| Personal information | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | James Seymour | |||
| Born | 25 October 1879 West Hoathly, Sussex, England |
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| Died | 30 September 1930 (aged 50) Marden, Kent, England |
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| Batting style | Right-handed batsman | |||
| Bowling style | Right-arm off-break | |||
| Role | Middle order batsman, often No 3 | |||
| Domestic team information | ||||
| Years | Team | |||
| 1900-01 | London County | |||
| 1902-26 | Kent | |||
| First-class debut | 14 June 1900 London County v Derbyshire | |||
| Last First-class | 10 September 1926 Kent v MCC | |||
| Career statistics | ||||
| Competition | First-class | |||
| Matches | 553 | |||
| Runs scored | 27237 | |||
| Batting average | 32.08 | |||
| 100s/50s | 53/131 | |||
| Top score | 218* | |||
| Balls bowled | 1261 | |||
| Wickets | 17 | |||
| Bowling average | 47.35 | |||
| 5 wickets in innings | - | |||
| 10 wickets in match | - | |||
| Best bowling | 4-62 | |||
| Catches/stumpings | 675/- | |||
| Source: CricketArchive, 14 Sept 2008 | ||||
James Seymour (25 October 1879 - 30 September 1930) was a Kent cricketer from 1902 until 1926, having previously played for W. G. Grace's London County Cricket Club in first-class matches in 1900 and 1901. He was born in Sussex.
A right-handed batsman, he was part of the Kent side which won the County Championship in 1906, contributing 1,096 runs. He passed 2000 runs in a season in 1913 with an aggregate of 2,088 runs. Against Worcestershire in 1904 he became the first ever player to score a century in both innings of a match for Kent. His innings of 204 against Hampshire at Tonbridge in 1907 was at the time a record for Kent, a record which he went on to twice exceed.
He finished his career with 26818 runs for Kent which puts him 4th on their all time run getters list. He is also one of only six players to have scored more than 50 centuries with Kent as of 2008. He made 1,000 runs in a season 16 times.
His benefit match was Kent v Hampshire at Canterbury in 1920. The game had important consequences for all county cricketers as the Inland Revenue used it as a test case in an attempt to define benefits as taxable income. The case went all the way to the House of Lords and was ruled in Seymour's favour and since then sports professionals' benefits and testimonials have, in certain circumstances, remained tax free.[1][2]