Francis Marchant (22 May 1864 – 13 April 1946), known as Frank Marchant, 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. He was a right-handed batsman, an occasional wicket-keeper and the captain of

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 1890 to 1897.

Early life

Marchant was born at Matfield House in Matfield,

Kent Kent is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Essex across the Thames Estuary to the north, the Strait of Dover to the south-east, East Sussex to the south-west, Surrey to the west, and Gr ...

, the fourth son of Stephen Marchant.Francis Marchant

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. Retrieved 2018-12-10.Staplyton HEC (1900) ''Eton School Lists, 1853 to 1892'', p.405. Eton: Ingalton Drake.
Available online
Retrieved 2018-12-10.) After a term at Rugby School, he was educated at

Eton College Eton College ( ) is a Public school (United Kingdom), public school providing boarding school, boarding education for boys aged 13–18, in the small town of Eton, Berkshire, Eton, in Berkshire, in the United Kingdom. It has educated Prime Mini ...

and

Trinity College, Cambridge Trinity College is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1546 by King Henry VIII, Trinity is one of the largest Cambridge colleges, with the largest financial endowment of any ...

.Marchant, Mr Francis
Obituaries in 1946, ''

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 ...

'', 1947. Retrieved 2018-12-10. He played cricket at both, winning a cricket

Blue Blue is one of the three primary colours in the RYB color model, RYB colour model (traditional colour theory), as well as in the RGB color model, RGB (additive) colour model. It lies between Violet (color), violet and cyan on the optical spe ...

each season from 1884 to 1887 and a Blue in

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in 1885 and 1886. He captained the Cambridge side in his final year there.Venn J, Venn JA (1951) ''Alumni cantabrigienses'', part II, vol.4, p.316. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Available online
Retrieved 2018-12-10.)

Cricket

Marchant 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 in August 1883 after finishing at Eton and before going up to Cambridge. Lord Harris, the most influential figure in Kent cricket at the time, had happened to ask Marchant if he was eligible to play for Kent during a break in play at the Eton v Harrow match at Lord's earlier in the summer,Moore D (1988) ''The History of Kent County Cricket Club'', p.46. London: Christopher Helm. during which Marchant had scored 93 runs in a "delightful display" of batting. He played twice for Kent in that summer, making his debut against

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 ...

at Gravesend.Frank Marchant
CricketArchive. Retrieved 2018-12-10. He went on to play for both Kent and Cambridge over the next four seasons, winning his cricket Blue as a

freshman A freshman, fresher, first year, or colloquially frosh, is a person in the first year at an educational institution, usually a secondary school or at the college and university level, but also in other forms of post-secondary educational in ...

in 1884 and his county cap the following season.Kent County Cricket Club - Capped Players from 1882

. Retrieved 2024-05-07. His '' Wisden'' obituary said that he was "rather disappointing for a player of such promise" at Cambridge but went on to do "some great things for Kent" in county cricket. Marchant went on to appear regularly for Kent until 1898, playing in 226 first-class matches for the county side as well as making 32 appearances for Cambridge. He scored seven of his eight centuries for Kent, including his highest score of 176 made against

Sussex Sussex (Help:IPA/English, /ˈsʌsɪks/; from the Old English ''Sūþseaxe''; lit. 'South Saxons'; 'Sussex') is an area within South East England that was historically a kingdom of Sussex, kingdom and, later, a Historic counties of England, ...

at Gravesend in 1889. This was his maiden century and saw him score over 100 runs before lunch.Milton H (1999) ''The Bat & Ball Gravesend'', p.113. Gravesend: Gravesend Cricket Club. In 1896 came close to scoring centuries in both innings of a match against

Yorkshire Yorkshire ( ) is an area of Northern England which was History of Yorkshire, historically a county. Despite no longer being used for administration, Yorkshire retains a strong regional identity. The county was named after its county town, the ...

. He has been described as being "a brilliant hitter in front of the wicket, especially on the leg side"Moore ''op. cit.'', p.43. and a "brilliant and stylish batsman". Writing in ''Wisden'' in 1907, George Marsham was of the opinion that he "should prefer to watch an innings of his when in his best form to that of any other batsman of his time" and described Marchant as "a magnificent field" and "a brilliant but uncertain batsman".Marsham G (1907
A short history of Kent cricket
''

'', 1907. Retrieved 2018-12-10. From 1890 to 1893 Marchant captained the Kent side during the first half of each season, William Patterson taking over the captaincy during his summer holidays, his profession as a

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making it impossible for him to play a whole season.William Patterson
Obituaries in 1947, ''

'', 1947. Retrieved 2018-12-10. Kent's fortunes at the time were mixed and after a successful first season captaining together, during with the touring Australians were beaten at

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 ...

, 1891 was "one of the worst in the club's history".Moore ''op. cit.'', p.45. Between 1894 and 1897 Marchant captained the side alone before resigning as captain after a disappointing season in 1897 when he was rarely able to field the best Kent XI,Rice T (1997
Burnup and other absent friends left Kent out in the cold
ESPN, 1997-07-16. Retrieved 2018-12-10. Jack Mason taking over with Marchant continuing to play regularly in 1898 and 1899. After not playing at all in 1900, he played eight matches in each of 1901 and 1902 and then just three more before his final match in 1905. As well as matches for Kent and Cambridge, Marchant played six times for MCC, including in one match against the touring Australian side in 1893 when he scored 103 runs, an innings which ''Wisden'' called "most famous performance". He played for the Gentlemen against the Players just once, in 1887, and made occasional appearances for other first-class sides. In club cricket he played for amateur sides such as Band of Brothers, a team closely associated with Kent,Monteuuis AH
Our History
Band of Brothers CC. Retrieved 2018-12-10. Eton Ramblers, I Zingari and Free Foresters.

Personal life

Marchant was President of Kent County Cricket Club in 1934 and professionally was a director of Saunders and Co, a paper making company. He was married to Torfrida Marchant.Deaths, ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British Newspaper#Daily, daily Newspaper#National, national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its modern name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its si ...

'', 1946-04-15, p.1. He died in 1946 at the age of 82 at

Roehampton Roehampton is an area in southwest London, sharing its SW15 postcode with neighbouring Putney and Kingston Vale, and takes up a far western strip, running north to south, in the London Borough of Wandsworth. It contains a number of large counc ...

in London and was buried at Hayes in Kent.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Marchant, Frank 1864 births 1946 deaths Kent cricketers Kent cricket captains Cambridge University cricketers Marylebone Cricket Club cricketers English cricketers Gentlemen cricketers Alumni of Trinity College, Cambridge People educated at Rugby School People educated at Eton College C. I. Thornton's XI cricketers People from Matfield Cricketers from Kent Burials in Kent