Austin Matthews

Austin David George Matthews (3 May 1904 – 29 July 1977) was a cricketer who played for Northamptonshire, Glamorgan and England.

Cricketing career

Born 3 May 1904 in

Then in 1937, Matthews became coach at Stowe School and was not expected to play any first-class cricket. However, when Jack Mercer was injured, Maurice Turnbull asked him to help Glamorgan and he accepted. In Matthews' third match for the county, he took fourteen Sussex wickets for 132 runs on a batsman's pitch at Hastings, and two weeks later was a controversial choice for the third Test match against New Zealand at The Oval, making his debut alongside Denis Compton. He took two wickets (Walter Hadlee in both innings), made two runs and took one catch, and was never picked again. However, in contrast to his average of 26.53 in ten seasons for Northamptonshire, Matthews in 1937 headed the first-class bowling averages and came close to repeating this feat in 1938 and 1946, when he equalled his 1933 haul of 93 wickets and took seven for twelve on a treacherous pitch against Somerset.^[7]

For Glamorgan, Austin Matthews took 225 wickets at the low average of 15.88 runs per wicket, and after World War II he also coached Cambridge University. In later years he occasionally wrote for cricket publications because of his strong criticism of post-war coaching methods.^[8]

Other sports

An all-round sportsman, Matthews played

He died 29 July 1977 in Penrhyn Bay, Llandudno, Caernarvonshire.

References