Reggie Spooner

Infobox Historic Cricketer


nationality = English
country = England
country abbrev = ENG
name = Reggie Spooner
picture = Cricket_no_pic.pngbatting style = Right-hand bat
bowling style = -
tests = 10
test runs = 481
test bat avg = 32.06
test 100s/50s = 1/4
test top score = 119
test balls = -
test wickets = -
test bowl avg = -
test 5s = -
test 10s = -
test best bowling = -
test catches/stumpings = 4/-
FCs = 237
FC runs = 13681
FC bat avg = 36.28
FC 100s/50s = 31/59
FC top score = 247
FC balls = 710
FC wickets = 6
FC bowl avg = 97.00
FC 5s = -
FC 10s = -
FC best bowling = 1/5
FC catches/stumpings = 142/-
debut date = 24 July
debut year = 1905
last date = 19 August
last year = 1912
source = http://content-aus.cricinfo.com/ci/content/player/20316.html

Reginald Herbert Spooner (born October 21, 1880, Litherland, Lancashire, died October 2, 1961, Lincoln) was a cricketer who played for Lancashire and England. He also played Rugby Union for England.

Biography

Spooner was one of the leading amateur batsmen of the so-called "Golden Age" of English cricket before the First World War. Coming to prominence as a schoolboy cricketer for Marlborough College, Spooner played first for Lancashire in 1899, then disappeared on military service, some of it in the Second Boer War in South Africa, for three years. Reappearing in 1903, he scored 247 against Nottinghamshire, at that time the highest score made against that county, and shared with Archie MacLaren a first-wicket partnership of 368 against Gloucestershire at Aigburth, Liverpool, which remains the Lancashire record. For the next three years Spooner, along with MacLaren and Johnny Tyldesley, was the backbone of an extremely formidable batting side that played forty-five County Championship matches without defeat between August 1903 and July 1905.

Spooner's off-drive was particularly strong. In addition, great watchfulness made Spooner, in his prime, the best player of fast bowling on fiery pitches - which were the rule at Old Trafford in fine weather during the 1900s. Among many notable innings by Spooner on fiery wickets were against Essex in 1904 and for the Gentlemen at Lord's against Arthur Fielder in 1906.

The season of 1907 saw Spooner go into business and for a time it was feared he would not play at all. He did play five times for Lancashire but the county's poor batting showed how much he was missed when he again beat Fielder with an innings of 134 at Canterbury, and at the Scarborough Festival against the touring South Africans when he became credited as one of the first batsmen to work out the googly, the ball bowled with a leg break action that then breaks from the off. Furthermore, in 1908, when Spooner would have been in his element on rough Old Trafford pitches from which the ball often "flew", he played only one county match on the August Bank Holiday against Yorkshire. He found time for a few matches in both 1909 and 1910 and showed with 200 not out against Yorkshire on the Bank Holiday that he was as a good a batsman as ever.

In 1911 Spooner was able to manage his business to permit him to play regularly until after the August Bank Holiday. He scored 2,312 runs at an average of more than 51 per innings, but announced he would not be able to tour Australia because of business. In 1912 Spooner played all six Tests and batted superbly in an appalling summer with his only Test century against South Africa being a highlight. Disaster struck though the following year when an accident while hunting prevented him playing. Moreover, business demands were such that Spooner never played more than a few matches a year from 1914 onwards. Yet, so well-thought of was he that, after the First World War, Spooner was offered, and accepted, the captaincy of the MCC tour to Australia in 1920-21. However, he then had to turn it down because of injury. In the event, the MCC side led by Johnny Douglas lost the Test series 5-0 to the Australian cricket team led by Warwick Armstrong.

Spooner was a Wisden Cricketer of the Year in 1905. He was later president of Lancashire.

In rugby, Spooner was a centre three-quarter for Liverpool R.F.C. and played for England against Wales at Swansea in 1902-03.

External links

* [http://acscricket.com/Archive/Players/0/283/f_Batting_by_Season.html First-class batting averages]