- John Swift
John Sheddon Swift (born
3 February 1852 , died28 February 1926 atKew, Victoria ) was a Victorian First-class cricketer and Test match umpire.He played three matches for Victoria as a right-hand batsman, scoring 65 runs at an average of 13.00 with a highest score of 28. He also kept wicket, taking two catches.
Swift umpired 8 Test matches, and was the first Australian to regularly officiate. He made his debut in the match between Australia and England in
Melbourne on31 December 1881 to4 January 1882 , officiating withJames Lillywhite . In 1882-83 he and Ted Elliott stood in all four Test matches, the first time two umpires had officiated throughout an entire series. Moyes commented that “ [a] pparently we had reached the time when some kind of qualification was required and some consistency in appointment was observed.” This was the series that saw presentation of “The Ashes ” urn to the English captain, Ivo Bligh. Swift's last match was between Australia and England inSydney on25 February to1 March 1887 .ee also
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Australian Test Cricket Umpires
*List of Test umpires External links
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References
* Pollard, Jack, ‘’Australian Cricket: 1803-1893, The Formative Years’’. Sydney, The Book Company, 1995. (ISBN 0-207-15490-2)
*Moyes, A. G. , ‘’Australian Cricket: A History’’, Sydney, Angus & Robertson, 1959.
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