Arthur Morton (cricketer, born 1883)
Personal information | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Born | Mellor, Derbyshire , England | 7 May 1883||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Died | 18 December 1935 Mellor, Derbyshire, England | (aged 52)||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Batting | Right-handed | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Bowling | Right-arm off-break | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Role | All rounder | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Domestic team information | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Years | Team | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
1903–1926 | Derbyshire | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
1912–1920 | MCC | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
FC debut | 21 May 1903 Derbyshire v MCC | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Last FC | 21 August 1926 Derbyshire v Kent | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Career statistics | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Source: CricketArchive, 26 April 2010 |
Arthur Morton (7 May 1883 – 18 December 1935) was an English cricketer who played first-class cricket for Derbyshire and Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) between 1903 and 1926. He made over 10,000 runs and took nearly 1,000 wickets.
Morton was born at
First-class cricket was suspended during the First World War and resumed in 1919 when Morton was charged with looking after the "bad boy" Billy Bestwick who had been allowed back into the Derbyshire team.[1] Morton found form again in 1920 scoring a century against Leicestershire and taking 8 for 37 against Somerset and achieving nine 5 wicket innings in all, but none of this helped Derbyshire win a single match. In 1921 he took 8 for 69 in one of his four 5-wicket innings, but was absent for several weeks as a result of an accident. During a match against Yorkshire in June, the Yorkshire player Abe Waddington took Morton for a spin on his motorbike but crashed leaving Morton with broken ribs.[2] Gilbert Curgenven was injured separately and with eight men left, Derbyshire were out for 23. Bestwick, who had just received a collection for taking 10 wickets in an innings, passed some of it on to his colleague Morton.[1] In 1922 Morton achieved eight 5-wicket innings including 7 for 38 against Northamptonshire and scored a century against Essex. In 1923 he took 7 for 48 against Essex in one match and scored a century in the other. He scored another century against Essex in 1924 and achieved 6 for 58 against Gloucestershire He made his top score of 131 in 1925 against Essex and took 7 for 51 against Lancashire. He played his last season in 1926 when he had three 5-wicket returns.
Morton was a right-arm off-break, and medium pace bowler and took 981 first-class wickets at an average of 22.77 and a best performance of 9 for 71. He took five or more wickets in 63 innings and more than 10 wickets in eleven matches. He was a right-hand batsman and played 623 innings in 357 first-class matches with a top score of 131 and an average of 19.32. He made 10957 runs in total including six centuries.[3]
In the following season of 1927 Morton started umpiring first-class matches standing in around 300 until his death in 1935. He umpired one Test match in 1928.
Morton died at Mellor, Derbyshire, at the age of 52.