Charlie Frith (19 January 1854 – 3 April 1919) was an English-born New Zealand
cricketer
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 ...
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 of three or more days scheduled duration between two sides of eleven players each and is officially adju ...
for
Canterbury
Canterbury (, ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and UNESCO World Heritage Site, in the county of Kent, England; it was a county borough until 1974. It lies on the River Stour, Kent, River Stour. The city has a mild oceanic climat ...
and
Otago
Otago (, ; ) is a regions of New Zealand, region of New Zealand located in the southern half of the South Island and administered by the Otago Regional Council. It has an area of approximately , making it the country's second largest local go ...
between the 1877–78 and 1889–90 seasons.
Life and career
Charlie Frith's family moved from England to New Zealand in 1867. A "tall, cheery fellow with an easy, full overarm action", Frith was "a right-hand medium-paced bowler, with a slight off-break. His great success as a bowler was his ability to keep a fine length ... he was able, even on a perfect wicket, to quickly wear a spot that enabled him to get work on the ball."
In February 1877 he took 6 for 23 and 3 for 29 for a Canterbury XVIII against
James Lillywhite's XI; in the only close match of the English team's six-week tour of New Zealand, Canterbury lost by 23 runs. Some of the English players tried to persuade him to return to England and play county cricket, but he preferred to stay in New Zealand.
[ Dan Reese, ''Was It All Cricket?'', George Allen & Unwin, London, 1948, pp. 438–39.] In 1877-78 Frith was part of the Canterbury XV that beat
the Australians
''The'' is a grammatical article in English, denoting nouns that are already or about to be mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The' ...
, taking the wickets of
Bannerman,
Horan,
Bailey and
Gregory
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* Gregory (surname), a surname
*Gregory (The Walking Dead), fictional character from the walkin ...
, and finishing with match figures of 81–48–55–4 (four-ball overs).
He took 6 for 34 and 4 for 29 when Canterbury beat Otago by nine wickets in 1879–80. In the return match the next season,
George Watson scored a record 175 for Canterbury, then Charlie's brother
William
William is a masculine given name of Germanic languages, Germanic origin. It became popular in England after the Norman Conquest, Norman conquest in 1066,All Things William"Meaning & Origin of the Name"/ref> and remained so throughout the Middle ...
took 8 for 18 in the first innings and Charlie took 7 for 25 in the second to give Canterbury victory by an innings and 232 runs. In 1883–84, now playing for Otago, he took 5 for 8 in
Tasmania's second innings to help Otago to an eight-wicket victory. In senior club cricket in Dunedin in 1886–87, playing for the Phoenix club, he took 111 wickets at an average of 4.13. In his last first-class match, in 1889–90, he bowled unchanged throughout both innings (53.4 five-ball overs in all) to take 5 for 24 and 3 for 18 in a victory over Canterbury.
Dan Reese called him "the first great bowler in New Zealand cricket".
[ He was one of the 14 players chosen in 1927 by the New Zealand cricket historian Tom Reese as the best New Zealand cricketers before the ]First World War
World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...
, and one of the 11 Reese chose in 1936 as the best New Zealand team of all time.
Frith umpired four first-class matches in New Zealand between 1885 and 1900. The Otago– Southland match in 1901-02 was played in his benefit, and he was presented with £51 as a result.
He worked as a newspaper compositor, having served his apprenticeship with the ''Christchurch Press
''The Press'' () is a daily newspaper published in Christchurch, New Zealand, owned by media business Stuff Ltd. First published in 1861, the newspaper is the largest circulating daily in the South Island and publishes Monday to Saturday. One ...
''.['']Press
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...
'', 4 April 1919, p. 7.
See also
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Frith, Charles
1854 births
1919 deaths
New Zealand cricketers
Canterbury cricketers
Otago cricketers
New Zealand people of English descent
Sportspeople from Bodmin
Cricketers from Cornwall