Alfred Atfield

Alfred John Atfield (3 March 1868 – 1 January 1949) played first-class cricket in England and South Africa and was also a Test match umpire and an influential cricket coach.[1] He was born at Ightham, Kent, England and died at Caterham, Surrey.[2]

Alfred Atfield
Personal information
Full nameAlfred John Atfield
Born(1868-03-03)3 March 1868
Ightham, Kent, England
Died1 January 1949(1949-01-01) (aged 80)
Caterham, Surrey, England
BattingRight-handed
BowlingRight-arm medium
RoleBatsman, umpire, coach
Domestic team information
YearsTeam
1893Gloucestershire
1900London County
1901Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC)
First-class debut29 May 1893 Gloucestershire v Middlesex
Last First-class28 March 1907 Transvaal v Border
Umpiring information
Tests umpired8 (1909/10–1913/14)
Career statistics
Competition FC
Matches 8
Runs scored 137
Batting average 12.45
100s/50s 0/0
Top score 45
Balls bowled 168
Wickets 3
Bowling average 34.00
5 wickets in innings 0
10 wickets in match 0
Best bowling 3/102
Catches/stumpings 5/–
Source: CricketArchive, 23 August 2012

A right-handed lower-order batsman and a right-arm medium-pace bowler, Atfield played for Kent's second eleven before qualifying for Gloucestershire, for whom he played three first-class matches in 1893.[2] Those were the only competitive first-class games of his career and in the third of them, batting at No 10 in the match against Kent, Atfield scored 45, which was his highest first-class score.[3] He was then recruited to play as a professional by the aristocratic cricket patron W. H. Laverton who ran his own country-house cricket team at Leighton House, Westbury in Wiltshire and played over the next few years in many non-first-class games alongside some of the leading amateur players of the time: Laverton himself was the father-in-law of Lionel Palairet, for example, who was often included in Laverton teams.[2] While engaged by Laverton, he also played regularly in Minor Counties cricket for Wiltshire in the early seasons of the Minor Counties Championship.[4]

From 1897 onwards, Atfield divided his time between playing, coaching and umpiring commitments in England and South Africa.[2] In the 1897–98 South African cricket season, he was a professional in Durban club cricket and played a single first-class match for Natal in that season.[5] By 1900, he was back in England playing for W. G. Grace's London County team and the following year he became a professional for the Marylebone Cricket Club at Lord's, appearing in a couple of first-class matches in the 1901 season.[2] In the second of these games, for MCC against London County, Atfield took his only first-class wickets; his first victim as a bowler was Grace.[6]

Atfield began umpiring first-class matches with MCC from 1902 and by 1905 he had graduated to umpiring in County Championship matches in the English first-class season, remaining on the first-class umpires list in England until 1924 and thereafter standing in occasional matches through to 1932.[7] He continued to spend his winters in South Africa, and in 1906–07, in a series of three matches between Transvaal and Border he umpired two games and played for Transvaal in the third: his final first-class appearance as a player.[8]

Most of Atfield's time in South Africa was spent as a coach and he was credited as an influence in the development of Bob Catterall at Jeppe High School for Boys in Johannesburg.[9] He umpired only occasional first-class matches in South Africa, but was called on as an umpire for four Tests on each of two successive tours of South Africa by England teams – the 1909–10 tour and the 1913–14 tour.[10] He acted as umpire in England in Gentlemen v Players matches and in a Test trial match in 1927, but was not picked to umpire any Tests in England.

References
  1. "Alfred Atfield". www.cricketarchive.com. Retrieved 3 August 2012.
  2. "Obituary, 1949". Wisden Cricketers' Almanack (1950 ed.). Wisden. p. 904.
  3. "Scorecard: Gloucestershire v Kent". www.cricketarchive.com. 5 June 1893. Retrieved 4 August 2012.
  4. "Minor Counties Championship Matches played by Alfred Atfield". www.cricketarchive.com. Retrieved 11 August 2012.
  5. "Scorecard: Natal v A. Bailey's Transvaal XI". www.cricketarchive.com. 7 March 1898. Retrieved 13 August 2012.
  6. "Scorecard: London County v MCC". www.cricketarchive.com. 8 August 1901. Retrieved 13 August 2012.
  7. "Alfred Atfield as Umpire in First-class Matches". www.cricketarchive.com. Retrieved 13 August 2012.
  8. "Scorecard: Border v Transvaal". www.cricketarchive.com. 27 March 1907. Retrieved 13 August 2012.
  9. "Five Cricketers of the Year". Wisden Cricketers' Almanack. Part I (1925 ed.). Wisden. p. 292.
  10. "Alfred Atfield as Umpire in Test Matches". www.cricketarchive.com. Retrieved 13 August 2012.
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