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Austin David George Matthews (3 May 1904 – 29 July 1977) was a
cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by st ...
er who played for
Northamptonshire Northamptonshire (; abbreviated Northants.) is a county in the East Midlands of England. In 2015, it had a population of 723,000. The county is administered by two unitary authorities: North Northamptonshire and West Northamptonshire. It is ...
, Glamorgan and
England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe ...
.


Cricketing career

Born 3 May 1904 in
Penarth Penarth (, ) is a town and community in the Vale of Glamorgan ( cy, Bro Morgannwg), Wales, exactly south of Cardiff city centre on the west shore of the Severn Estuary at the southern end of Cardiff Bay. Penarth is a wealthy seaside resort ...
, Glamorgan, Austin Matthews began playing cricket at a young age with the Cardiff club and with a natural height advantage he showed promise both as a fast-medium bowler and a hard-hitting batsman. However, from 1926 he moved to Northampton and thus became qualified for Northamptonshire. Competing for a place with Nobby Clark and medium-pacer Albert Thomas, Matthews played fairly frequently in 1928 and regularly from 1929 but in fact in these initial years fared better as a batsman than bowler, hitting 116 against
Warwickshire Warwickshire (; abbreviated Warks) is a county in the West Midlands region of England. The county town is Warwick, and the largest town is Nuneaton. The county is famous for being the birthplace of William Shakespeare at Stratford-upon-Avon an ...
at Edgbaston and falling only 45 short of a four-figure aggregate – which in fact placed him fourth in batting for the county. However, in 1930 he did not reach fifty, and subsequently his batting declined to the point that from 1935 he did not once reach fifty and was regarded purely as a bowler. Although Matthews took 93 wickets in the dry summer of 1933 and formed one of the better new ball bowling partnerships with Clark, his very poor record in 1935 suggested his talent lacked depth. However, in 1936, as Northamptonshire moved into the deepest abyss of form of any county side, ''
Wisden ''Wisden Cricketers' Almanack'', or simply ''Wisden'', colloquially the Bible of Cricket, is a cricket reference book published annually in the United Kingdom. The description "bible of cricket" was first used in the 1930s by Alec Waugh in a ...
'' said that "For sheer consistency, Matthews stood alone" and that he had had one of his best seasons for the county. Then in 1937, Matthews became coach at
Stowe School , motto_translation = I stand firm and I stand first , established = , closed = , type = Public school Independent school, day & boarding , religion = Church of England , president = , head_label = Headmaster ...
and was not expected to play any first-class cricket. However, when
Jack Mercer Winfield B. Mercer (January 31, 1910 – December 7, 1984), professionally known as Jack Mercer, was a prolific American voice actor, animator and TV screenwriter. He is best known as the voice of cartoon characters Popeye the Sailor Man and F ...
was injured,
Maurice Turnbull Maurice Joseph Lawson Turnbull (16 March 1906 – 5 August 1944) was a Welsh cricketer who played in nine Test matches for the England cricket team between 1930 and 1936. A talented all round sportsman, Turnbull excelled in several sports. In ...
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 Hastings () is a large seaside town and borough in East Sussex on the south coast of England, east to the county town of Lewes and south east of London. The town gives its name to the Battle of Hastings, which took place to the north-west a ...
, and two weeks later was a controversial choice for the third
Test match Test match in some sports refers to a sporting contest between national representative teams and may refer to: * Test cricket * Test match (indoor cricket) * Test match (rugby union) * Test match (rugby league) * Test match (association football) ...
against
New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 List of islands of New Zealand, smaller islands. It is the ...
at
The Oval The Oval, currently known for sponsorship reasons as the Kia Oval, is an international cricket ground in Kennington, located in the borough of Lambeth, in south London. The Oval has been the home ground of Surrey County Cricket Club since ...
, making his debut alongside
Denis Compton Denis Charles Scott Compton (23 May 1918 – 23 April 1997) was an English multi-sportsman. As a cricketer he played in 78 Test matches and spent his whole cricket career with Middlesex. As a footballer, he played as a winger and spent most o ...
. He took two wickets (
Walter Hadlee Walter Arnold Hadlee (4 June 1915 – 29 September 2006) was a New Zealand cricketer and Test match captain. He played domestic first-class cricket for Canterbury and Otago. Three of his five sons, Sir Richard, Dayle and Barry played cricke ...
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 ( en, All The People of Somerset) , locator_map = , coordinates = , region = South West England , established_date = Ancient , established_by = , preceded_by = , origin = , lord_lieutenant_office =Lord Lieutenant of Somerset , lor ...
. For Glamorgan, Austin Matthews took 225 wickets at the low average of 15.88 runs per wicket, and after
World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...
he also coached
Cambridge University , mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts. Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge. , established = , other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...
. In later years he occasionally wrote for cricket publications because of his strong criticism of post-war coaching methods.


Other sports

An all-round sportsman, Matthews played
rugby union Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a Contact sport#Terminology, close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the Comparison of rugby league and rugby union, two codes of ru ...
for
Penarth RFC Penarth Rugby Football Club is a Welsh rugby union club based since 1924 at The Athletic Field, Lavernock Road, in Penarth, in the Vale of Glamorgan in Wales. Team history Origins and early history Penarth RFC was founded in 1879 by Cyril and ...
and later
Northampton RFC Northampton Saints (officially Northampton Rugby Football Club) is a professional rugby union club from Northampton, England. They play in Premiership Rugby, England's top division of rugby. They were formed in 1880 as "Northampton St. James", ...
. In 1929, during his time with Penarth, Matthews was a final Welsh rugby trialist and his cap is held in the Penarth Club's archive. Matthews captained Northampton RFC between 1935 and 1937. His Northampton cap is also lodged with the Penarth RFC archive together with the cap gained by Matthews' father, Frederick, as a final Welsh rugby trialist in 1896. Matthews also represented Wales at table tennis. He died 29 July 1977 in
Penrhyn Bay Penrhyn Bay ( cy, Bae Penrhyn "headland bay") is a small town on the northern coast of Wales, in Conwy county borough, within the parish or community of Llandudno, and part of the ''ecclesiastical'' parish of Llanrhos. It is a prosperous village ...
,
Llandudno Llandudno (, ) is a seaside resort, town and community (Wales), community in Conwy County Borough, Wales, located on the Creuddyn peninsula, which protrudes into the Irish Sea. In the 2011 UK census, the community – which includes Gogarth, Pe ...
, Caernarvonshire.


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Matthews, Austin 1904 births 1977 deaths Cricketers from the Vale of Glamorgan England Test cricketers English cricketers of 1919 to 1945 English cricketers Glamorgan cricketers H. D. G. Leveson Gower's XI cricketers North v South cricketers Northamptonshire cricketers Penarth RFC players Royal Air Force cricketers Rugby union players from Penarth Welsh cricketers Welsh male table tennis players Welsh rugby union players Cricketers from Penarth