James "Jemmy" Dean (4 January 1816 – 25 December 1881) was an English first-class

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 with professional status. Mainly associated with

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, ...

, he is recorded in 305 matches from 1835 to 1861 which are generally designated first-class, totalling 5,115 runs at an average of 10.54 with a highest score of 99, holding 206 catches and taking 1,144 wickets with a best analysis of 9/34. Dean achieved 5 wickets in an innings 86 times and 10 wickets in a match 18 times. His nephews

David David (; , "beloved one") was a king of ancient Israel and Judah and the third king of the United Monarchy, according to the Hebrew Bible and Old Testament. The Tel Dan stele, an Aramaic-inscribed stone erected by a king of Aram-Dam ...

and James, both played first-class cricket.

Career

Dean was a right-handed

batsman In cricket, batting is the act or skill of hitting the cricket ball, ball with a cricket bat, bat to score runs (cricket), runs and prevent the dismissal (cricket), loss of one's wicket. Any player who is currently batting is, since Septembe ...

but was more notable as a bowler. He bowled right arm fast with a roundarm action. A good fielder, he occasionally played as a

wicketkeeper In cricket, the wicket-keeper is the player on the fielding side who stands behind the wicket, ready to stop deliveries that pass the batsman, and take a catch, stump the batsman out, or run out a batsman when occasion arises. The wicket-ke ...

. Although primarily a Sussex player, Dean played for numerous other teams but especially for the United All-England Eleven (UEE), from 1853 to 1858, of which he was the co-founder with his friend

John Wisden John Wisden (5 September 1826 – 5 April 1884) was an English cricketer who played 187 first-class cricket matches for three English county cricket teams, Kent, Middlesex and Sussex. His father, William, was a builder. He attended Brighton's ...

. Formerly, from 1848 to 1852, he had represented the All-England Eleven (AEE). In ''Scores & Biographies'', Arthur Haygarth describes Dean as "very stout for a cricketer" because he weighed 12 stone though his height was only 5 foot 7 inches. Dean's pace, says Haygarth, was "always straight and ripping, his balls getting up remarkably quick". He was a sawyer by trade and nicknamed "by some" as "The Ploughboy". Dean was engaged by MCC as a bowler in 1837 and remained ''in situ'' till he resigned at the end of the 1861 season. Haygarth, a contemporary, recounts that Dean began the UEE in 1852 "in conjunction with Wisden" and that his likeness, by John Corbett Anderson (see graphic) has been published by

Fred Lillywhite Frederick Lillywhite (7 July 1829 – 15 September 1866) was a sports outfitter and cricketing entrepreneur, who organised the first overseas cricket tour by an English team and published a number of reference works about cricket. Cricketing dyn ...

Harry Altham Harry Surtees Altham (30 November 1888 – 11 March 1965) was an English cricketer who became an important figure in the game as an administrator, historian and coach. His '' Wisden'' obituary described him as "among the best known personalitie ...

mentions Dean's "splendid work" for Sussex,

Marylebone Cricket Club The Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) is a cricket club founded in 1787 and based since 1814 at Lord's, Lord's Cricket Ground, which it owns, in St John's Wood, London, England. The club was the governing body of cricket from 1788 to 1989 and retain ...

(MCC) and the AEE before (importantly to Altham) Dean was in 1862 engaged as a coach at

Winchester College Winchester College is an English Public school (United Kingdom), public school (a long-established fee-charging boarding school for pupils aged 13–18) with some provision for day school, day attendees, in Winchester, Hampshire, England. It wa ...

. Altham then relates that Dean and Wisden founded the UEE in 1852 as a result of "profound dissatisfaction" with William Clarke's management of the AEE. Several leading players such as Jem Grundy and John Lillywhite joined them and Dean and Wisden became the joint secretaries of the UEE. In his ''Phoenix History'', Roy Webber says that interest in the AEE "dropped to reasonable proportions" after the initial sensation and offshoots began to appear, the first being Dean and Wisden's UEE in 1852 with "other sides to follow".

References

Bibliography

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Dean, Jemmy 1816 births 1881 deaths All-England Eleven cricketers Cricketers from West Sussex English cricketers of 1826 to 1863 Fast v Slow cricketers Gentlemen of England cricketers Gentlemen of Nottinghamshire cricketers Married v Single cricketers Marylebone Cricket Club and Metropolitan Clubs cricketers Marylebone Cricket Club cricketers Nicholas Felix's XI cricketers Non-international England cricketers North v South cricketers Over 30s v Under 30s cricketers People from Duncton Petworth cricketers Players cricketers Sussex cricketers United All-England Eleven cricketers