Stephen John Patrick Moreton (born 9 September 1984) is a former Irish

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by st ...

er. Moreton is a right-handed batsman who bowls leg break. He was born at

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the We ...

, Warwickshire. While attending

Oxford Brookes University Oxford Brookes University (formerly known as Oxford Polytechnic) is a public university in Oxford, England. It is a new university, having received university status through the Further and Higher Education Act 1992. The university was named ...

, Moreton made his first-class debut for Oxford UCCE against

Gloucestershire Gloucestershire ( abbreviated Glos) is a county in South West England. The county comprises part of the Cotswold Hills, part of the flat fertile valley of the River Severn and the entire Forest of Dean. The county town is the city of Gl ...

at the University Parks in 2005. Moreton made five further first-class appearances for Oxford UCCE, the last of which came against Durham in 2006. In his seven first-class matches, he scored a total of 273 runs at an

average In ordinary language, an average is a single number taken as representative of a list of numbers, usually the sum of the numbers divided by how many numbers are in the list (the arithmetic mean). For example, the average of the numbers 2, 3, 4, 7, ...

of 24.81, with a high score of 74. This score, which was one of two half centuries he made came against

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated Lancs) is the name of a Historic counties of England, historic county, Ceremonial County, ceremonial county, and non-metropolitan county in North West England. The boundaries of these three areas differ significa ...

. With the ball, he took 8 wickets at a

bowling average In cricket, a player's bowling average is the number of runs they have conceded per wicket taken. The lower the bowling average is, the better the bowler is performing. It is one of a number of statistics used to compare bowlers, commonly use ...

of 37.12, with best figures of 2/24. In August 2005, Moreton was rated as having bowled the fifth worst over of all time by

Simon Lister Simon Lister (born London, 1969) is an English author. His first book, ''Supercat'', the authorised biography of the former West Indies captain, Clive Lloyd, was published by Stephen Chalke Stephen Chalke (born 5 June 1948) is an English ...

when writing for the website

Cricinfo ESPN cricinfo (formerly known as Cricinfo or CricInfo) is a sports news website exclusively for the game of cricket. The site features news, articles, live coverage of cricket matches (including liveblogs and scorecards), and ''StatsGuru'', a ...

. The over in question came on his first-class debut against Gloucestershire. Moreton was given the ball close to the close of play on day two of the match, by which stage Gloucestershire had a first-innings lead approaching 400 and Craig Spearman unbeaten on 136. Spearman dispatched Moreton's first

over Over may refer to: Places *Over, Cambridgeshire, England *Over, Cheshire, England *Over, South Gloucestershire, England *Over, Tewkesbury, near Gloucester, England **Over Bridge *Over, Seevetal, Germany Music Albums * ''Over'' (album), by Pete ...

in first-class cricket for 34 runs, hitting 6, 6, 6, 6, 4, 6, to advance his score to 170. The over ranks as the seventh most expensive of all time in first-class cricket. After playing first-class cricket for Oxford UCCE, Moreton had spells playing Second XI cricket for first-class county second XI's, while in 2007 he played a single Minor Counties Championship match for Staffordshire against

Suffolk Suffolk () is a ceremonial county of England in East Anglia. It borders Norfolk to the north, Cambridgeshire to the west and Essex to the south; the North Sea lies to the east. The county town is Ipswich; other important towns include L ...

. Having been unable to secure a career playing the game, Moreton moved onto coaching. In November 2010, he was named as the coach of the Ireland women's cricket team, replacing Paul Delany who had resigned earlier in the year. His appointment was on a temporary basis and he was later replaced by

Jeremy Bray Jeremy William Bray (29 June 193031 May 2002) was a British Labour politician and a Member of Parliament for 31 years. Early life and education Bray was born in British Hong Kong, the son of Reverend Arthur Bray, a Methodist missionary. He ...

References and notes

External links

Stephen Moreton
at

ESPNcricinfo ESPN cricinfo (formerly known as Cricinfo or CricInfo) is a sports news website exclusively for the game of cricket. The site features news, articles, live coverage of cricket matches (including liveblogs and scorecards), and ''StatsGuru'', a ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Moreton, Stephen 1984 births Living people Cricketers from Birmingham, West Midlands Alumni of Oxford Brookes University Irish cricketers Oxford MCCU cricketers Staffordshire cricketers English cricket coaches Irish cricket coaches English cricketers of the 21st century