Arthur Newton (cricketer)
Encyclopedia
Arthur Edward Newton, born at Barton Grange, Corfe
, Taunton
, Somerset
on 12 September 1862 and died at Dipford House, Trull
, Somerset on 15 September 1952, played cricket
for Somerset
in the county's pre-first-class
days and then for more than 20 years after the team entered the County Championship
in 1891. He also played for Oxford University
and for a variety of amateur teams. As a cricketer, he was known as "A. E.", not by his forename.
Newton was a right-handed lower order batsman and a wicket-keeper. Educated at Eton College
, he played in the Lord's matches against Harrow School
for three years and then went to Oxford University, where he appeared in the freshmen's trial match in 1882. But he did not get into the university team until 1885, when he made his first-class debut in the match against Lancashire
. In his third match, batting at No 9, he made 57 against Surrey
. He retained his place as wicket-keeper to win his blue in the University match against Cambridge
at Lord's.
At the end of the 1885 season, Newton was a member of an amateur side raised by the Devon cricketer Edward Sanders that played matches in North America, with two of the games later being designated as first-class. Two years later, he was a member of a rather larger touring side, this time organised by George Vernon
and including Lord Hawke, Andrew Stoddart
and professionals such as Bobby Abel
and Bobby Peel
, which toured Australia for five months in the winter of 1887-88, playing first-class matches and a variety of other games against state and scratch teams. Vernon's team was a strong one. One of the bigger matches of the tour was at Melbourne Cricket Ground
against an Australian XI which contained 10 Test
players: Vernon's XI won by an innings and Newton, one of only three non-Test players in his team, made 77, starting a revival in his team's single innings after the first six wickets had fallen for 51 runs to a final total of 292. The innings of 77 remained the highest of Newton's long career, not surpassed, though he equalled it in 1900.
, Newton started playing for Somerset in 1880, and his final appearance for the side was 35 seasons later in 1914. The first match for which statistics are readily available was a two-day non-first-class match between Somerset and MCC
at Taunton in August 1880: Newton made 14 in a match that Somerset won by an innings, and it is not clear whether he kept wicket or not. Somerset's matches between 1882 and 1885 are regarded as first-class, but Newton did not play in any of these games. He was, however, in the side in 1886 for a non-first-class game against Warwickshire
at Edgbaston
when Sammy Woods
made his debut and took a wicket with his first ball: "C. W. Rock, batting for Warwickshire, missed a very fast yorker
on the leg-side, and Newton stumped him brilliantly."
From 1887 onwards, Newton played regularly for Somerset in the second half of most seasons. From 1891, Somerset resumed first-class cricket status, and Newton played in the first County Championship
match involving the team, against Middlesex
at Lord's. In these early days of Somerset's first-class cricket, the county did not lack capable amateur wicket-keepers, and Newton shared the position with the Rev. Archdale Wickham
and then Henry Martyn
, with the Test player Leslie Gay
intervening for a season in 1894. For the seven seasons from 1897 to 1903, Newton played fairly regularly, and his batting improved in these seasons. In 1899, his batting average was more than 20 for the only time in his career, and he made an unbeaten 64 in a high-scoring match against Surrey
at Taunton. In 1900, batting in the unaccustomedly high position of No 5 in the batting order, he made 77, equalling his highest career score, in the match against Gloucestershire
at Bristol
: this was a good match for wicket-keeper/batsmen, with Wickham, Newton's Somerset colleague, making his highest career score with 28 and Jack Board
, the Gloucestershire wicket-keeper, trumping both of them with a score of 214 to give his side an innings victory.
Newton's wicket-keeping in this period was also of high quality: against Middlesex at Lord's in 1901, he dismissed nine batsmen in the match, with six catches and three stumpings, to set a Somerset record for first-class cricket that has been equalled but not surpassed in the 109 years since. In two other matches in 1901 and 1902 he made seven dismissals. His representative cricket at higher level, though, was restricted to just two matches for the Gentlemen in the Gentlemen v Players
series, one at The Oval
in 1897 and the other the more important Lord's match in 1902. He did not progress to Test selection, however.
After the 1903 season, Newton reverted to more occasional first-class cricket appearances with Somerset, playing at least one match each season through to 1914, but never more than nine games. His final match for the county ended just three days before the outbreak of World War I; according to Wisden, Newton "showed remarkable form behind the wickets for a man approaching the age of fifty-two".
Corfe
Corfe is a village and civil parish in Somerset, England, situated below the Blackdown Hills south of Taunton in the Taunton Deane district. The village has a population of 262.-History:...
, Taunton
Taunton
Taunton is the county town of Somerset, England. The town, including its suburbs, had an estimated population of 61,400 in 2001. It is the largest town in the shire county of Somerset....
, Somerset
Somerset
The ceremonial and non-metropolitan county of Somerset in South West England borders Bristol and Gloucestershire to the north, Wiltshire to the east, Dorset to the south-east, and Devon to the south-west. It is partly bounded to the north and west by the Bristol Channel and the estuary of the...
on 12 September 1862 and died at Dipford House, Trull
Trull
Trull is village and civil parish in Somerset, England, situated near Taunton. The parish which includes Dipford has a population of 1,861.-History:The name Trull is thought to derive from the word Trendle meaning circle or wheel....
, Somerset on 15 September 1952, played cricket
Cricket
Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of 11 players on an oval-shaped field, at the centre of which is a rectangular 22-yard long pitch. One team bats, trying to score as many runs as possible while the other team bowls and fields, trying to dismiss the batsmen and thus limit the...
for Somerset
Somerset County Cricket Club
Somerset County Cricket Club is one of the 18 major county clubs which make up the English and Welsh domestic cricket structure, representing the historic county of Somerset...
in the county's pre-first-class
First-class cricket
First-class cricket is a class of cricket that consists of matches of three or more days' scheduled duration, that are between two sides of eleven players and are officially adjudged first-class by virtue of the standard of the competing teams...
days and then for more than 20 years after the team entered the County Championship
County Championship
The County Championship is the domestic first-class cricket competition in England and Wales...
in 1891. He also played for Oxford University
Oxford University Cricket Club
Oxford University Cricket Club is a first-class cricket team, representing the University of Oxford. It plays its home games at the University Parks in Oxford, England...
and for a variety of amateur teams. As a cricketer, he was known as "A. E.", not by his forename.
Newton was a right-handed lower order batsman and a wicket-keeper. Educated at Eton College
Eton College
Eton College, often referred to simply as Eton, is a British independent school for boys aged 13 to 18. It was founded in 1440 by King Henry VI as "The King's College of Our Lady of Eton besides Wyndsor"....
, he played in the Lord's matches against Harrow School
Harrow School
Harrow School, commonly known simply as "Harrow", is an English independent school for boys situated in the town of Harrow, in north-west London.. The school is of worldwide renown. There is some evidence that there has been a school on the site since 1243 but the Harrow School we know today was...
for three years and then went to Oxford University, where he appeared in the freshmen's trial match in 1882. But he did not get into the university team until 1885, when he made his first-class debut in the match against Lancashire
Lancashire County Cricket Club
Lancashire County Cricket Club represents the historic county of Lancashire in cricket's County Championship. The club was founded in 1864 as a successor to Manchester Cricket Club and has played at Old Trafford since then...
. In his third match, batting at No 9, he made 57 against Surrey
Surrey County Cricket Club
Surrey County Cricket Club is one of the 18 professional county clubs which make up the English and Welsh domestic cricket structure, representing the historic county of Surrey. Its limited overs team is called the Surrey Lions...
. He retained his place as wicket-keeper to win his blue in the University match against Cambridge
Cambridge University Cricket Club
Cambridge University Cricket Club is a first-class cricket team. It now plays all but one of its first-class cricket matches as part of the Cambridge University Centre of Cricketing Excellence , which includes Anglia Ruskin University...
at Lord's.
At the end of the 1885 season, Newton was a member of an amateur side raised by the Devon cricketer Edward Sanders that played matches in North America, with two of the games later being designated as first-class. Two years later, he was a member of a rather larger touring side, this time organised by George Vernon
George Vernon
George Frederick Vernon was a cricketer who played first-class cricket for Middlesex County Cricket Club. He also played one Test match for England during the first-ever Ashes tour in 1882-83.Vernon was the son of George Vernon of 32 Montague Square...
and including Lord Hawke, Andrew Stoddart
Andrew Stoddart
Andrew Ernest Stoddart was an English cricketer and rugby union player. He was a Wisden Cricketer of the Year in 1893.-Cricket career:...
and professionals such as Bobby Abel
Bobby Abel
Robert Abel , nicknamed "The Guv'nor", was a Surrey and England opening batsman who was one of the most prolific run-getters in the early years of the County Championship...
and Bobby Peel
Bobby Peel
Robert "Bobby" Peel was a Yorkshire and England cricketer: a left-arm spinner who ranks as one of the finest bowlers of the 1890s. He was also a capable batsman, who once hit 210 not out...
, which toured Australia for five months in the winter of 1887-88, playing first-class matches and a variety of other games against state and scratch teams. Vernon's team was a strong one. One of the bigger matches of the tour was at Melbourne Cricket Ground
Melbourne Cricket Ground
The Melbourne Cricket Ground is an Australian sports stadium located in Yarra Park, Melbourne and is home to the Melbourne Cricket Club. It is the tenth largest stadium in the world, the largest in Australia, the largest stadium for playing cricket, and holds the world record for the highest light...
against an Australian XI which contained 10 Test
Test cricket
Test cricket is the longest form of the sport of cricket. Test matches are played between national representative teams with "Test status", as determined by the International Cricket Council , with four innings played between two teams of 11 players over a period of up to a maximum five days...
players: Vernon's XI won by an innings and Newton, one of only three non-Test players in his team, made 77, starting a revival in his team's single innings after the first six wickets had fallen for 51 runs to a final total of 292. The innings of 77 remained the highest of Newton's long career, not surpassed, though he equalled it in 1900.
County cricket
According to his obituary in the 1953 edition of WisdenWisden Cricketers' Almanack
Wisden Cricketers' Almanack is a cricket reference book published annually in the United Kingdom...
, Newton started playing for Somerset in 1880, and his final appearance for the side was 35 seasons later in 1914. The first match for which statistics are readily available was a two-day non-first-class match between Somerset and MCC
Marylebone Cricket Club
Marylebone Cricket Club is a cricket club in London founded in 1787. Its influence and longevity now witness it as a private members' club dedicated to the development of cricket. It owns, and is based at, Lord's Cricket Ground in St John's Wood, London NW8. MCC was formerly the governing body of...
at Taunton in August 1880: Newton made 14 in a match that Somerset won by an innings, and it is not clear whether he kept wicket or not. Somerset's matches between 1882 and 1885 are regarded as first-class, but Newton did not play in any of these games. He was, however, in the side in 1886 for a non-first-class game against Warwickshire
Warwickshire County Cricket Club
Warwickshire County Cricket Club is one of the 18 major county clubs which make up the English and Welsh domestic cricket structure, representing the historic county of Warwickshire. Its limited overs team is called the Warwickshire Bears. Their kit colours are black and gold and the shirt sponsor...
at Edgbaston
Edgbaston Cricket Ground
Edgbaston Cricket Ground, also known as the County Ground or Edgbaston Stadium, is a cricket ground in the Edgbaston area of Birmingham, England...
when Sammy Woods
Sammy Woods
Samuel Moses James "Sammy" Woods was an Australian sportsman who represented both Australia and England at Test cricket, and appeared thirteen times for England at rugby union, including five times as captain. He also played at county level in England at both soccer and hockey...
made his debut and took a wicket with his first ball: "C. W. Rock, batting for Warwickshire, missed a very fast yorker
Yorker
Yorker is a term used in cricket that describes a ball bowled which hits the cricket pitch around the batsman's feet. When a batsman assumes a normal stance this generally means that the cricket ball bounces on the cricket pitch on or near the batsman's popping crease...
on the leg-side, and Newton stumped him brilliantly."
From 1887 onwards, Newton played regularly for Somerset in the second half of most seasons. From 1891, Somerset resumed first-class cricket status, and Newton played in the first County Championship
County Championship
The County Championship is the domestic first-class cricket competition in England and Wales...
match involving the team, against Middlesex
Middlesex County Cricket Club
Middlesex County Cricket Club is one of the 18 major county clubs which make up the English and Welsh domestic cricket structure, representing the historic county of Middlesex. It was announced in February 2009 that Middlesex changed their limited overs name from the Middlesex Crusaders, to the...
at Lord's. In these early days of Somerset's first-class cricket, the county did not lack capable amateur wicket-keepers, and Newton shared the position with the Rev. Archdale Wickham
Archie Wickham
Archdale Palmer Wickham was a first-class cricketer who played 82 matches for Somerset County Cricket Club between 1891 and 1907. He also played for a number of representative teams and for Oxford University, and played second-class cricket for Norfolk County Cricket Club from 1881 to 1890...
and then Henry Martyn
Henry Martyn (cricketer)
Henry Martyn was an English cricketer who made 97 first-class appearances for Oxford University and Somerset between 1899 and 1908. He is described in his Wisden obituary as "one of the finest wicket-keepers ever seen in first-class cricket"...
, with the Test player Leslie Gay
Leslie Gay
Leslie Hewitt Gay, born at Brighton on 24 March 1871 and died at Sidmouth, Devon, on 1 November 1949, was a cricketer who played for Cambridge University, Hampshire, Somerset and England. As a footballer, he played for Cambridge University, the Corinthians and England.Leslie Gay was educated at...
intervening for a season in 1894. For the seven seasons from 1897 to 1903, Newton played fairly regularly, and his batting improved in these seasons. In 1899, his batting average was more than 20 for the only time in his career, and he made an unbeaten 64 in a high-scoring match against Surrey
Surrey County Cricket Club
Surrey County Cricket Club is one of the 18 professional county clubs which make up the English and Welsh domestic cricket structure, representing the historic county of Surrey. Its limited overs team is called the Surrey Lions...
at Taunton. In 1900, batting in the unaccustomedly high position of No 5 in the batting order, he made 77, equalling his highest career score, in the match against Gloucestershire
Gloucestershire County Cricket Club
Gloucestershire County Cricket Club is one of the 18 major county clubs which make up the English and Welsh national cricket structure, representing the historic county of Gloucestershire. Its limited overs team is called the Gloucestershire Gladiators....
at Bristol
County Cricket Ground, Bristol
The County Cricket Ground is a cricket venue in Bristol, England. It is in the district of Ashley Down. The ground is home to the Gloucestershire County Cricket Club....
: this was a good match for wicket-keeper/batsmen, with Wickham, Newton's Somerset colleague, making his highest career score with 28 and Jack Board
Jack Board
John Henry Board was an English cricketer who played in six Tests from 1899 to 1906....
, the Gloucestershire wicket-keeper, trumping both of them with a score of 214 to give his side an innings victory.
Newton's wicket-keeping in this period was also of high quality: against Middlesex at Lord's in 1901, he dismissed nine batsmen in the match, with six catches and three stumpings, to set a Somerset record for first-class cricket that has been equalled but not surpassed in the 109 years since. In two other matches in 1901 and 1902 he made seven dismissals. His representative cricket at higher level, though, was restricted to just two matches for the Gentlemen in the Gentlemen v Players
Gentlemen v Players
The Gentlemen v Players game was a first-class cricket match that was generally played on an annual basis between one team consisting of amateurs and one of professionals . The first two games took place in 1806 but the fixture was not revived until 1819. It was more or less annual thereafter...
series, one at The Oval
The Oval
The Kia Oval, still commonly referred to by its original name of The Oval, is an international cricket ground in Kennington, in the London Borough of Lambeth. In the past it was also sometimes called the Kennington Oval...
in 1897 and the other the more important Lord's match in 1902. He did not progress to Test selection, however.
After the 1903 season, Newton reverted to more occasional first-class cricket appearances with Somerset, playing at least one match each season through to 1914, but never more than nine games. His final match for the county ended just three days before the outbreak of World War I; according to Wisden, Newton "showed remarkable form behind the wickets for a man approaching the age of fifty-two".