William Mycroft
Cricket Player
1841 – 1894
Who was William Mycroft?
William Mycroft was an English cricketer who played first class cricket for Derbyshire and MCC between 1873 and 1886. He was a left-arm fast bowler with a great deal of spin and a dangerous yorker that was often believed to be unfair – which may explain why he was not considered for the earliest Test Matches despite being in his prime. He took 863 first class wickets at an average of 12.09 with 87 five-wicket innings and 28 ten-wicket matches in his career. His first ten-wicket match in 1875 against Nottinghamshire became the first of six in only nine games that season. He holds the Derbyshire record for most wickets in a single match, with figures of 17–103 against Hampshire at the Antelope Ground, Southampton in July 1876. This is one of only two times a player has taken seventeen wickets in a match and finished on the losing side – the other, by Walter Mead in 1895 was also against Hampshire. Mycroft had no pretensions as a right-handed tail end batsman: he scored only 791 first class runs at an average of 5.34 and prior to Alf Hall and Father Marriott remained the last significant cricketer who took more wickets than he scored runs.
Mycroft was born in Brimington, Derbyshire, the son of George Mycroft and his first wife Sabra Allen. His father was an ironstone and coal miner who kept the Red Lion public house at Brimington. In 1861 Mycroft himself was an ironstone miner and by 1881 he was running a public house at 10 Tapton Lane, Chesterfield.
We need you!
Help us build the largest biographies collection on the web!
- Born
- Feb 1, 1841
Brimington - Nationality
- England
- Died
- Jun 19, 1894
Derby
Submitted
on July 23, 2013
Citation
Use the citation below to add to a bibliography:
Style:MLAChicagoAPA
"William Mycroft." Biographies.net. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 6 May 2024. <https://www.biographies.net/people/en/william_mycroft>.
Discuss this William Mycroft biography with the community:
Report Comment
We're doing our best to make sure our content is useful, accurate and safe.
If by any chance you spot an inappropriate comment while navigating through our website please use this form to let us know, and we'll take care of it shortly.
Attachment
You need to be logged in to favorite.
Log In