Albert Freethy (27 April 1885 – 17 July 1966) was a Welsh

rugby union Rugby union football, commonly known simply as rugby union in English-speaking countries and rugby 15/XV in non-English-speaking world, Anglophone Europe, or often just rugby, is a Contact sport#Terminology, close-contact team sport that orig ...

referee and

first-class cricket First-class cricket, along with List A cricket and Twenty20 cricket, is one of the highest-standard forms of cricket. A first-class match is of three or more days scheduled duration between two sides of eleven players each and is officially adju ...

er. He was born in

Swansea Swansea ( ; ) is a coastal City status in the United Kingdom, city and the List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, second-largest city of Wales. It forms a Principal areas of Wales, principal area, officially known as the City and County of ...

and died in

Cimla Cimla is a village and suburb of the town of Neath in the county borough of Neath Port Talbot, Wales. It is set high up on a hill. It is pronounced Kim-la. The Welsh language spelling is Cymla, pronounced the same way. Its meaning is a place wit ...

. Freethy played his debut Minor Counties match in 1908, though he would only occasionally play in the period immediately before the war, notching up seven Minor Counties appearances before 1914. Freethy returned to the Minor Counties arena during 1920, and in Glamorgan's debut first-class season of 1921, which turned out to be his last in the County game, picked up three first-class appearances. Following Freethy's retirement from cricket, he would further pursue his love of rugby, becoming one of the great rugby union referees of the period, taking charge of eighteen tests between 1923 and 1931. During the 1924-25 tour by the New Zealand '' Invincibles'', he sent off Cyril Brownlie during the England-New Zealand test, the first time a player had been sent off from a test. Freethy later served on Glamorgan's committee in the 1930s.

External links

Albert Freethy
at Cricket Archive {{DEFAULTSORT:Freethy, Albert 1885 births 1966 deaths Cricketers from Swansea Welsh cricketers Glamorgan cricketers Welsh rugby union referees Rugby union players from Swansea