Cyril Bernard Fordham (22 September 1906 – 22 April 1988) 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. Fordham was a right-handed
batsman
In cricket, batting is the act or skill of hitting the ball with a bat to score runs and prevent the loss of one's wicket. Any player who is currently batting is, since September 2021, officially referred to as a batter (historically, th ...
who bowled right-arm
off break
Off spin is a type of finger spin bowling in cricket. A bowler who uses this technique is called an off spinner. Off spinners are right-handed spin bowlers who use their fingers to spin the ball. Their normal delivery is an off break, which sp ...
. He was born at
Puckeridge
Puckeridge is a village in East Hertfordshire, England with a population of 3,561 ( 2011 Census). It is in the civil parish of Standon.
History
The earliest known settlement was founded by the Catuvellauni, Celts from northeastern France. The ...
,
Hertfordshire.
Fordham made his debut in
county cricket
Inter-county cricket matches are known to have been played since the early 18th century, involving teams that are representative of the historic counties of England and Wales. Since the late 19th century, there have been two county championship ...
for
Hertfordshire against
Buckinghamshire
Buckinghamshire (), abbreviated Bucks, is a ceremonial county in South East England that borders Greater London to the south-east, Berkshire to the south, Oxfordshire to the west, Northamptonshire to the north, Bedfordshire to the north-eas ...
in the 1924
Minor Counties Championship
The NCCA 3 Day Championship (previously the Minor Counties Cricket Championship) is a season-long competition in England and Wales that is contested by the members of the National Counties Cricket Association (NCCA), the so-called national cou ...
. He played
Minor counties
The National Counties, known as the Minor Counties before 2020, are the cricketing counties of England and Wales that do not have first-class status. The game is administered by the National Counties Cricket Association (NCCA), which comes unde ...
cricket for Hertfordshire from 1924 to 1939, making 121 appearances, the last of which came against Buckinghamshire. During his career with the county, he scored nearly 6,000 runs at an
average
In ordinary language, an average is a single number taken as representative of a list of numbers, usually the sum of the numbers divided by how many numbers are in the list (the arithmetic mean). For example, the average of the numbers 2, 3, 4, 7, ...
of close to 33, and took nearly 200 wickets with the ball, at 17
apiece. In 1931, he was selected to play for a combined
Minor Counties
The National Counties, known as the Minor Counties before 2020, are the cricketing counties of England and Wales that do not have first-class status. The game is administered by the National Counties Cricket Association (NCCA), which comes unde ...
team, making his
first-class debut for the team against the touring
New Zealanders
New Zealanders ( mi, Tāngata Aotearoa), colloquially known as Kiwis (), are people associated with New Zealand, sharing a common history, culture, and language (New Zealand English). People of various ethnicities and national origins are citiz ...
at the
Rose Brothers Ground, Gainsborough. He made four further first-class appearances for the team during the thirties, the last of which came against
Oxford University
Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...
in 1937. In his five first-class appearances for the team, he scored a total of 414 runs at an average of 51.75, with a high score of 140. This score was one of two
centuries
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 ...
he made, both of which came against Oxford University in 1933, with his score of 140 in the Minor Counties first-innings accompanied by 100
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 t ...
in their second-innings. He also took 2 wickets with the ball overall, which came at an average of 45.50, with best figures of 2/34.
He died at
Bath,
Somerset
( en, All The People of Somerset)
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, on 22 April 1988.
References
External links
Cyril Fordhamat
ESPNcricinfo
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 ...
Cyril Fordhamat CricketArchive
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fordham, Cyril
1906 births
1988 deaths
People from East Hertfordshire District
English cricketers
Hertfordshire cricketers
Minor Counties cricketers