Charles Morley Cunliffe (2 September 1858 – 15 October 1884) was an English amateur

cricket Cricket is a Bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball game played between two Sports team, teams of eleven players on a cricket field, field, at the centre of which is a cricket pitch, pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two Bail (cr ...

er who played for

Kent County Cricket Club Kent County Cricket Club is one of the eighteen first-class county clubs within the domestic cricket structure of England and Wales. It represents the historic county of Kent. A club representing the county was first founded in 1842 but Ken ...

from 1877 to 1880. Cunliffe was one of Kent's leading slow bowlers of the time but was forced to give up cricket due to ill health. He died at a young age after suffering from

tuberculosis Tuberculosis (TB), also known colloquially as the "white death", or historically as consumption, is a contagious disease usually caused by ''Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can al ...

Early life and family

Cunliffe was born at

Leyton Leyton ( ) is a town in East London, England, within the London Borough of Waltham Forest. It borders Walthamstow to the north, Leytonstone to the east, and Stratford to the south, with Clapton, Hackney Wick and Homerton, across the Ri ...

Essex Essex ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East of England, and one of the home counties. It is bordered by Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, the North Sea to the east, Kent across the Thames Estuary to the ...

in 1858, the son of Roger and Marion Cunliffe of

Tunbridge Wells Royal Tunbridge Wells (formerly, until 1909, and still commonly Tunbridge Wells) is a town in Kent, England, southeast of Central London. It lies close to the border with East Sussex on the northern edge of the High Weald, whose sandstone ...

.Family notices
''

Brisbane Courier ''The Courier-Mail'' is an Australian newspaper published in Brisbane. Owned by News Corp Australia, it is published daily from Monday to Saturday in tabloid format. Its editorial offices are located at Bowen Hills, in Brisbane's inner norther ...

'', 1884-11-29. Retrieved 2017-04-30. His father was a banker in the London bank Roger Cunliffe, Sons and Company which had its origins in 1815 by Cunliffe's ancestor, a

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated ''Lancs'') is a ceremonial county in North West England. It is bordered by Cumbria to the north, North Yorkshire and West Yorkshire to the east, Greater Manchester and Merseyside to the south, and the Irish Sea to ...

merchant also named Roger. The firm operated from 24 Bucklersbury and then, from 1867, at 6 Princes Street near the

Bank of England The Bank of England is the central bank of the United Kingdom and the model on which most modern central banks have been based. Established in 1694 to act as the Kingdom of England, English Government's banker and debt manager, and still one ...

.Roger Cunliffe, Sons and Company
AIM25 collection. Retrieved 2018-09-28.Orbell J, Turner A (2017) ''British Banking: A Guide to Historical Records'', pp.181–182. Abingdon: Routledge.
Available online
Retrieved 2018-09-29.)Roger Cunliffe Sons and Co
''Supplement to the

London Gazette London is the capital and largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Western Europe, with a population of 14.9 million. London stands on the River Tha ...

'', 26 February 1884 p.919. Retrieved 2018-09-29. After prep school, Cunliffe was educated at

Rugby School Rugby School is a Public school (United Kingdom), private boarding school for pupils aged 13–18, located in the town of Rugby, Warwickshire in England. Founded in 1567 as a free grammar school for local boys, it is one of the oldest independ ...

Mitchell AT (ed) (1902) ''Rugby School Register'', Volume 2 (August 1842 to January 1874), p.334. Rugby: Lawrence.
Available online
Retrieved 2018-09-29.) where he was in the cricket XI for three years and established himself as an effective slow bowler.Moore D (1988) ''The History of Kent County Cricket Club'', pp.36–37. London: Christopher Helm. .

Cricket career

Cunliffe made his

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 ...

debut for Kent at

against

Derbyshire Derbyshire ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands of England. It borders Greater Manchester, West Yorkshire, and South Yorkshire to the north, Nottinghamshire to the east, Leicestershire to the south-east, Staffordshire to the south a ...

in July 1877 at the age of 18 and was originally more prominent as a batsman in county cricket.Charles Cunliffe
CricketArchive. Retrieved 2017-04-30. He became a regular bowler for Kent during the following three seasons, taking

five wickets in an innings 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 batter. Taking ...

11 times, and

10 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 bowl ...

on three occasions. In 1880 he played in all ten of the county's first-class matches and was the leading bowler of the year, taking 51 wickets at a

bowling average In cricket, a player's bowling average is the number of runs they have conceded per wicket taken. The lower the bowling average is, the better the bowler is performing. It is one of a number of statistics used to compare bowlers, commonly use ...

of less than 13 runs per wicket. Considered one of the finest slow bowlers Kent had produced to date, Cunliffe's bowling was described as: "pace very deceptive, with a great curl in the air". Marsham G (1907
A short history of Kent cricket
''

Wisden Cricketers' Almanack ''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" (or variations thereof) has been applied to ''Wi ...

'', 1907. Retrieved 2018-09-29. Writing in ''

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" (or variations thereof) has been applied to ''Wi ...

'' in 1907 George Marsham, who had watched Cunliffe play, was of the opinion that "even in these days of curlers I have been told that no bowler curled as much as Mr. C. M. Cunliffe" and he was "renowned for his break-back from the pitch" which

Lord Harris Colonel George Robert Canning Harris, 4th Baron Harris, (3February 185124March 1932), generally known as Lord Harris, was a British colonial administrator and Governor of Bombay, best known for developing cricket administration via Marylebone ...

described as "very puzzling".Quoted in Moore ''op. cit.'', p.36. He played some club cricket for

Orleans Club The Orleans Club was a London-based cricket club that was founded in 1878 and played four first-class matches. Its teams were organised by C. I. Thornton,''A Guide to First-Class Cricket Matches Played in the British Isles'', second edition, 1982 ...

, but did not appear in any of the club's first-class matches, as well as for a range of other teams, including playing against the touring Australians for Hastings Cricket Club in 1878. Cunliffe played in a total of 25 first-class matches, including two for the amateur Gentlemen of Kent side. He made his final appearance in 1880, playing for Kent against

Surrey Surrey () is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Greater London to the northeast, Kent to the east, East Sussex, East and West Sussex to the south, and Hampshire and Berkshire to the wes ...

The Oval The Oval, currently named 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 sinc ...

.Carlaw D (2020) ''Kent County Cricketers A to Z. Part One: 1806–1914'' (revised edition), pp. 131–132.
Available online
at the

Association of Cricket Statisticians and Historians The Association of Cricket Statisticians and Historians (ACS) was founded in England in 1973 for the purpose of researching and collating information about the history and statistics of cricket. Originally called the Association of Cricket Stati ...

. Retrieved 2020-12-21.)

Illness and death

Cunliffe was forced to stop playing cricket because of poor health. He suffered from

and became progressively unwell. During the 1884

Canterbury Cricket Week Canterbury Cricket Week is the oldest cricket festival week in England and involves a series of consecutive Kent home matches, traditionally held in the first week in August. It was founded in 1842, although a similar festival week was first he ...

Cunliffe is reported to have said: "Well I shan't be here next year but I'd like to be buried in the middle there to make a good bumpy pitch for our bowlers".Quoted in Moore ''op. cit.'', p.37. He died suddenly at

Davos Platz Davos (, ; or ; ; Old ) is an Alpine resort town and municipality in the Prättigau/Davos Region in the canton of Graubünden, Switzerland. It has a permanent population of (). Davos is located on the river Landwasser, in the Rhaetian ...

in Switzerland in October 1884 aged 26.Charles Cunliffe

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. Retrieved 2017-04-30.

Notes

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cunliffe, Charles 1858 births 1884 deaths People educated at Rugby School English cricketers Kent cricketers Gentlemen of Kent cricketers 19th-century deaths from tuberculosis Tuberculosis deaths in Switzerland People from Leyton Cricketers from the London Borough of Waltham Forest