Dick Steeples was an English

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 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...

er who played for Derbyshire

Derbyshire County Cricket Club

Derbyshire County Cricket Club is one of the 18 major county clubs which make up the England and Wales domestic cricket structure, representing the historic county of Derbyshire...

 in 1897.

Steeples was born at Somercotes

Somercotes

Somercotes is a village and Parish in the District of Amber Valley in the English county of Derbyshire, close to the border with Nottinghamshire. It is a former mining village and was once surrounded by more than five pits. It is now one of the fastest developing villages in the Amber Valley area,...

, Alfreton

Alfreton

Alfreton is a town and civil parish in Amber Valley, Derbyshire, England, adjoining the Bolsover and North East Derbyshire districts. It was formerly a Norman Manor and later an Urban District. The population of the Alfreton Ward was 7,928 at the 2001 Census...

, Derbyshire

Derbyshire

Derbyshire is a county in the East Midlands of England. A substantial portion of the Peak District National Park lies within Derbyshire. The northern part of Derbyshire overlaps with the Pennines, a famous chain of hills and mountains. The county contains within its boundary of approx...

, the son of John Steeples, a coal miner.

Steeples enjoyed a brief first-class career, playing three matches at county level during the 1897 season

Derbyshire County Cricket Club in 1897

Derbyshire County Cricket Club in 1897 was the cricket season when the English club Derbyshire had been playing for twenty six years. It was their third season in the County Championship and they came fourteenth after failing to win a match..-1897 season:...

 when the club was short of regular bowlers. He made his debut against Yorkshire

Yorkshire County Cricket Club

Yorkshire County Cricket Club represents the historic county of Yorkshire as one of the 18 major county clubs which make up the English and Welsh domestic cricket structure....

, in which he took three wickets, but Derbyshire lost the game by a single wicket. Steeples played just two more times in first-class cricket for Derbyshire, and took four wickets against Nottinghamshire

Nottinghamshire County Cricket Club

Nottinghamshire 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 Nottinghamshire, and the current county champions. Its limited overs team is called the Nottinghamshire Outlaws...

.

Steeples was a right-handed batsman and played five innings in three first class matches with an average of 4 and a top score of 16. He was a right-arm medium-fast bowler and took nine first class wickets at an average of 23.77 and a best performance of 4 for 73.

Steeples appeared on a regular basis in Minor Counties cricket for Monmouthshire from 1897 to 1908. He also played various miscellaneous games in South Wales.

Steeples died in Somercotes at the age of 73. His brother, Albert

Albert Steeples

Albert Steeples was an English cricketer who played for Derbyshire in 1899.Steeples was born at Somercotes, Alfreton, Derbyshire, the son of John Steeples, a coal miner....

, played one game for Derbyshire during the 1899 season.

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