James Pycroft

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James Pycroft (1813, Geyers House, Pickwick, Wiltshire – 10 March 1895, Brighton, Sussex) is chiefly known for writing The Cricket Field, one of the earliest books about cricket, published in 1851.

Pycroft mythologised cricket as a noble, manly and essentially British activity ("Cricket is essentially Anglo-Saxon, ... Foreigners have rarely imitated us. English settlers everywhere play at cricket; but of no single club have we heard that dieted either with frogs, saur-kraut or macaroni"). His hagiography favourably compared the virtues of Victorian cricket with the disgraceful state of play at the turn of the century where "Lord’s was frequented by men with book and pencil, betting as openly and professionally as in the ring at Epsom, and ready to deal in the odds with any and every person of speculative propensities".

Pycroft was also a cricketer, appearing in four matches now considered as first-class for Oxford University in 1836 and 1838 and in one for a team called "Left-Handers" in 1838.^[1] He became a Church of England vicar, and wrote several books, including volumes of autobiography.^[2]

References

↑ "James Pycroft". www.cricketarchive.com. Retrieved 10 April 2013.
↑ "Obituaries". The Times (34523) (London). 13 March 1895. p. 10. |accessdate= requires |url= (help)

External links

Authority control	VIAF: 39751793 ISNI: 0000 0000 6313 9238

Persondata
Name	Pycroft, James
Alternative names
Short description	Cricket writer
Date of birth	1813
Place of birth
Date of death	1895
Place of death

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