Thomas William Routledge (18 April 1867 – 9 May 1927) was a cricketer who played

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 ...

for

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in the 1890s. He was an attacking

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 occasional bowler. South Africans in England 1894

Thomas Routledge was born in England, where he learned his cricket, and he moved to South Africa in 1889. A hard-hitting batsman with a strong defence, he played

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 ...

for

Transvaal Transvaal is a historical geographic term associated with land north of (''i.e.'', beyond) the Vaal River in South Africa. A number of states and administrative divisions have carried the name ''Transvaal''. * South African Republic (1856–1902; ...

during the 1890s and appeared in four

Test Test(s), testing, or TEST may refer to: * Test (assessment), an educational assessment intended to measure the respondents' knowledge or other abilities Arts and entertainment * ''Test'' (2013 film), an American film * ''Test'' (2014 film) ...

matches for

against

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, all of them in South Africa. He was an aggressive batsman but often failed to convert a good start into a significant one, only twice reaching 50 in his 24 first-class

innings An innings is one of the divisions of a cricket match during which one team takes its turn to bat. Innings also means the period in which an individual player bats (acts as either striker or nonstriker). In cricket and rounders, "innings" is ...

. His first Test match was the sole representative match of England's visit in 1891–92, played at

Cape Town Cape Town is the legislature, legislative capital city, capital of South Africa. It is the country's oldest city and the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. Cape Town is the country's List of municipalities in South Africa, second-largest ...

. He also played in the three-match series of 1895–96 but in all his four Tests he could only manage a top score of 24 as England won each match convincingly. Routledge's highest first-class score was 77, scored in the 1893–94

Currie Cup The Currie Cup () is South Africa's premier domestic rugby union competition featuring teams representing either entire provinces or substantial regions within provinces. Although it is the premier domestic competition, four South African franc ...

match against Eastern Province at Cape Town. On the day the meeting was held to select South Africa's inaugural side to tour England in

1894 Events January * January 4 – A military alliance is established between the French Third Republic and the Russian Empire. * January 7 – William Kennedy Dickson receives a patent for motion picture film in the United States. * Ja ...

, Routledge made a century in a non-first-class match and secured his place as a result of it. None of the 24 matches on the tour have first-class status even though many of them were against first-class county clubs. He was the touring team's second-highest scorer, with 758 runs at an average of 20.21 and a highest score of 152. No obituary appeared in ''

Wisden Cricketers' Almanack ''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 ...

'' for Routledge after his death in 1927.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Routledge, Thomas 1867 births 1927 deaths South Africa Test cricketers South African cricketers Gauteng cricketers Cricketers from Liverpool