Alonzo Robson Drake (16 April 1884 – 14 February 1919) was an English

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby ...

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

er. Born in

Rotherham Rotherham () is a large minster and market town in South Yorkshire, England. The town takes its name from the River Rother which then merges with the River Don. The River Don then flows through the town centre. It is the main settlement of ...

, Drake was a good all-round sportsman but initially focused on his football career. Starting out with

Doncaster Rovers Doncaster Rovers Football Club is a professional association football club based in Doncaster, South Yorkshire, England. The team compete in League Two, the fourth tier of the English football league system. The club play their home games at T ...

it would be at his next club, Sheffield United, where he enjoyed most success, playing in the top flight of English football. After leaving the Blades he had spells at

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the We ...

,For Doncaster Rovers and Birmingham infobox stats:

Queens Park Rangers Queens Park Rangers Football Club, commonly abbreviated to QPR, is a professional football club based in Shepherd's Bush, West London, England, which compete in the . After a nomadic early existence, they have played home matches at Loftus ...

Huddersfield Town Huddersfield Town Association Football Club is a professional football club based in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, England, which compete in the . The team have played home games at the Kirklees Stadium since moving from Leeds Road in 1994. ...

and Rotherham Town before retiring at the outset of

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, ...

. Drake also played 157 matches for

Yorkshire Yorkshire ( ; abbreviated Yorks), formally known as the County of York, is a historic county in northern England and by far the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its large area in comparison with other English counties, functions have ...

between 1909 and 1914. Despite making his first-class debut at the relatively late age of 25, Drake was a vital part of the Yorkshire team in the seasons before World War I.

Football career

Drake started his career with

, for whom he made his

Football League The English Football League (EFL) is a league of professional football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888 as the Football League, the league is the oldest such competition in the world. It was the top-level football league in Engla ...

debut in 1902 but was soon bought by Sheffield United where he became a regular in the side for three seasons. Despite this he was viewed by some supporters as lazy with claims that he conceded possession too easily which led to regular barracking during games. He moved to

in December 1907 for £700 but his stay was only a brief one, as he moved south to

the following August. His best days now behind him he later spent five years at

before finishing his career with Rotherham Town.

Cricket career

Drake played for the Yorkshire Second XI in 1908 and 1909, the year he first broke into the first team. He took 12 wickets in five matches, and 28 in 1910 including a spell of 5/10 against Western Counties, at Titwood, Glasgow. In 1911, he finally established himself in the Yorkshire side. A more than useful left-handed batsman, he

averaged In mathematics and statistics, the arithmetic mean ( ) or arithmetic average, or just the ''mean'' or the ''average'' (when the context is clear), is the sum of a collection of numbers divided by the count of numbers in the collection. The colle ...

35 with the bat and took 79 wickets at 22.40. In 1913, he took 102 wickets at the top of the Yorkshire averages and, in the last season of a truncated career, claimed 135 wickets at 15.30, including 11

five wicket haul In cricket, a five-wicket haul (also known as a "five–for" or "fifer") occurs when a bowler takes five or more wickets in a single innings. This is regarded by critics as a notable achievement, equivalent to a century from a batsman. Takin ...

s. Like

Schofield Haigh Schofield Haigh (19 March 1871 – 27 February 1921) was a Yorkshire and England cricketer. He played for eighteen seasons for Yorkshire County Cricket Club, for England from the 1898/99 tour to 1912, and was a Wisden Cricketer of the Year in 19 ...

, he was devastating on poor or rain affected wickets but, unlike Haigh, could bowl long spells and had a fine economy rate on flatter batting tracks. He took five wickets in an innings 29 times. He claimed remarkable 4/4 and 3/3 returns, for match figures of 7/7, 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 ...

at The Recreation Ground, Bath in 1913. He grabbed 5/6 in the second innings against

Derbyshire Derbyshire ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands, England. It includes much of the Peak District National Park, the southern end of the Pennine range of hills and part of the National Forest. It borders Greater Manchester to the no ...

Queen's Park, Chesterfield Queen's Park is a county cricket ground located in Chesterfield, Derbyshire, England and lies within a park in the centre of the town established for Queen Victoria's golden jubilee in 1887. It has a small pavilion and is surrounded by mature ...

in 1914, including the wickets of Richard Baggallay, Gilbert Curgenven, Colin Hurt and

Thomas Forrester Thomas Forrester is a fictional character from ''The Bold and the Beautiful'', an American soap opera on the CBS network. Created and introduced by Bradley Bell, the role has been portrayed by multiple child actors. In 2004, the role was rap ...

in consecutive balls. His most famous feat was the taking all ten Somerset wickets for 35 at

Clarence Park, Weston-super-Mare Clarence Park was given to the town of Weston-super-Mare by Rebecca Davies in memory of her husband. The cricket pavilion at the park dates from 1882. A multitude of sports have been played at the park, including cricket. The ground is owned by t ...

in August 1914, when he took 15 in the match for 51 runs. He bowled unchanged throughout both innings of the match. Only Drake, Hedley Verity (twice), and Frank Smailes, have taken all ten wickets in an innings for Yorkshire. 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 wi ...

against

Essex Essex () is a 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 River Thames to the south, and G ...

Fartown Ground The Fartown Ground or just simply Fartown is a sports ground located in the Huddersfield suburb of Fartown in West Yorkshire, England and is predominantly famous for being the home ground of Huddersfield Rugby League Club from 1878 to 1992. T ...

Huddersfield Huddersfield is a market town in the Kirklees district in West Yorkshire, England. It is the administrative centre and largest settlement in the Kirklees district. The town is in the foothills of the Pennines. The River Holme's confluence into t ...

in 1912, in a spell in which he took 5 wickets and conceded no runs. He took three wickets in four balls in a first-class 'friendly' Roses Match at The Circle, Kingston upon Hull that year. He bowled unchanged with Major Booth throughout the game in consecutive matches in 1914 – against

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 Gl ...

and Somerset. In the match against Somerset, he took all ten wickets in the space of just 42 balls. His batting continued to be useful. He scored 4,816 runs in all, with three centuries and a best of 147 * against

, for an average of 21.69.

Personal life

Drake was a heavy smoker and was twice rejected by the army when he tried to enlist at the outbreak of

. He subsequently fell into ill health, and died aged 34 in February 1919, in

Honley __NOTOC__ Honley is a large village in West Yorkshire, England. Historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, it is situated near to Holmfirth and Huddersfield, and on the banks of the River Holme in the Holme Valley. According to the 201 ...

, Yorkshire.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Drake, Alonzo 1884 births 1919 deaths Cricketers from Rotherham Footballers from Rotherham English footballers Association football forwards English Football League players Doncaster Rovers F.C. players Sheffield United F.C. players Birmingham City F.C. players Queens Park Rangers F.C. players Huddersfield Town A.F.C. players Rotherham Town F.C. (1899) players English cricketers Yorkshire cricketers Cricketers who have taken ten wickets in an innings English cricketers of 1890 to 1918