Richard Purchase was a famous English cricketer

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...

 who played for the Hambledon Club

Hambledon Club

The Hambledon Club was a social club that is famous for its organisation of 18th century cricket matches. By the late 1770s it was the foremost cricket club in England.-Foundation:...

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He was only 16 when he made his debut in 1773.

Born in Liss

Liss

Liss is a village and civil parish in the East Hampshire district of Hampshire, England. It is 3.3 miles northeast of Petersfield, on the A3 road, on the Hampshire/West Sussex border....

, Hampshire

Hampshire

Hampshire is a county on the southern coast of England in the United Kingdom. The county town of Hampshire is Winchester, a historic cathedral city that was once the capital of England. Hampshire is notable for housing the original birthplaces of the Royal Navy, British Army, and Royal Air Force...

, he played for his county in 1773 and 1774 but then did not appear again until 1781. He was possibly in the armed forces at the time or otherwise working away from Hampshire.

He was an all-rounder noted as a slow bowler who maintained good line and length and a "fair hitter". He played regularly from 1781 till the end of his career in 1803, making 113 known first-class appearances.

External links

• From Lads to Lord's; The History of Cricket: 1300 – 1787