Joseph Vine (15 May 1875 – 25 April 1946) was a professional

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, who played 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 ...

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 c ...

and London County. Vine also played two Test matches for

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 ...

and was named as one of the five

Wisden Cricketers of the Year The ''Wisden'' Cricketers of the Year are cricketers selected for the honour by the annual publication ''Wisden Cricketers' Almanack'', based "primarily for their influence on the previous English season". The award began in 1889 with the naming ...

in 1906. Vine's cricket career was not one of a rapid rise to fame. Although he played his first first-class match in 1896, it was not until 1900, after some tentative appearances in the three previous seasons, that he earned a regular place in the Sussex eleven. After that, however, he was indispensable. He was essentially a county cricketer, nearly all his work having been done for Sussex, but if, in addition to his batting and fielding, he had managed to retain his skill as a leg-break bowler it is quite likely that he would have played for

before he played his two Test matches in 1911/2. Already a dependable player, he made a great advance as a batsman in 1904 and during 1905 he was better than he had ever been before, scoring for Sussex in county matches alone over sixteen hundred runs. Good as his position is he would probably have been thought still more of if he had belonged to another county. A batsman would need to be great indeed to play on the same side as

Ranjitsinhji Colonel Kumar Sri Sir Ranjitsinhji Vibhaji II, (10 September 1872 – 2 April 1933), often known as Ranji or K. S. Ranjitsinhji, was an Indian cricketer who later became ruler of his native Indian princely state of Nawanagar State, Nawan ...

and C.B. Fry, and not be overshadowed. His success as a batsman was largely gained in a series of first-wicket partnerships with Fry, and though he may at times carry caution a little too far and keep an undue check on his hitting powers, the result is nearly always so satisfactory that it would be sheer hypercriticism to find fault with him. As an outfield Vine has not the wonderful pick-up of Denton, but in every other respect was in the highest class, and in the course of a season at the beginning of the twentieth century, perhaps no one saved a larger number of runs. In total Vine played 547 first-class matches, which included 421 consecutive appearances for Sussex. Soon after retiring from county cricket Joe Vine became coach at Brighton College, an office he held for many years. He died aged 70 in 1946.

References

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Citation for Wisden Cricketer of the Year in 1906
This citation is now out of copyright and this article is based in part on this citation. * {{DEFAULTSORT:Vine, Joe 1875 births 1946 deaths People from Willingdon England Test cricketers English cricketers London County cricketers Sussex cricketers Wisden Cricketers of the Year Marylebone Cricket Club cricketers North v South cricketers Players cricketers Players of the South cricketers Marylebone Cricket Club Australian Touring Team cricketers Cricketers from East Sussex