John Erskine Scott Walford (14 August 1899 – 22 August 1961) 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. 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 ...

and right-arm

fast-medium Fast bowling (also referred to as pace bowling) is a type of bowling in cricket, in which the ball is delivered at high speed. The fastest bowlers bowl the ball at over . Practitioners of fast bowling are known as fast bowlers or quicks. Also i ...

bowler, he played 11 first-class matches between 1923 and 1932,CricketArchive profile
/ref> six for

Worcestershire Worcestershire ( , ; written abbreviation: Worcs) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the West Midlands (region), West Midlands of England. It is bordered by Shropshire, Staffordshire, and the West Midlands (county), West ...

and five for the

British Army cricket team The Army cricket team is a cricket team representing the British Army. The Army team played 51 first-class matches between 1912 and 1939, although a combined Army and Navy team had played two games against a combined Oxford and Cambridge team ...

. He also represented the

Egypt national cricket team The Egypt national cricket team was the team that represented the country of Egypt in international cricket matches. They were active from 1909 until World War II.Encyclopedia of World Cricket by Roy Morgan, Sportsbooks Publishing History Earl ...

.Other matches played by John Walford
at CricketArchive

Biography

Born in Hanbury Mount,

, Walford made his debut for Worcestershire against

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, ...

in July 1923,First-class matches played by John Walford
at CricketArchive although he did not get to bowl and made only 11 and 5 with the bat. Indeed, he played largely as a batsman that season, bowling only half a dozen overs in five matches and gaining no reward.
at CricketArchive He did however manage what was to remain his highest score when he hit 31 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 ...

in his second match. There then followed six years in which Walford played no first-class cricket, before he returned to play for the Army against the RAF at

The Oval The Oval, currently named for sponsorship reasons as the Kia Oval, is an international cricket ground in Kennington, located in the borough of Lambeth, in south London. The Oval has been the home ground of Surrey County Cricket Club sinc ...

in July 1930. In the first innings of this match he claimed his first wicket, that of

Ronald Sugden Ronald Scott Sugden (25 May 1896 – 26 March 1971) was an English first-class cricketer and Royal Air Force officer. He initially served in the Royal Navy during the First World War, transferring in 1916 to the Royal Naval Air Service. With the ...

, and went on to take five more to finish with what would remain his career best of 6–27. (He also took two wickets in the second innings.) In the next two years, he played four more times for the Army, and consistently took wickets, a notable performance being his 6–31 against the

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) in August 1931.Scorecard
of MCC v Army, 15 August 1931 at CricketArchive He also turned out one more time for Worcestershire, 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 ...

in 1930. His last first-class match was for the Army against the RAF in June 1932, after which he continued to play at lower levels. He played for the MCC against the

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

in 1937 and 1939 and against

Ireland Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...

in 1939. Earlier that year, he played twice for Egypt against HM Martineau's XI. He died at Ravenscourt Park,

Hammersmith Hammersmith is a district of West London, England, southwest of Charing Cross. It is the administrative centre of the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham, and identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London. It ...

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

a few days after his 62nd birthday.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Walford, John 1899 births 1961 deaths People from Wychavon (district) Egyptian cricketers English cricketers Worcestershire cricketers British Army cricketers Worcestershire Regiment officers Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers officers Military personnel from Worcestershire Cricketers from Worcestershire 20th-century British Army personnel 20th-century English sportsmen