Frederick John Durston (11 July 1893 – 8 April 1965) was an English

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 ...

er who played for

Middlesex Middlesex (; abbreviation: Middx) is a Historic counties of England, former county in South East England, now mainly within Greater London. Its boundaries largely followed three rivers: the River Thames, Thames in the south, the River Lea, Le ...

and

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

. He is a member of the Middlesex Hall of Fame.

Cricket career

A tall fast bowler with the ability to make the ball "break back" after pitching, Durston came to the fore in Middlesex's

County Championship The County Championship, currently known for sponsorship reasons as the Rothesay County Championship, is the only domestic first-class cricket competition in England and Wales. Established in 1890, it is organised by the England and Wales Cri ...

-winning seasons of 1920 and 1921, having played only a handful of matches before then. In both years, he took more than 100

wicket In the sport of cricket, the term wicket has several meanings: * It is either of the two sets of three Stump (cricket), stumps and two Bail (cricket), bails at each end of the Cricket pitch, pitch. The Fielding (cricket), fielding team's playe ...

s and after taking 11 wickets for MCC against the all-conquering 1921 Australian team led by

Warwick Armstrong Warwick Windridge Armstrong (22 May 1879 – 13 July 1947) was an Australian cricketer who played 50 Test matches between 1902 and 1921. An all-rounder, he captained Australia in ten Test matches between 1920 and 1921, and was undefeated, winn ...

, he was picked for the second Test match on his home ground,

Lord's Lord's Cricket Ground, commonly known as Lord's, is a cricket List of Test cricket grounds, venue in St John's Wood, Westminster. Named after its founder, Thomas Lord, it is owned by Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) and is the home of Middlesex C ...

. But though he took five wickets for 136 runs in the match, he was dropped and never played for England again. Durston played for Middlesex until 1933, turning increasingly to

off-spin Off spin is a type of spin bowling in cricket. A bowler who uses this technique is called an off spinner. Off spinners bowl with their right-arm and a finger spin action. Their normal delivery is called an off break, which spins from left to ...

as he got older and stouter. In all, he took 1,314 wickets. His batting improved with age and in 1927 he shared an unbroken ninth-wicket partnership of 160 – scored in only 80 minutes – with

Patsy Hendren Elias Henry "Patsy" Hendren (5 February 1889 – 4 October 1962) was an English first-class cricketer, active 1907 to 1937, who played for Middlesex and England. He also had a concurrent career as a footballer and had a long tenure with Brentfo ...

against

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 ...

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 ...

that remained as a Middlesex record until 2011."'Long Jack' played in only one Test", ''

The Cricketer ''The Cricketer'' is a monthly English cricket magazine providing writing and photography from international, county, club and schools cricket. Overview The magazine was founded in 1921 by Sir Pelham Warner, an ex-England captain turned cric ...

'', 7 May 1965, p. 31. Durston ran an indoor cricket school at Acton in London from 1924 to 1958.

Football career

Durston also played

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

as a

goalkeeper In many team sports that involve scoring goal (sport), goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie, or keeper) is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by blocking or i ...

for

Royal Engineers The Corps of Royal Engineers, usually called the Royal Engineers (RE), and commonly known as the ''Sappers'', is the engineering arm of the British Army. It provides military engineering and other technical support to the British Armed Forces ...

Queens Park Rangers Queens Park Rangers Football Club, commonly abbreviated to QPR, is a professional association football club based in Shepherd's Bush, West London, England. The team currently compete in the EFL Championship, the second level of the English f ...

Brentford Brentford is a suburban town in West (London sub region), West London, England and part of the London Borough of Hounslow. It lies at the confluence of the River Brent and the River Thames, Thames, west of Charing Cross. Its economy has dive ...

Northfleet United Northfleet United Football Club was a football club based in Northfleet, Kent. Around 1890 organised team football was being played in the town and in 1892 the Northfleet F.C. club was founded. It flourished for a few years in the mid-1890s unt ...

and Bedford Town. The Hackney Gazette Newspaper reported that the Brentford registered goalkeeper Corporal Jack Durston made 2 appearances for Clapton Orient during the December holiday period of 1917 both against Chelsea. On Christmas Day at Chelsea in a 4–1 defeat and on Boxing Day a 2–1 defeat at Millfields, Homerton. Source: Neilson N. Kaufman, honorary historian of nearly fifty years to Leyton Orient FC.

Personal life

Durston served with the

during 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 ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Durston, Jack 1893 births 1965 deaths Military personnel from Bedfordshire Brentford F.C. players English men's footballers English cricketers England Test cricketers London Counties cricketers Middlesex cricketers Players cricketers Marylebone Cricket Club cricketers People from Central Bedfordshire District Northfleet United F.C. players Bedford Town F.C. players Men's association football goalkeepers Royal Engineers soldiers British Army personnel of World War I Royal Engineers A.F.C. players Queens Park Rangers F.C. players English cricketers of 1919 to 1945 20th-century English sportsmen Footballers from Bedfordshire Cricketers from Bedfordshire