Leslie Thomas Cobcroft (12 February 1867 – 9 March 1938) was a

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 ...

er in Australia and New Zealand who went on to umpire

Test cricket Test cricket is a Forms of cricket, format of the sport of cricket, considered the game’s most prestigious and traditional form. Often referred to as the "ultimate test" of a cricketer's skill, endurance, and temperament, it is a format of i ...

. Cobcroft was born in

Muswellbrook Muswellbrook ( ) is a town in the Upper Hunter Region of New South Wales, Australia, about north of Sydney and north-west of Newcastle, New South Wales, Newcastle. Geologically, Muswellbrook is situated in the northern parts of the Sydney bas ...

New South Wales New South Wales (commonly abbreviated as NSW) is a States and territories of Australia, state on the Eastern states of Australia, east coast of :Australia. It borders Queensland to the north, Victoria (state), Victoria to the south, and South ...

. He became a

solicitor A solicitor is a lawyer who traditionally deals with most of the legal matters in some jurisdictions. A person must have legally defined qualifications, which vary from one jurisdiction to another, to be described as a solicitor and enabled to p ...

. A right-hand

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

off-break Off spin is a type of spin bowling in cricket. A bowler who uses this technique is called an off spinner. Off spinners bowl with their right-arm and a finger spin action. Their normal delivery is called an off break, which spins from left to ...

bowler, he played 23 matches of first-class cricket from 1895–96 to 1909–10. He captained the

side that toured New Zealand in 1895–96. He settled in New Zealand, and played for

Canterbury Canterbury (, ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and UNESCO World Heritage Site, in the county of Kent, England; it was a county borough until 1974. It lies on the River Stour, Kent, River Stour. The city has a mild oceanic climat ...

from 1897–98 to 1899–1900 and for

Wellington Wellington is the capital city of New Zealand. It is located at the south-western tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Remutaka Range. Wellington is the third-largest city in New Zealand (second largest in the North Island ...

from 1906–07 to 1909–10. He was the third captain for New Zealand in first-class cricket, captaining the side that toured Australia in 1898–99. He also captained Canterbury, Wellington and

Wairarapa The Wairarapa (; ), a geographical region of New Zealand, lies in the south-eastern corner of the North Island, east of metropolitan Wellington and south-west of the Hawke's Bay Region. It is lightly populated, having several rural service t ...

sides. In first-class games, he scored a total of 868 runs in 42 innings, at the relatively low

batting average Batting average is a statistic in cricket, baseball, and softball that measures the performance of batters. The development of the baseball statistic was influenced by the cricket statistic. Cricket In cricket, a player's batting average is ...

of 21.70, including 5 half-centuries. He made his highest score, 85 not out,

carrying his bat In cricket, the term carry the bat (or carry one's bat) refers to an opening batsman (no. 1 and 2) who is not dismissed ("not out") when the team innings is closed. The term is mainly used when the innings closes after all 10 wickets have falle ...

for New South Wales against Wellington in December 1895. He took 37

wickets In the sport of cricket, the term wicket has several meanings: * It is either of the two sets of three stumps and two bails at each end of the pitch. The fielding team's players can hit the wicket with the ball in a number of ways to get a ...

at the excellent

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 18.97, with best bowling of 6/23 for Canterbury against Wellington in December 1899 (he also hit 70 and 44 with the bat in that match). His only other 5-wicket haul came for Wellington against Otago in December 1907: he took 4/20 and 5/87 in that match. He umpired 14 first-class matches from March 1925 to February 1935, all in New Zealand. He umpired three Test matches: the 2nd, 3rd and 4th Tests between

New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...

and

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 ...

, played consecutively in New Zealand in January and February 1930. He stood with Ken Cave in all three matches, which were all drawn. The 2nd Test was played at

Basin Reserve The Basin Reserve, also known as the Cello Basin Reserve for sponsorship reasons, and commonly referred to as the Basin, is a cricket ground in Wellington, New Zealand. It is used for Test cricket, Test matches, and is the main home ground of t ...

in Wellington. The first two days of the 3rd Test at

Eden Park Eden Park is a sports venue in Auckland, New Zealand. It is located three kilometres southwest of the Auckland CBD, on the boundary between the suburbs of Mount Eden and Kingsland. The main stadium has a nominal capacity of 50,000, and is s ...

Auckland Auckland ( ; ) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. It has an urban population of about It is located in the greater Auckland Region, the area governed by Auckland Council, which includes outlying rural areas and ...

were washed out, so the 4th Test was arranged a week later. He contributed a cricket column in the weekly ''

New Zealand Truth ''NZ Truth'' was a tabloid newspaper published weekly in New Zealand from 1905 to 2013. History ''NZ Truth'' was founded in 1905 by Australian John Norton in Wellington, as a New Zealand edition of his Sydney ''Truth'', aiming a sensational ...

'' during the cricket seasons from September 1922 to March 1927, beginning with a series on the reasons why the standard of New Zealand cricket was inferior to Australia's. He was also a cricket coach. For the last 15 years of his life he worked as a clerk in the railways, and died at his home in

Petone Petone (Māori language, Māori: ''Pito-one'') is a large suburb of Lower Hutt, Wellington, New Zealand. It stands at the southern end of the Hutt Valley, on the northern shore of Wellington Harbour. Europeans first settled in Petone in Januar ...

. He and his wife Ethel had two daughters and a son.''

Evening Post ''Evening Post'' or ''The Evening Post'' may refer to the following newspapers: United Kingdom * ''Evening Post'' (London) (1710–1732), then ''Berington's Evening Post'' (1732–1740) * ''London Evening Post'' (1727–1797) * '' ...

'', 9 March 1938, p. 13.

References

External links

*
Obituaries in 1938
''

Wisden ''Wisden Cricketers' Almanack'', or simply ''Wisden'', colloquially the Bible of Cricket, is a cricket reference book published annually in the United Kingdom. The description "Bible of cricket" (or variations thereof) has been applied to ''Wi ...

'' 1939 {{DEFAULTSORT:Cobcroft, Thomas 1867 births 1938 deaths Australian Test cricket umpires Australian cricketers New Zealand cricketers Pre-1930 New Zealand representative cricketers Canterbury cricketers New South Wales cricketers Wellington cricketers Cricketers from New South Wales Australian emigrants to New Zealand Australian solicitors Cricket writers Sportspeople from Muswellbrook