Claud Neville Woolley (5 May 1886 – 3 November 1962) was an English

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

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 one of three or more days' scheduled duration between two sides of eleven players each and is officiall ...

for

Gloucestershire Gloucestershire ( abbreviated Glos) is a county in South West England. The county comprises part of the Cotswold Hills, part of the flat fertile valley of the River Severn and the entire Forest of Dean. The county town is the city of ...

and

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 ...

. He also served as a first-class

umpire An umpire is an official in a variety of sports and competition, responsible for enforcing the rules of the sport, including sportsmanship decisions such as ejection. The term derives from the Old French nonper, ''non'', "not" and ''per' ...

and stood in one

Test Test(s), testing, or TEST may refer to: * Test (assessment), an educational assessment intended to measure the respondents' knowledge or other abilities Arts and entertainment * ''Test'' (2013 film), an American film * ''Test'' (2014 film), ...

during the 1948 Ashes series. A right-handed batsman and right-arm slow-medium bowler, he was the older brother of Frank who had a more successful playing career, including representing England in 64 Tests. Born in Tonbridge, Woolley began his cricket career with

Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...

however he failed to break into the first team, making 18 second XI appearances between 1906 and 1908. He joined Gloucestershire but once again failed to establish himself, making just one first-class appearance in two seasons with the club, the appearance came in 1909 against the touring Australians, he opened the bowling but took no wickets in eight

over Over may refer to: Places *Over, Cambridgeshire, England * Over, Cheshire, England * Over, South Gloucestershire, England *Over, Tewkesbury, near Gloucester, England **Over Bridge * Over, Seevetal, Germany Music Albums * ''Over'' (album), by P ...

s, he batted at number seven and scored 22. He joined Northamptonshire in 1911, making his debut for the club against the Indian tourists, he scored 1

not out In cricket, a batter is not out if they come out to bat in an innings and have not been dismissed by the end of an innings. The batter is also ''not out'' while their innings is still in progress. Occurrence At least one batter is not out at ...

batting at number 10 but did take his maiden first-class wicket, dismissing

Mukundrao Pai Mukundrao Damodar Pai (21 June 18835 August 1948) was an Indian cricketer and a member of the first Indian team that toured England in 1911 under the captaincy of Bhupinder Singh of Patiala. Pai was the first Indian cricketer to score a century ...

. That was Woolley's only appearance in his first season with the club but the following season he was given more opportunities playing ten first-class matches,First-class Batting and Fielding in Each Season
CricketArchive, Retrieved on 1 February 2009 however he had little success averaging just 10.54 with the bat and taking three wickets.First-class Bowling in Each Season
CricketArchive, Retrieved on 1 February 2009 His batting and bowling aggregates improved over the next two seasons, with 670 runs and 15 wickets in 1913 followed by 802 and 28 in 1914. He also scored a maiden

century A century is a period of 100 years. Centuries are numbered ordinally in English and many other languages. The word ''century'' comes from the Latin ''centum'', meaning ''one hundred''. ''Century'' is sometimes abbreviated as c. A centennial or ...

in 1914 against

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, and a week later achieved his maiden

five-for This is a general glossary of the terminology used in the sport of cricket. Where words in a sentence are also defined elsewhere in this article, they appear in italics. Certain aspects of cricket terminology are explained in more detail in cr ...

taking 6 wickets for 31 runs (6/31). Following

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

Woolley was a regular in the side until 1931, mostly appearing as an

opening batsman In cricket, the batting order is the sequence in which batters play through their team's innings, there always being two batters taking part at any one time. All eleven players in a team are required to bat if the innings is completed (i.e., if ...

he passed 1,000 runs in a season on seven occasions between 1921 and 1929. His most productive season came in 1928 when he scored 1,602. His second first-class century came in 1921 and proved to be the highest score of his career and only double century. The innings of 204 not out came against

Worcestershire Worcestershire ( , ; written abbreviation: Worcs) is a county in the West Midlands of England. The area that is now Worcestershire was absorbed into the unified Kingdom of England in 927, at which time it was constituted as a county (see H ...

Northampton Northampton () is a market town and civil parish in the East Midlands of England, on the River Nene, north-west of London and south-east of Birmingham. The county town of Northamptonshire, Northampton is one of the largest towns in England ...

. His best bowling of his career also occurred in 1921, against

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Cardiff Arms Park Cardiff Arms Park ( cy, Parc yr Arfau Caerdydd), also known as The Arms Park, is situated in the centre of Cardiff, Wales. It is primarily known as a rugby union stadium, but it also has a bowling green. The Arms Park was host to the British ...

, he took 6/30 in the first innings and followed that with 4/22 as the home side followed on. The match figures of 10/52 were the only occasion he took

ten wickets in a match In cricket, a ten-wicket haul occurs when a bowler takes ten wickets in either a single innings or across both innings of a two-innings match. The phrase ten wickets in a match is also used. Taking ten wickets in a match at Lord's earns the bo ...

. Woolley's best bowling seasons came directly after the war, he passed 40 wickets in each of the four years between 1919 and 1922, he took nine five-fors in this period. Against

Essex Essex () is a Ceremonial counties of England, county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the Riv ...

in 1920 he took a

hat-trick A hat-trick or hat trick is the achievement of a generally positive feat three times in a match, or another achievement based on the number three. Origin The term first appeared in 1858 in cricket, to describe H. H. Stephenson taking three w ...

dismissing

Charlie McGahey Charles Percy McGahey (12 February 1871 – 10 January 1935) was an English cricketer who played first-class cricket for Essex between 1894 and 1921. McGahey also played for London County between 1901 and 1904 and was named as one of the Wisde ...

, John Freeman and

Percy Perrin Percival Albert Perrin (26 May 1876 – 20 November 1945), known as either "Percy" or "Peter", was an English cricketer, who played for Essex as a right-handed middle-order batsman for more than thirty years from 1896. Perrin was a Tottenham p ...

with consecutive deliveries. Woolley played 362 matches for Northamptonshire placing him eighth on the most appearances list, and is the tenth highest scorer for the club with 15,353 runs. He carried his bat on three occasions. After retiring as a player he began his umpiring career, standing in 281 matches between 1932 and 1953. He umpired one Test match, the second Test of the 1948 Ashes series.England v Australia, Australia in British Isles 1948 (2nd Test)
CricketArchive, Retrieved on 1 February 2009 During a match between

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-Avo ...

and

Nottinghamshire Nottinghamshire (; abbreviated Notts.) is a landlocked county in the East Midlands region of England, bordering South Yorkshire to the north-west, Lincolnshire to the east, Leicestershire to the south, and Derbyshire to the west. The trad ...

in 1946 Woolley was temporarily required to officiate from both ends as fellow umpire George Beet was taken ill on the way to the game. After Woolley's umpiring career he worked as groundsman at Northampton until his death aged 76.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Woolley, Claud 1886 births 1962 deaths English cricketers Gloucestershire cricketers Northamptonshire cricketers Players cricketers North v South cricketers English Test cricket umpires People from Tonbridge English cricketers of 1919 to 1945 People from Abington, Northamptonshire