George Freeman (cricketer)

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George Freeman
George Freeman
Personal information
Born(1843-07-27)27 July 1843
Boroughbridge, Yorkshire, England
Died18 November 1895(1895-11-18) (aged 52)
Sowerby Grange, near Thirsk
BattingRight-handed
BowlingRight-arm fast
Career statistics
Competition First-class
Matches 44
Runs scored 918
Batting average 13.70
100s/50s 0/3
Top score 53
Balls bowled 10,075
Wickets 288
Bowling average 9.84
5 wickets in innings 32
10 wickets in match 10
Best bowling 8/11
Catches/stumpings 20/–
Source: CricketArchive, 2 August 2021
George Freeman

George Freeman (27 July 1843 – 18 November 1895) was an English first-class cricketer. He made 32 appearances for Yorkshire County Cricket Club from 1865 to 1880.[1] He also played four matches of first-class cricket for the "United England Eleven" (1866–1869), three games for the "North of England" (1867–1869), four for the "United North of England Eleven" (1870) plus one for the "Players" (1871).

Career

Born in

fast bowler, who began his career as a sixteen-year-old in Boroughbridge, where for Ten Boys of Boroughbridge against Ten Boys of Sessay he took fifteen wickets for 38 runs.[2]
Three years later, still in his teens, Freeman accepted an engagement with Leeds Clarendon Club, but was not taken up by the newly formed Yorkshire county club until 1865 under recommendation of
shooters often being impossible for any batsman to stop. Between 1867 and 1871 Freeman took 269 wickets in a mere thirty-seven first-class matches for a phenomenal average of 8.94 runs per wicket. In these five seasons he conceded only 26.8 runs for every 100 balls he bowled and took one wicket every 33 balls he bowled.[4]

Freeman's best analysis of 8 for 11 came against Lancashire in a Roses Match of 1868;[5] however, his best match bowling record was thirteen wickets for 60 runs against Surrey in 1869 at Sheffield.[6] In both these games Freeman and fellow fast bowler Tom Emmett bowled unchanged throughout both innings. Amongst other notable bowling spells are 6 for 44 against an "All England Eleven', 5 for 36 against Cambridgeshire, 5 for 14 against Kent, 6 for 26 against the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC), 7 for 29 against Middlesex, 7 for 30 against Nottinghamshire, 13 for 68 in a match against Richard Daft's XI, 7 for 45 against the "South of England", plus 8 for 29 against Surrey.

After the 1868 season George Freeman went under Edgar Willsher to the United States and meant with tremendous success, taking twenty-seven wickets for twenty-four runs against Twenty-Two of Philadelphia,[7] twenty wickets for thirty runs against Twenty-Two of Boston[8] and in five games against odds taking ninety-three wickets for 201 runs.

Freeman appeared in a non-first-class game for a "Miscellaneous All England Eleven" against 22 of Ireland in 1869, when he took 4 for 19 and 6 for 5, to register 10 for 25 in the match.

He also scored 918 runs at 13.70, with a top score of 53 for Yorkshire against Surrey and, over the course of career, also took twenty catches. His other half centuries came against Lancashire and the "United South of England Eleven".

Retirement from cricket

As early as 1871, George Freeman had started a business as an

Australian touring teams
, but took only two wickets in total. However, George Freeman still bowled with success for "Gentlemen of Yorkshire" teams as late as 1883.

Assessment

Under the pseudonym "Old Ebor",

William Lockwood and Walter Brearley were finished in the years before World War I, Freeman, along with John Jackson, was still thought of by cricket historians as among the best four or five fast bowlers to have played the game.[10]

Freeman was not one of those featured as he had died in November 1895, in Sowerby Grange, near

Wisden
's 'Births and Deaths of Cricketers' who had never played first-class cricket.

References

  1. ISBN 978-1-905080-85-4
    .
  2. ^ a b c Pullin, Alfred William; Talks with Old English Cricketers; published 1900 by W. Blackwood; pp. 183–196
  3. ^ a b Pardon, Sydney H. (editor); John Wisden's Cricketers' Almanac; Thirty-third Edition (1896); p. xliii
  4. ^ Until 1889, the over was four balls rather than six
  5. ^ Yorkshire v Lancashire in 1868
  6. ^ Yorkshire v Surrey in 1869
  7. ^ Philadelphia v E Willsher's XI in 1868
  8. ^ Boston v E Willsher's XI in 1868
  9. ^ "Other Matches Played by George Freeman". Archived from the original on 29 October 2015. Retrieved 26 October 2017.
  10. ^ Tom Richardson (obituary)

External links

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