Andrew Stoddart

Andrew Stoddart
Personal information
Full name Andrew Ernest Stoddart
Born (1863-03-11)11 March 1863
Westoe, South Shields, Co. Durham, England
Died 4 April 1915(1915-04-04) (aged 52)
St John's Wood, London, England
Batting style Right-handed
Bowling style Right arm medium
International information
National side
Test debut (cap 56) 10 February 1888 v Australia
Last Test 2 February 1898 v Australia
Domestic team information
YearsTeam
1885 1900 Middlesex
Career statistics
Competition Tests First-class
Matches 16 309
Runs scored 996 16,738
Batting average 35.57 32.12
100s/50s 2/3 26/85
Top score 173 221
Balls bowled 162 14,717
Wickets 2 278
Bowling average 47.00 23.63
5 wickets in innings 10
10 wickets in match 2
Best bowling 1/10 7/67
Catches/stumpings 6/ 257/
Source: Cricinfo, 11 November 2008

Andrew Ernest Stoddart (11 March 1863 – 4 April 1915) was a sportsman who played international cricket for England, and rugby union for England and the British Isles. He was a Wisden Cricketer of the Year in 1893.

Cricket career

Stoddart driving

Born in South Shields, County Durham, he was the youngest son of a wine merchant, who moved the whole family to Marylebone, London, in 1877. Stoddart made his reputation in club cricket and was playing for Middlesex by 1885. He played 16 Test matches captaining England in 8 games of which he won 3, lost 4 and drew 1. He was a flamboyant right-handed batsman and a right arm medium pace bowler.

When he was 23, just a year after his first class debut, he was toying with the idea of giving up his amateur career in England to join his brother in Colorado. His plans changed when he took the record for the highest ever score in cricket at the time with an innings of 485 for Hampstead against Stoics on 4 August 1886.[1] No declarations were allowed in the game and the Stoics, living up to their name, fielded all day without a chance to bat. Stoddart was seventh out, having batted six hours and ten minutes and clubbed one eight, three fives, and 64 fours. The runs were scored at a rapid pace - the score was 370 for 3 at lunch after 150 minutes of play. He made 207 for Hampstead in the next match three days later and on 9 August was playing for Middlesex and made 98, a grand total of 790 runs in a week. Stoddart was a man with a great zest for life in his younger days. He had danced then played cards till dawn before the Stoics game, batted almost through Hampstead's innings of 813, then played tennis, went to the theatre and turned in at 3 a.m. His next innings was against Kent when he posted his maiden first class century in scoring 116.

Then wrote the queen of England
Whose hand is blessed by God
I must do something handsome
For my dear victorious Stod.

Published in the Punch following England's 1894–95 Ashes win[2]

Seventy years later, David Frith used My dear victorious Stod as the title of his acclaimed biography of Stoddart.[3]

Rugby career

Stoddart with the first touring Barbarians. Stoddart seated central with ball

Stoddart also played ten rugby union internationals for England, and captained England four times.[4] During his footballing career, Stoddart was at the forefront of many rugby firsts. In 1888, with fellow cricketers Alfred Shaw and Arthur Shrewsbury he helped organise what became recognised as the first British Lions rugby union tour of Australia and New Zealand in 1888. The team played 55 matches, winning 27 of 35 rugby matches.[lower-alpha 1] He took over the captaincy early in the tour when the Robert L. Seddon drowned in a sculling accident.[4]

In 1890 Stoddart became a founding member of the Barbarian F.C., the invitational rugby club.[4] On 27 December, Stoddart was given the captaincy of the very first Barbarian team, in a game against Hartlepool Rovers.[5]

Personal life

While on tour in Australia, Stoddard met Emily Luckham, also known as Ethel Elizabeth, a popular singer and reciter married to Bulletin journalist and Manly, New South Wales sporting identity Robert Adams Luckham. In 1901, Emily left for Europe, reportedly for the good of her voice. She did not return, and her husband divorced her on grounds of desertion in 1903. She married Stoddart in 1906.

Later life

Stoddart and his wife lived at St John’s Wood. He worked on the Stock Exchange, then became secretary of The Queen’s Club. But like many wholehearted sportsmen, including fellow England captain Arthur Shrewsbury with whom he had opened the batting in Australia in 1893, he found life difficult after leaving the arena. In failing health and burdened by debt he committed suicide, by firearm, in London in 1915. A street in South Shields is named after him.

Notes

  1. They also played Australian rules football (known as "Victorian Rules"), winning 6 and drawing 1 of their 19 matches.

References

  1. Wilde, Simon (14 April 2007). "The inexhaustible AE Stoddart". Wisden Cricket Monthly. ESPN. Retrieved 16 May 2016.
  2. Sengupta, Arunabha (11 March 2014). "Andrew Stoddart: The first captain to declare an innings in Test cricket". cricketcountry.com. Retrieved 16 May 2016.
  3. "Bygones: The life and times of AE Stoddart – an England captain at three different sports". The Yorkshire Post. 8 February 2016. Retrieved 16 May 2016.
  4. 1 2 3 Richards, Huw (9 July 2013). "Stoddart the leader with bat and ball". ESPN. Retrieved 16 May 2016.
  5. Richards, Huw (9 April 2015). "125 years on - The birth of the Barbarians". ESPN. Retrieved 16 May 2016.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Andrew Ernest Stoddart.
Sporting positions
Preceded by
W. G. Grace
W. G. Grace
English national cricket captain
1894
1897/8
Succeeded by
Lord Hawke
Lord Hawke
Preceded by
Alexander Webbe
Middlesex County Cricket Captain
1898
(jointly with Alexander Webbe)
Succeeded by
Gregor MacGregor
Preceded by
Fred Bonsor
John Lawrence Hickson
Frederic Alderson
Sammy Woods
English National Rugby Union Captain
Feb 1890
Mar 1890
Jan 1893
Mar 1893
Succeeded by
John Lawrence Hickson
Frederic Alderson
Sammy Woods
Richard Lockwood
Preceded by
Bob Seddon
British and Irish Lions Captain
Aug-Oct 1888
Succeeded by
Bill Maclagan
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