Nicholas Wanostrocht (5 October 1804 – 3 September 1876), known as Nicholas Felix, was an English amateur "gentleman"

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. He was one of the few players who – at his request – was routinely known by his pseudonym, Felix. When his father died in 1824 he had inherited the running of his school, aged only nineteen, and he was afraid that the parents of pupils might think that cricket was too frivolous a pastime for a schoolmaster. Felix was a specialist left-handed batsman, although he did occasionally bowl underarm slow left-arm orthodox. He was a mainstay of the great

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 ...

team of the mid-19th century alongside such players as Alfred Mynn,

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. ...

, William Hillyer and Ned Wenman. In the words of the famous elegy, best loved of Bernard Darwin, :''And with five such mighty cricketers 'twas but natural to win'' :''As Felix, Wenman, Hillyer, Fuller Pilch and Alfred Mynn.'' Felix played for Kent from 1830 until 1852. He also appeared for MCC sides and was a member of William Clarke's All-England Eleven. In his overall first-class career, Felix played in 149 matches and scored 4,556 runs with a highest score of 113. He played at a time when prevailing conditions greatly favoured bowlers and was rated very highly as a batsman by his contemporaries.Carlaw D (2020) ''Kent County Cricketers A to Z. Part One: 1806–1914'' (revised edition), pp. 164–168.
Available online
at the Association of Cricket Statisticians and Historians. Retrieved 2020-12-21.) He was the author of a famous instruction book: ''Felix on the Bat'' published in 1845. He also invented the catapulta (a bowling machine) as well as India-rubber batting gloves. A man of many talents, he was also a classical scholar, musician, linguist, inventor, writer and artist. Felix died at Wimborne Minster in Dorset and is buried in Wimborne cemetery.

References

* ''Scores & Biographies, Volume 1'' by Arthur Haygarth * ''Barclays' World of Cricket'' – 2nd Edition, 1980, Collins Publishers, , p. 10.

External links

* *
Felix on the Bat
{{DEFAULTSORT:Felix, Nicholas English cricketers Kent cricketers Marylebone Cricket Club cricketers All-England Eleven cricketers Surrey cricketers Gentlemen cricketers North v South cricketers English cricketers of 1826 to 1863 1804 births 1876 deaths Cricket writers Surrey Club cricketers Left-Handed v Right-Handed cricketers Married v Single cricketers Nicholas Felix's XI cricketers Fast v Slow cricketers Gentlemen of Kent cricketers Cricketers from the London Borough of Southwark People from Camberwell