Edward Gower Wenman (18 August 1803 – 28 December 1879) 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 whose top-class career spanned the 1825 to 1854 seasons. A

wicket-keeper In cricket, the wicket-keeper is the Cricket player, player on the fielding (cricket), fielding side who stands behind the wicket, ready to stop Delivery (cricket), deliveries that pass the batsman, and take a Caught, catch, Stumped, stump the ...

, he was a prominent member of the great Kent teams of the 1840s which featured Nicholas Felix,

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 ...

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

Fuller Pilch Fuller Pilch (17 March 1804 – 1 May 1870) was an English first-class cricketer, active from 1820 to 1854. He was a right-handed batting (cricket), batsman who bowling (cricket), bowled at a slow pace with a Roundarm bowling, roundarm action. ...

. Wenman is generally remembered as one of the best wicket-keepers of the 19th century with William Martingell describing him as the best all-round cricketer of his time.Brown RJ ''The Cricketer''.
Available online
at

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. Retrieved 2024-06-08.)

Early life and family

Born at

Benenden Benenden is a village and civil parish in the borough of Tunbridge Wells in Kent, England. The parish is located on the Weald, to the west of Tenterden. In addition to the main village, Iden Green, East End, Dingleden and Standen Street set ...

in 1803, Wenman came from a cricketing family. His father, John, played for the village cricket team as did his cousins George and John Wenman and his half-brother Charles Wenman.Carlaw, pp. 563–567.Carlaw, p. 563. All three of his sons went on to play for the village side, with one,

William William is a masculine given name of Germanic languages, Germanic origin. It became popular in England after the Norman Conquest, Norman conquest in 1066,All Things William"Meaning & Origin of the Name"/ref> and remained so throughout the Middle ...

, going on to play first-class cricket.

Cricket career

Wenman made 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 ...

debut in an 1825 match between a Kent XI and a Sussex side. He went on to play for Kent sides both before and after the formation of

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 ...

in 1842. Of the 146 first-class matches in which he appeared, 61 were for Kent sides. He played 15 times for the Players against the Gentlemen between 1830 and 1844, having also appeared as a given man for the Gentlemen in the fixture in 1829. He played for MCC sides 26 times and played 18 times for England XIs during his career.Ned Wenman
CricketArchive. Retrieved 2024-06-08. In 1844 he retired and a benefit match was played for him at Hemsted Park near Benenden.A brief history of Benenden Cricket Club
Benenden Cricket Club, 2014-06-16. Retrieved 2017-12-02.Kent against England, ''The Sporting magazine; or Monthly calendar of the transactions of the turf, the chace, and every other diversion interesting to the man of pleasure and enterprize'', 1843, p.264.
Available online
Retrieved 2017-12-02). Two years later he resumed his career, playing top-level matches until 1854. In the 146 first-class matches that he is known to have played, Wenman scored 3,204 runs with a highest score of 73

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 ...

. When not keeping wicket, Wenman was considered an excellent slow right-arm underarm bowler who took at least 45 wickets with a best performance of six in an innings. He is credited with 118 catches and 87 stumpings.

Later life

Wenman worked as a carpenter and wheelwright in Benenden where he lived for the whole of his life. He married Hannah Richardson in 1830; the couple had three sons and two daughters. Wenman died at Benenden in 1879 aged 76.

Notes

References

Bibliography

*Carlaw D (2020) ''Kent County Cricketers A to Z. Part One: 1806–1914'' (revised edition).
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 2020-12-21.)

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wenman, Ned 1803 births 1879 deaths English cricketers of 1787 to 1825 English cricketers of 1826 to 1863 Kent cricketers North v South cricketers Hampshire cricketers Marylebone Cricket Club cricketers Married v Single cricketers Left-Handed v Right-Handed cricketers Gentlemen cricketers Cambridge Town Club cricketers Players cricketers West of England cricketers Non-international England cricketers Gentlemen of Nottinghamshire cricketers A to K v L to Z cricketers Fast v Slow cricketers Gentlemen of Kent cricketers People from Benenden Wicket-keepers Cricketers from Kent