John Daniel Francis (born 13 November 1980) is an English former 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 who played

county cricket Inter-county cricket matches have been played since the early 18th century, involving teams that are representative of the historic counties of England and Wales. Two county championship competitions have existed since the late 19th century at ...

at first-class level for

Hampshire Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Berkshire to the north, Surrey and West Sussex to the east, the Isle of Wight across the Solent to the south, ...

and

Somerset Somerset ( , ), Archaism, archaically Somersetshire ( , , ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by the Bristol Channel, Gloucestershire, and Bristol to the north, Wiltshire to the east ...

as a

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 ...

Cricket career

Beginnings at Hampshire

Francis was born at

Bromley Bromley is a large town in Greater London, England, within the London Borough of Bromley. It is southeast of Charing Cross, and had an estimated population of 88,000 as of 2023. Originally part of Kent, Bromley became a market town, charte ...

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 November 1980. He grew up in

Southampton Southampton is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and unitary authority in Hampshire, England. It is located approximately southwest of London, west of Portsmouth, and southeast of Salisbury. Southampton had a population of 253, ...

, where he was educated at King Edward VI School. From there, he attended

Durham University Durham University (legally the University of Durham) is a collegiate university, collegiate public university, public research university in Durham, England, founded by an Act of Parliament (UK), Act of Parliament in 1832 and incorporated by r ...

, followed by

Loughborough University Loughborough University (abbreviated as ''Lough'' or ''Lboro'' for Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a public university, public research university in the market town of Loughborough, Leicestershire, England. It has been a university sinc ...

. Francis made his debut in

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

against

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 ...

in the 2001 County Championship, with him making a second appearance that against

Nottinghamshire Nottinghamshire (; abbreviated ''Notts.'') is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands of England. The county is bordered by South Yorkshire to the north-west, Lincolnshire to the east, Leicestershire to the south, and Derbyshire to the west. Th ...

Trent Bridge Trent Bridge Cricket Ground is a cricket ground mostly used for Test cricket, Test, One-day cricket, One-Day International and county cricket located in West Bridgford, Nottinghamshire, England, just across the River Trent from the city of Nott ...

. In that same season, he also made his debut in List A one-day cricket, making six appearances in the 2001 Norwich Union League, in which he scored 189 runs at an

average In colloquial, ordinary language, an average is a single number or value that best represents a set of data. The type of average taken as most typically representative of a list of numbers is the arithmetic mean the sum of the numbers divided by ...

of exactly 63. The following season, he was selected to play for the

British Universities cricket team The British Universities cricket team was a cricket team whose players were drawn from university students studying in Great Britain. The team played under the title of Combined Universities until 1995. The team played List A cricket from 1975 t ...

in a first-class match against the touring

Sri Lankans This is a demography of the population of Sri Lanka including population density, ethnicity, education level, health of the population, economic status, religious affiliations and other aspects of the population. Sri Lanka is an island in th ...

, in addition to making eight appearances in the 2002 County Championship for Hampshire, alongside ten one-day appearances 2002 Norwich Union League; against

Northamptonshire Northamptonshire ( ; abbreviated Northants.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East Midlands of England. It is bordered by Leicestershire, Rutland and Lincolnshire to the north, Cambridgeshire to the east, Bedfordshi ...

, he made what would be his only one-day

century 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. ...

with a score of 103

not out In cricket, a batsman is not out if they come out to bat in an innings and have not been dismissed by the end of an innings. The batsman is also ''not out'' while their innings is still in progress. Occurrence At least one batter is not out at ...

. Alongside James Adams and Chris Benham, he was one of three Loughborough University cricketers in Hampshire's 2002 squad. Loughborough University's representative team, Loughborough UCCE, were awarded first-class status for the 2003 season, with Francis playing in their inaugural first-class fixture against

. He played in all three of their first-class fixtures that season, in addition to playing for the British Universities against the touring Zimbabweans. Following his appearances for Loughborough, Francis made six appearances in the 2003 County Championship, alongside eleven one-day appearances in the

National League National League often refers to: *National League (baseball), one of the two baseball leagues constituting Major League Baseball in the United States and Canada *National League (division), the fifth division of the English football (soccer) system ...

. He was offered a two-year contract extension by Hampshire at the end of the 2003 season, but declined, departing at the end of the season alongside Iain Brunnschweiler and Alex Morris. In seventeen first-class matches for Hampshire, he scored 700 runs at an average of 24.13, making five half centuries. In 27 one-day appearances, he scored 818 runs at an average of 40.90, making six half centuries alongside his lone century.

Move to Somerset

In November 2003, Francis signed a three-year contract with Somerset, where his brother, Simon, also played. Upon signing for Somerset, Francis believed the move would boost his chances of playing internationally 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 ...

. During his first season at Somerset, he made ten first-class appearances, including eight in the

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 ...

; he scored his maiden first-class century during the season, with 109 runs 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 ...

; later in the season he made a second century with 110 runs against Hampshire. In addition to his fourteen one-day matches in 2004, Francis also made his

Twenty20 Twenty20 (abbreviated T20) is a shortened format of cricket. At the professional level, it was introduced by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) in 2003 for the county cricket, inter-county competition. In a Twenty20 game, the two t ...

debut against

Warwickshire Warwickshire (; abbreviated Warks) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the West Midlands (region), West Midlands of England. It is bordered by Staffordshire and Leicestershire to the north, Northamptonshire to the east, Ox ...

in the

2004 Twenty20 Cup The 2004 Twenty20 Cup was the second edition of what would later become the T20 Blast competition, England's premier domestic Twenty20 competition.. The finals day took place on 7 August at Edgbaston, Birmingham, and was won by the Leicestershi ...

. Francis had his most prolific first-class season in 2005, passing 1,000 runs for the season at an average of 40.84, and making his highest first-class score with an unbeaten 125 against Yorkshire at

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 ...

. In one-day cricket in 2005, Francis made twenty appearances, scoring 493 runs at an average of exactly 29. Despite his good form in 2005, Francis only featured in five first-class matches in 2006, alongside four one-day appearances and a lone Twenty20 appearance. He played four Twenty20 matches in the

2007 Twenty20 Cup The 2007 Twenty20 Cup was the fifth edition of what would later become the T20 Blast tournament, England's premier domestic Twenty20 competition. It ran between 22 June and 4 August 2007, and saw the Kent Spitfires win the tournament for the ...

, bring his total for Somerset to fourteen matches in that format, in which he scored 271 runs at an average of 27.10, with a highest score of 49. In 2007, he made just one first-class appearance against Loughborough UCCE, and did not feature for Somerset one-day cricket. The following season, he made two first-class and five one-day appearances. These bought his total first-class and one-day appearances for Somerset to 35 and 43 respectively. In first-class cricket for Somerset, he scored 1,857 runs at an average of 33.76; he made six centuries and nine half centuries. In one-day cricket, he scored 1,009 runs at an average of 29.67, making six half centuries with a highest score of 79. Francis retired from professional at the end of the 2008 season, citing a lack of opportunities at Somerset in his final three seasons as motivation for his decision to retire. Following his retirement, Francis went into business with the brother of

Wes Durston Wesley John Durston (born 6 October 1980) is an English cricketer who most recently played for Derbyshire, having represented Somerset between 1999 and 2009, and the Unicorns during the 2010 season. He learnt his cricket at Millfield School and ...

, his former teammate at Somerset, running a marquee business in the

South West of England South West England, or the South West of England, is one of the nine official regions of England, regions of England in the United Kingdom. Additionally, it is one of four regions that altogether make up Southern England. South West England con ...

. He continued to play

club cricket Club cricket is a mainly amateur, but still formal form of the sport of cricket, usually involving teams playing in competitions at weekends or in the evening. There is a great deal of variation in game format although the Laws of Cricket are obse ...

for Taunton St Andrews following his retirement from the professional game.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Francis, John 1980 births Living people People from Bromley Cricketers from the London Borough of Bromley People educated at King Edward VI School, Southampton Alumni of Durham University Alumni of Loughborough University English cricketers Hampshire Cricket Board cricketers Hampshire cricketers British Universities cricketers Loughborough MCCU cricketers Somerset cricketers