Christopher Burfield Howland (6 February 1936 – 14 May 2010) was an English amateur

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 mainly played for

Cambridge University Cricket Club Cambridge University Cricket Club, first recorded in 1817, is the representative cricket club for students of the University of Cambridge. Depending on the circumstances of each individual match, the club has always been recognised as holding ...

. He was a

wicket-keeper The wicket-keeper in the sport of cricket is the player on the fielding side who stands behind the wicket or stumps being watchful of the batsman and ready to take a catch, stump the batsman out and run out a batsman when occasion arises. T ...

who played for a number of amateur teams and worked in the

City of London The City of London is a city, ceremonial county and local government district that contains the historic centre and constitutes, alongside Canary Wharf, the primary central business district (CBD) of London. It constituted most of London f ...

Early life

Howland was born in

Whitstable Whitstable () is a town on the north coast of Kent adjoining the convergence of the Swale Estuary and the Greater Thames Estuary in southeastern England, north of Canterbury and west of Herne Bay. The 2011 Census reported a population of 3 ...

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 ...

in 1936 and educated at

Dulwich College Dulwich College is a 2–19 independent, day and boarding school for boys in Dulwich, London, England. As a public school, it began as the College of God's Gift, founded in 1619 by Elizabethan actor Edward Alleyn, with the original purpose o ...

and

Clare College, Cambridge Clare College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge in Cambridge, 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 Iris ...

.Chris Howland

CricInfo ESPN cricinfo (formerly known as Cricinfo or CricInfo) is a sports news website exclusively for the game of cricket. The site features news, articles, live coverage of cricket matches (including liveblogs and scorecards), and ''StatsGuru'', a ...

. Retrieved 2017-11-12. He played cricket for his school, for

Beckenham Cricket Club Foxgrove Road, Beckenham is a sports ground in Beckenham in the London Borough of Bromley. The ground is home to Beckenham Cricket Club, a multi-sports club, and has been used as a first-class cricket venue and hosted the Kent Championships, a te ...

and, in 1955, for the Kent Second XI before serving in the

British Army The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gur ...

National Service National service is the system of voluntary government service, usually military service. Conscription is mandatory national service. The term ''national service'' comes from the United Kingdom's National Service (Armed Forces) Act 1939. The ...

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

debut for the

Combined Services The Combined Services cricket team represents the British Armed Forces. The team played at first-class level in England for more than forty years in the mid-twentieth century. Their first first-class match was against Gentlemen of England at L ...

team whilst in the Army, playing against Glamorgan in May 1956 and played in two other non-first-class matches for the Army side.Christopher Howland
CricketArchive. Retrieved 2017-11-12.

University and cricket

After going up to

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 1957, Howland played for the University cricket team for three years, making a total of 48 first-class appearances for the side, having found himself in the Cambridge side following the death of the Australian

Brian Swift Brian Swift (born 2 May 1952) is a former Irish Fianna Fáil politician. A solicitor by profession, he was an unsuccessful candidate at the 1981 and November 1982 general elections. He was elected to Waterford County Council and Waterford City Co ...

prior to the 1958 season. He captained the team in his final year and gained his

Blue Blue is one of the three primary colours in the RYB colour model (traditional colour theory), as well as in the RGB (additive) colour model. It lies between violet and cyan on the spectrum of visible light. The eye perceives blue when ...

in 1958, playing in all three University Matches against Oxford whilst he was a student.Howland, Christopher Burfield, Obituaries in 2010, ''

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" was first used in the 1930s by Alec Waugh in a ...

'', 2011.
Available online
Retrieved 2017-11-10.) He toured South America with

Marylebone Cricket Club Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) is a cricket club founded in 1787 and based since 1814 at Lord's Cricket Ground, which it owns, in St John's Wood, London. The club was formerly the governing body of cricket retaining considerable global influenc ...

(MCC) in 1958/59 and Canada with the club in 1959 Silk D (1960
MCC in Canada 1959
in ''

'', 1960. Retrieved 2017-11-12. and played for the Gentlemen against the Players in 1959. In 1960 he played in four first-class matches for

Sussex County Cricket Club Sussex County Cricket Club is the oldest of eighteen first-class county clubs within the domestic cricket structure of England and Wales. It represents the historic county of Sussex. Its limited overs team is called the Sussex Sharks. The ...

after graduating, but his career in the City meant that he was unable to commit to playing cricket at first-class level, although he remained a keen club player and appeared in six first-class matches for MCC between 1961 and 1968 and two for Free Foresters in 1961. He played twice 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 Ke ...

in 1965 and made his last first-class appearance against

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

in Dublin in 1968.

Later life

Howland was the Chairman of the

Lord's Taverners The Lord's Taverners is the UK's leading youth cricket and disability sports charity. Its charitable objective is to empower and positively impact the lives of young people facing the challenges of inequality.'. It was founded in 1950 by a group ...

in 1978–79 and served on a number of committees at Lord's. His brother,

Peter Howland Peter may refer to: People * List of people named Peter, a list of people and fictional characters with the given name * Peter (given name) ** Saint Peter (died 60s), apostle of Jesus, leader of the early Christian Church * Peter (surname), a sur ...

, also played first-class cricket for Cambridge University in 1969. In 1983 Howland joined the fledgling cable television sports channel Screensport as marketing director.Sport cable group gets two major U.S. investors, ''The Stage'', 30 December 1983, p.12. He died in

Farnborough Farnborough may refer to: Australia * Farnborough, Queensland, a locality in the Shire of Livingstone United Kingdom * Farnborough, Hampshire, a town in the Rushmoor district of Hampshire, England ** Farnborough (Main) railway station, a railw ...

in 2010 aged 74.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Howland, Christopher 1936 births 2010 deaths People from Whitstable People educated at Dulwich College Alumni of Clare College, Cambridge English cricketers Sussex cricketers Kent cricketers Cambridge University cricketers Marylebone Cricket Club cricketers Combined Services cricketers Gentlemen cricketers Free Foresters cricketers