Robert Carpenter (cricketer)

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The first English touring team pictured on board ship at Liverpool: standing at left Robert Carpenter, William Caffyn, Tom Lockyer; middle row John Wisden, HH Stephenson, George Parr, James Grundy, Julius Caesar, Thomas Hayward, John Jackson; front row Alfred Diver, John Lillywhite.

Robert Pearson Carpenter (18 November 1830 in Mill Road, Cambridge – 14 July 1901 in Cambridge) was a noted English cricketer and umpire.

A right-handed batsman and occasional wicket-keeper, he played for Cambridgeshire during its brief period as a first-class county in the 1850s and 1860s, as well as for the United All-England Eleven. He umpired in two Tests between England and Australia in the 1880s.

Carpenter's known first-class career spanned the 1855 to 1876 seasons. He scored 5220 runs in 141 matches @ 24.39, making four centuries with a highest score of 134. He took 190 catches and made 2 stumpings.

At the end of the 1859 English cricket season, Carpenter was one of the 12 players who took part in cricket's first-ever overseas tour when an England cricket team led by George Parr visited North America. He also toured Australia with Parr in 1863.

In the early 1860s, Carpenter and his Cambridgeshire contemporary Thomas Hayward were rated as the finest batsmen in England. Richard Daft was among those ranking them as equal first, but George Parr reckoned Carpenter the better of the two.[1] W. G. Grace said of Carpenter that "he may be safely placed as one of the finest of our great batsmen".[2]

He played in the Gentlemen v Players fixture for the Players on many occasions, scoring centuries in the 1860 and 1861 fixtures at The Oval. In the 1860 match, Carpenter hit a ball clean out of The Oval. He was considered one of the best batsmen of the 1860s.[3]

His son Herbert played for Essex.

Carpenter pictured 1st left (back row) with the 1893 Australia national cricket team


Notes

  1. ↑ Number One: The World's Best Batsmen and Bowlers, Simon Wilde, pub. Victor Gollancz, 1998, ISBN 978-0-575-06453-9, p49.
  2. ↑ Cricket (1891) by W G Grace
  3. ↑ Giants of the Game (1900) by Lyttleton, Ford, Fry, Giffen

External sources

Further reading

  • H S Altham, A History of Cricket, Volume 1 (to 1914), George Allen & Unwin, 1926
  • Derek Birley, A Social History of English Cricket, Aurum, 1999
  • Rowland Bowen, Cricket: A History of its Growth and Development, Eyre & Spottiswoode, 1970
  • Arthur Haygarth, Scores & Biographies, Volumes 3-9 (1841-1866), Lillywhite, 1862–1867
  • John Major, More Than A Game, HarperCollins, 2007 – includes the famous 1859 touring team photo taken on board ship at Liverpool
  • Chris Harte, A History of Australian Cricket, Andre Deutsch, 1993
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