John Wood

Who was John Wood?

John Wood aka Thomas Wood was an English cricketer who played for Chertsey Cricket Club and Surrey. His career began in the 1760s before first-class statistics began to be recorded and his known first-class career spans the 1773 to 1780 seasons.

He has often been confused with his namesake who played for Kent at the same time. Although Wood is credited with 23 first-class appearances by CricketArchive, there are only 13 which can definitely be attributed to him. Using the data in Scores and Biographies, there were 12 matches in which a player known only as "Wood" took part, with Wood of Kent specifically recorded in 10.

In addition to confusion about Wood's namesake, there is uncertainty about his forename as he is called Thomas Wood in Scores and Biographies, where he is described as "Thomas Wood, a miller, living in Pirbright, Surrey". This is almost certainly incorrect and CricketArchive believes that his name was John Wood. It seems that Scores and Biographies has equated him with Thomas Woods who played as a given man for Chertsey against Dartford in 1761 when John Wood was only 16.