John Collard Cocker (1815 – 27 March 1885), known as Joe Cocker, was an English

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 a single

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 ...

match for a Kent XI in 1842.John Cocker

CricInfo ESPNcricinfo (formerly known as Cricinfo or CricInfo) is a Sports journalism, sports news website exclusively for the game of cricket. The site features news, articles, live coverage of cricket matches (including Liveblogging, liveblogs and sco ...

. Retrieved 2020-07-23. He was a key figure in the development of cricket in

South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a States and territories of Australia, state in the southern central part of Australia. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories by area, which in ...

after emigrating to the colony in the 1840s and was the first

curator A curator (from , meaning 'to take care') is a manager or overseer. When working with cultural organizations, a curator is typically a "collections curator" or an "exhibitions curator", and has multifaceted tasks dependent on the particular ins ...

of the

Adelaide Oval The Adelaide Oval is a stadium in Adelaide in the state of South Australia. It is located in the Adelaide Parklands, parklands. The venue is predominantly used for cricket and Australian rules football, but has also played host to rugby league, ...

Early life

Cocker was born at Thurnham near

Maidstone Maidstone is the largest Town status in the United Kingdom, town in Kent, England, of which it is the county town. Maidstone is historically important and lies east-south-east of London. The River Medway runs through the centre of the town, l ...

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 ...

in 1815, the son of Thomas and Mary Cocker. His father was a farmer and John played cricket for sides such as

Leeds Leeds is a city in West Yorkshire, England. It is the largest settlement in Yorkshire and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds Metropolitan Borough, which is the second most populous district in the United Kingdom. It is built aro ...

Bearsted Bearsted ( , ) is a village and civil parishes in England, civil parish with a railway station in mid-Kent, England, two miles (3.2 km) east of Maidstone town centre. Geography The village was historically concentrated around Church Lan ...

and

Yalding Yalding is a village and civil parish in the Borough of Maidstone in Kent, England. The village is situated south west of Maidstone at a point where the Rivers Teise and Beult join the River Medway. At the 2001 census, the parish, which inclu ...

, where he played alongside players such as

Alfred Mynn Alfred Mynn (19 January 1807 – 1 November 1861) was an English first-class cricketer during the game's "Roundarm Era". He was a genuine all-rounder, being both an attacking right-handed batsman and a formidable right arm fast bowler. Cricket ...

and

William Hillyer William Richard Hillyer (5 March 1813 – 8 January 1861), was a prominent 19th century English professional cricketer for Kent County Cricket Club, Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) and many other sides in the days before county and international ...

and

Ned Wenman Edward Gower Wenman (18 August 1803 – 28 December 1879) was an English cricketer whose top-class career spanned the 1825 to 1854 seasons. A wicket-keeper, he was a prominent member of the great Kent teams of the 1840s which featured Nicholas ...

, all of whom were key players in the great Kent sides of the day.Carlaw D (2020) ''Kent County Cricketers A to Z. Part Two: 1919–1939'', pp. 114–115.
Available online
at the

Association of Cricket Statisticians and Historians The Association of Cricket Statisticians and Historians (ACS) was founded in England in 1973 for the purpose of researching and collating information about the history and statistics of cricket. Originally called the Association of Cricket Stati ...

. Retrieved 2020-07-01.) Cocker made his only first-class appearance for a Kent side in 1842 at

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 ...

just before the formation of the first

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 ...

.John Cocker
CricketArchive. Retrieved 2020-07-23. Although he did not play in any other first-class matches he seems to have been highly regarded as a lob bowler. He emigrated to Australia in 1846 and established a public house, the Kentish Arms, at Lower

North Adelaide North Adelaide is a predominantly residential precinct (Australia), precinct and suburb of the City of Adelaide in South Australia, situated north of the River Torrens and within the Adelaide Park Lands. Laid out in a grid plan in three section ...

.Adelaide Oval Tells History of Cricket
'' The Mail'', 1930-07-26. Retrieved 2020-07-23.

South Australia

In South Australia Cocker became an important part of the development of cricket in the colony. He was a "central figure" of the game in Adelaide and considered by the Secretary of the

Adelaide Cricket Club Adelaide Cricket Club or is a semi-professional cricket club in Adelaide, South Australia. It competes in the South Australian Grade Cricket League, which is administered by the South Australian Cricket Association (SACA). The Adelaide Cricket C ...

as the side's best player at the time. He became the first

of the ground which became the

and has been referred to as the "father of South Australian cricket". The Kentish Arms was a venue for cricket-related functions in the city. Cocker scored what is one of the first recorded

centuries A century is a period of 100 years or 10 decades. 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 ...

in South Australia. In a

single wicket Single wicket cricket is a form of cricket played between two individuals, who take turns to bat and bowl against each other. The one bowling is assisted by a team of fielders, who remain as fielders at the change of innings. The winner is the one w ...

challenge match against a seaman he is reported to have scored 109 runs, dismissing his opponent for less than 20 runs in return.

Family

Cocker married Harriet Foster at Newington in Surrey in 1842 before emigrating. The couple had two sons and six daughters. His sister, Mary, is believed to have married fellow immigrant Lewis Hollingworth, another Kent cricketer whom Cocker played alongside in club cricket and for

West Kent Kent is a traditional county in South East England with long-established human occupation. Prehistoric Kent Recent excavations and radiometric dating at a Lower Palaeolithic site at the West Gravel Pit, Fordwich, near Canterbury confirmed the ...

.Carlaw, pp. 262–263. Cocker died at Lower North Adelaide in 1885 aged 70.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Cocker, John 1815 births 1885 deaths English cricketers Kent cricketers People from the Borough of Maidstone Cricketers from Kent