Ephraim Lockwood

Ephraim Lockwood (4 April 1845 - 19 December 1921) was an English cricketer and captain of Yorkshire County Cricket Club in the 1876 and 1877 seasons.

Lockwood was born at Lascelles Hall, Huddersfield, Yorkshire. He was a right-handed batsman, right-arm slow-medium roundarm bowler and occasional wicket-keeper.

Lockwood played in 328 matches from 1868 to 1884, 213 of them for his native Yorkshire. He also appeared for Nottinghamshire and Yorkshire (1872-1883), North of England (1869-1883), United North of England Eleven (1870-1879), Players of the North (1873-1880), All England Eleven (1876), The Players (1869-1883), England (1874-1878), Gloucestershire and Yorkshire (1877), England XI (1879-1884), R Daft's American XI (1880), Over 30 (1880-1881), T Emmett's XI (1881-1883), Lord Sheffield's XI (1881), A Shaw's XI (1882), Lancashire and Yorkshire (1883) and the Rest of England (1883) in first class cricket. That he failed to appear is Test cricket is explained by the fact that Test matches only began, in 1877, towards the end of his career. He did go on one tour, to North America, in 1879.

He scored 12,512 runs in 569 innings at 23.60. He made 8 centuries, with his highest score of 208* coming against Kent CCC. He made 8 centuries in all on the difficult wickets of the time and 60 fifties. He took 232 catches and made 3 stumpings on his infrequent forays behind the timbers. He took 207 known wickets at 16.78 with a best analysis of 7 for 35 against the United South of England Eleven, when he also took 10 wickets in the match. He took 5 wickets in an innings on 7 occasions in total. Lockwood was famously the "sober" member of the Yorkshire team during the 1870s when it was colloquially known as "ten drunks and a parson" as Lockwood was a lay preacher and a man of temperant habits. His team mates, in contrast, were notoriously fond of their beer, but this indulgence was abruptly discontinued after the stern Lord Hawke became club captain in 1883.

His brother, Henry Lockwood, also played 16 times for Yorkshire and his cousin John Thewlis and uncle [John Thewlis snr also played for Yorkshire and he was related to the cricketing were related to the Eastwood and Bates families who also lived at Lescelles Hall. He was a loom weaver in his youth but became a professional cricketer, at first in league cricket with Kirkburton in 1864 and then Meltham Mills and Lockwood before being engaged by Cheetham Hill, Manchester in 1868 when he also made his Yorkshire debute. After he retired from playing in 1884, he ran a sports outfitting shop for ten years in Huddersfield at 18 West Parade.

References

External source

* [http://www.cricketarchive.co.uk/Archive/Players/31/31044/31044.html CricketArchive]

Further reading

* Neville Cardus, "Second Innings", Collins, 1950
* J M Kilburn, A Century of Yorkshire County Cricket, Yorkshire Post, 1963