grace, MRCS, LRCP was an English amateur cricketer who is widely acknowledged as one of the greatest players of all time, having a special significance in terms of his importance to the development of the sport...
said of Carpenter that "he may be safely placed as one of the finest of our great batsmen".
He played in the Gentlemen v Players
Gentlemen v Players
The Gentlemen v Players game was a first-class cricket match that was generally played on an annual basis between one team consisting of amateurs and one of professionals . The first two games took place in 1806 but the fixture was not revived until 1819. It was more or less annual thereafter...
fixture for the Players on many occasions, scoring centuries in the 1860 and 1861 fixtures 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 1860 match, Carpenter hit a ball clean out of 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...
. He was considered one of the best batsmen of the 1860s.
His son Herbert played for Essex.
External sources
Further reading
- H S AlthamHarry AlthamHarry Surtees Altham, CBE, DSO, MC was an English cricketer who became an important figure in the game as an administrator, historian and coach. His Wisden obituary described him as "among the best known personalities in the world of cricket"...
, A History of Cricket, Volume 1 (to 1914), George Allen & Unwin, 1926 - Derek BirleyDerek BirleySir Derek Birley was an English educator and writer who had a strong interest in sport, especially cricket.He was educated at grammar school in Hemsworth, West Yorkshire, and at Queens' College, Cambridge University....
, A Social History of English Cricket, Aurum, 1999 - Rowland BowenRowland BowenMajor Rowland Francis Bowen was a cricket researcher, historian and writer....
, Cricket: A History of its Growth and Development, Eyre & Spottiswoode, 1970 - Arthur HaygarthArthur HaygarthArthur Haygarth was a noted amateur cricketer who became one of cricket's most significant historians....
, Scores & Biographies, Volumes 3-9 (1841-1866), Lillywhite, 1862-1867 - John MajorJohn MajorSir John Major, is a British Conservative politician, who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party from 1990–1997...
, More Than A Game, HarperCollins, 2007 – includes the famous 1859 touring team photo taken on board ship at Liverpool - Chris Harte, A History of Australian Cricket, Andre Deutsch, 1993