George Baker (cricketer)

George Robert Baker was a first-class cricketer who played seven matches for Yorkshire County Cricket Club in 1884 and then 227 games for Lancashire County Cricket Club between 1887 and 1899.

Baker was a right-handed middle-order batsman, who scored 7563 runs in 249 first-class matches at an average of 21.28 with four centuries and 39 fifties. His best score was 186 against Sussex, and he posted 153 against Nottinghamshire, 140 against Hampshire and 109 against Kent. He was a fairly moderate performer until 1894, though his first century came in 1892. He passed 1,000 runs in a season only three times, with a best of 1,444 runs in 1897 at an average of 32.81. His three highest centuries came in that season, and his Lancashire aggregate and average in a season in which the team won the County Championship were exceeded only by Albert Ward.

He took 152 catches and was an increasingly useful bowler, taking 145 first-class wickets at an average of 24.93 with his right-arm medium pace, including spells of 6 for 18 against Gloucestershire in 1896 and 6 for 28 against Sussex in 1898.

Despite his apparently modest career figures, Baker was accorded a benefit season by Lancashire in 1898, which raised 1,850 pounds. His obituary in Wisden Cricketers' Almanack in 1939 notes that he was a man of "happy disposition and popular with everyone". He left first-class cricket after the 1899 season and was later coach at Harrow School for 12 years.

He was born on 18 April 1862 in New Malton, Yorkshire and died on 6 February 1938 at Wing Hill, Buckinghamshire.

References

* [http://content-www.cricinfo.com/england/content/player/9480.html Cricinfo Profile]

* [http://www.cricketarchive.com/Archive/Players/27/27631/27631.html Cricket Archive Statistics]