Vallance William Crisp Jupp (27 March 1891 – 9 July 1960) was an amateur

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 who played for

Sussex Sussex (Help:IPA/English, /ˈsʌsɪks/; from the Old English ''Sūþseaxe''; lit. 'South Saxons'; 'Sussex') is an area within South East England that was historically a kingdom of Sussex, kingdom and, later, a Historic counties of England, ...

and

Northamptonshire Northamptonshire ( ; abbreviated Northants.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East Midlands of England. It is bordered by Leicestershire, Rutland and Lincolnshire to the north, Cambridgeshire to the east, Bedfordshi ...

. Jupp also played eight Test matches for

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 ...

, and was named as one of the five

Wisden Cricketers of the Year The ''Wisden'' Cricketers of the Year are cricketers selected for the honour by the annual publication ''Wisden Cricketers' Almanack'', based "primarily for their influence on the previous English season". The award began in 1889 with the naming ...

in 1928.

Biography

Born 27 March 1891 in

Burgess Hill Burgess Hill () is a town and civil parish in West Sussex, England, close to the border with East Sussex, on the edge of the South Downs National Park, south of London, north of Brighton and Hove, and northeast of the county town, Chichester. ...

, Sussex, England, Jupp started his career in 1909 with Sussex, before moving to Northamptonshire in 1921 to take up the secretaryship of the club. This provided Jupp with an income and allowed him to retain his status as an "amateur" cricket player (he was paid to be club secretary, not to play cricket). After he qualified to play for Northamptonshire by residence, he assisted that county, and by 1927 was, in Wisden's opinion, the best all-round amateur in

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 ...

at the time. Jupp played regularly for Sussex after his first year with them, making such steady improvement that in 1914, with a highest innings of 217 not out, against Worcestershire at Worcester, he finished third in the batting figures, and had an average of over 36. In that season he scored over 1,500 runs and, with fifty-one wickets, headed the bowling. By this time it was obvious Sussex had discovered one of the most promising all-round players in the country. On the outbreak of the First World War he joined the Royal Engineers in December 1914, and served in France, Salonika and Palestine where he transferred as a cadet to the Royal Air Force (despite this absence, Jupp features helping out at a fête in Sussex in 1915 in William Boyd's novel ''Waiting for Sunrise''). Demobilised in July 1919, he played for Sussex as an amateur in the remaining matches of that season, and very quickly showed that over four years absence from cricket had not impaired his powers. In 1921 he scored nearly 2,000 runs, heading the county batting with an average of over 47, and took 93 wickets for rather less than 23 runs apiece, At the end of the summer of 1920 he received an invitation to be a member of the

Marylebone Cricket Club The Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) is a cricket club founded in 1787 and based since 1814 at Lord's, Lord's Cricket Ground, which it owns, in St John's Wood, London, England. The club was the governing body of cricket from 1788 to 1989 and retain ...

(MCC) team in

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

, but was unable to accept. Two years afterwards, however, he went to

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

under the captaincy of Frank Mann, but did not reproduce his English form. In 1921 he played for England against Australia at

Trent Bridge Trent Bridge Cricket Ground is a cricket ground mostly used for Test cricket, Test, One-day cricket, One-Day International and county cricket located in West Bridgford, Nottinghamshire, England, just across the River Trent from the city of Nott ...

and

Headingley Headingley is a suburb of Leeds, West Yorkshire, England, approximately two miles out of the city centre, to the north west along the A660 road. Headingley is the location of the Beckett Park campus of Leeds Beckett University and Headingley ...

. He went on to play four Tests against

in 1922/3 and two Tests against the

West Indies The West Indies is an island subregion of the Americas, surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea, which comprises 13 independent island country, island countries and 19 dependent territory, dependencies in thr ...

in 1928. As a batsman Jupp struck the happy medium between enterprise and caution. He watched the ball so well that when occasion demanded he could play a rigidly defensive game, while on a fast wicket there were few cricketers of his day better worth watching. He possessed a wide variety of strokes, and could drive or cut with equal power and facility. His footwork, too, was so good that on a treacherous pitch he was a particularly valuable batsman. Before the First World War, and for a time afterwards he bowled medium pace rather on the quick side, but later took a shorter run, and became a slow to slow-medium bowler. Few bowlers of the 1920s spun the ball as much as he did and, with a wicket to help him, he could make it turn to a pronounced degree. One of the secrets of his success as a bowler was his cleverness in adapting himself to the changing conditions of a pitch. He was also rated as a brilliant fieldsman at cover point. In 1927 Jupp became captain of Northamptonshire, a post he held until 1931. He continued as a player for the county until 1939. Jupp achieved the double of 1,000 runs and 100 wickets in a season ten times, and along with Freddie Brown is one of the only two cricketers to have achieved that feat for two different teams. Ironically, his best season as a bowler was the one after the one for which he was named Wisden Cricketer of the Year – in 1928 he took 166 wickets at 20.15. He continued playing first-class cricket for Northamptonshire until 1938, but did not play at all in 1934 or 1935. This is because of the fact – unmentioned by ''Wisden'' at the time – that he had been convicted of

manslaughter Manslaughter is a common law legal term for homicide considered by law as less culpable than murder. The distinction between murder and manslaughter is sometimes said to have first been made by the ancient Athenian lawmaker Draco in the 7th ce ...

after his car had been in collision with a motorcycle, killing the latter's pillion passenger. Jupp was sentenced to nine months in prison, and was released in June 1935 after serving half his sentence, but did not play cricket again until the following year. Jupp collapsed and died in the garden at his home in Spratton on 9 July 1960. He was 69.

References

External links

*
Wisden's citation of Jupp as a Cricketer of the Year in 1928
this text, being more than 70 years old is now out of copyright and much of this article has been based on it.

{{DEFAULTSORT:Jupp, Vallance 1891 births 1960 deaths England Test cricketers Northamptonshire cricketers Northamptonshire cricket captains Sussex cricketers Wisden Cricketers of the Year People from Burgess Hill English people convicted of manslaughter Marylebone Cricket Club cricketers Gentlemen cricketers North v South cricketers Cricketers who have taken ten wickets in an innings English cricketers of 1919 to 1945 20th-century English sportsmen H. D. G. Leveson Gower's XI cricketers Lord Hawke's XI cricketers C. I. Thornton's XI cricketers L. G. Robinson's XI cricketers Marylebone Cricket Club South African Touring Team cricketers Cricketers from East Sussex