Robert Ramsay (cricketer)

Robert Ramsay
Personal information
Full name Robert Christian Ramsay
Born 20 December 1861
Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, England
Died 25 June 1957 (aged 95)
Bekesbourne, Kent, England
Batting style Right-handed
Bowling style Right-arm leg break
Relations Francis Ramsay (brother)
Domestic team information
YearsTeam
1881–2 Cambridge University
1881–2 Somerset
First-class debut 19 May 1881 Cambridge University v Yorkshire
Last First-class 21 August 1882 Somerset v Australians
Career statistics
Competition First-class
Matches 15
Runs scored 303
Batting average 13.77
100s/50s 0/2
Top score 71
Balls bowled 2,964
Wickets 69
Bowling average 17.82
5 wickets in innings 5
10 wickets in match 2
Best bowling 7/22
Catches/stumpings 11/–
Source: CricketArchive, 27 May 2011

Robert Christian Ramsay (20 December 1861 – 25 June 1957) was an amateur cricketer who played for Cambridge University and Somerset in the early 1880s.

Life and career

Early life and cricket

Robert Christian Ramsay was born in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire on 20 December 1861 as the second son of Robert Ramsay and Susan, née Lindsay Carnegie. His father was a pastoral farmer and politician, who served as the eighth Treasurer of Queensland. Ramsay attended Ipswich Grammar School in Queensland, Australia until the family moved to England in 1874. He then attended Elstree School and Harrow School. At Harrow, he played for the school's cricket team, alongside his older brother Francis Ramsay.[1] In 1879, the brothers combined to take seventeen of Eton College's twenty wickets, of which Robert claimed six in the first innings and four in the second.[2]

Ramsay followed his older brother to Trinity Hall, Cambridge, and in his first year played in the freshmen's trial match, in which he claimed six wickets, five of them in the first innings.[3] He played one first-class match for the university that summer, bowling ten overs without taking a wicket against Yorkshire.[4] He also played five second-class matches during 1881, all for Somerset County Cricket Club. His best performance for Somerset during that time was against Kent, against whom he claimed six first innings' wickets.[5]

The following year at Cambridge, Ramsay played nine first-class matches for the university, and gained his blue.[6] His first match in the summer of 1882 was played for the university against the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC), a match which Cambridge won by 189 runs, aided by the strong bowling of Ramsay, who claimed 13 wickets and conceded 49 runs, a performance bettered for the university only nine times.[7] Later in the summer he claimed eight wickets against Lancashire,[8] and then picked up 12 wickets against the touring Australians, collecting five wickets in the first innings and seven in the second, albeit more expensively than in the match against the MCC.[9] He was less prolific against Lancashire for Somerset, during a match played in such cold weather that catches were hard to hold. Bill Roe said that during this match, Lancashire's number eleven, George Nash was dropped off every ball of an over bowled by Ramsay, before Roe himself caught the professional off the first ball of the following over.[10] Ramsay was selected to play for the "Gentlemen of England" against the touring Australians, and claimed three wickets in a match which the Australians won by an innings.[11] In the University match against Oxford, Ramsay was largely ineffective, taking two wickets from his 52 overs, during which he conceded 91 runs. Cambridge won the match by seven wickets, thanks primarily to brothers Charles and George Studd.[12]

In all, Ramsay played 15 first-class cricket matches, and took 69 wickets at an average of 17.82. He claimed five wickets in an innings five times, and ten wickets in a match twice.[13] He bowled with an unusual action which gained him the nickname "Twisting Tommy", because of its resemblance to a corkscrew.[14] His batting was less effective, totalling 303 runs at an average of 13.77, though he did score two half-centuries, with a career best of 71.[13]

Return to Australia

Ramsay did not graduate from Cambridge, but instead returned to Australia in 1883 to join his older brother managing the family pastoral farming business,[1] upon the retirement of their father.[15] The pair were joined three years later by their younger brother, Edward Lauderdale, and they set up the Ramsay Bros partnership. They part owned a number of livestock stations in Queensland with Sir Arthur Hodgson, but in 1887, bought one of them, Oondooroo, outright. At Oondooroo, Ramsay established what the Australian Dictionary of Biography described as "the most progressive run [station] in north-west Queensland." He used modern technology to achieve this, including "private telephone-lines, shearing machines, Humber motorcycles and Serpollet steam-motorcars."[1] In 1907, Ramsay married Olive Zillah Voss at St James' Cathedral in Townsville, Queensland, with whom he had six children.[1]

He took over management of the family estates upon his brother's retirement to England in 1908, and two years later was a founding member of the Brisbane branch of the Round Table. Between 1914 and 1917 he was a member of the Queensland Recruiting Committee, but left in protest against conscription, and joined the Queensland Reinforcements Referendum Committee, of which he became president. He continued his pastoral work until his retirement in 1927, upon which he moved to England, settling in the family's estate in Kent, where he died thirty years later on 25 June 1957.[1]

References

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 M. French (2002). "Ramsay, Robert Christian (1861–1957)". Australian Dictionary of Biography 16. Melbourne University Press. pp. 54–55. Retrieved 1 May 2015.
  2. "Eton College v Harrow School in 1879". CricketArchive. Retrieved 27 May 2011.
  3. "AG Steel's XI v GB Studd's XI in 1881". CricketArchive. Retrieved 27 May 2011.
  4. "Cambridge University v Yorkshire in 1881". CricketArchive. Retrieved 27 May 2011.
  5. "Somerset v Kent in 1881". CricketArchive. Retrieved 27 May 2011.
  6. "Ramsay, Robert Christian (RMSY880RC)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.
  7. "Most Wickets in a Match for Cambridge University". CricketArchive. Retrieved 27 May 2011.
  8. "Cambridge University v Lancashire in 1882". CricketArchive. Retrieved 27 May 2011.
  9. "Cambridge University v Australians in 1882". CricketArchive. Retrieved 27 May 2011.
  10. "Obituaries in 1937". ESPNcricinfo. Retrieved 27 May 2011.
  11. "Gentlemen of England v Australians in 1882". CricketArchive. Retrieved 27 May 2011.
  12. "Oxford University v Cambridge University". CricketArchive. Retrieved 27 May 2011.
  13. 13.0 13.1 "Player profile: Robert Ramsay". CricketArchive. Retrieved 2 May 2015.
  14. Phillips, Giles (2005). On Fenner's Sward: A History of Cambridge University Cricket Club. Stroud: Tempus Publishing. p. 56. ISBN 0-7524-3412-8.
  15. D. B. Waterson (1976). "Ramsay, Robert Christian (1818–1910)". Australian Dictionary of Biography 6. Melbourne University Press. Retrieved 1 May 2015.