Alfred John William Croom (23 May 1896 – 16 August 1947) was an English

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 striki ...

er. He was a right-hand opening batsman and right-arm off-spin bowler who played for Warwickshire. Born in Reading,

Berkshire Berkshire ( ; in the 17th century sometimes spelt phonetically as Barkeshire; abbreviated Berks.) is a historic county in South East England. One of the home counties, Berkshire was recognised by Queen Elizabeth II as the Royal County of Berk ...

, Croom began his cricketing career with

in 1914. Following the First World War he played three more seasons of

minor counties cricket The National Counties, known as the Minor Counties before 2020, are the cricketing counties of England and Wales that do not have first-class status. The game is administered by the National Counties Cricket Association (NCCA), which comes unde ...

before joining Warwickshire. After single appearances in 1922 and 1923 he became a regular by the late 1920s.First-class Batting and fielding for each season
CricketArchive, Retrieved on 10 November 2008 Between 1922 and 1939 Croom played a total of 394 first-class matches for Warwickshire, he also represented an England XI, Sir Lindsay Parkinson's XI and appeared twice for the Players against the Gentlemen. Croom scored a total of 17,692 first-class runs at an average of 31.42, passing 1,000 runs in a season for twelve consecutive years between 1928 and 1939. His most productive season came in 1931 when he scored 1,584 runs at 38.63, including six centuries. Described by '' Wisden'' as sound and stylish, Croom scored 24 first-class centuries, the highest of which was an innings of 211 against Worcestershire at Edgbaston in 1934, sharing in a first-wicket stand of 272 with

Norman Kilner Norman Kilner (21 July 1895 – 28 April 1979) was an English first-class cricketer, who played 69 matches for Yorkshire County Cricket Club from 1919 to 1923, and 330 matches for Warwickshire from 1924 to 1937. He also appeared in first-clas ...

. Croom's off-spin bowling took 138 wickets at an average of 44.00, twice taking five wickets or more in an innings. His best figures were 6/65 against

Glamorgan , HQ = Cardiff , Government = Glamorgan County Council (1889–1974) , Origin= , Code = GLA , CodeName = Chapman code , Replace = * West Glamorgan * Mid Glamorgan * South Glamorgan , Motto ...

at Swansea in 1930. It was a good match for Croom as he scored 96 and took three further wickets. Croom held the Warwickshire partnership records for the 8th and 9th wicket, both set during the 1925 season. In May he scored 51 not out, batting at number 10, to share in a 154 run stand with

George Stephens George Stephens may refer to: *George Stephens (playwright) (1800–1851), English author and dramatist *George Stephens (philologist) (1813–1895), British archaeologist and philologist, who worked in Scandinavia * George Washington Stephens, Sr. ...

and in July he scored his maiden century as he shared in a 228 run partnership with Bob Wyatt which helped recover the Warwickshire innings from 77/7. The ninth wicket partnership with Stephens was surpassed in 2009 by Jonathan Trott and

Jeetan Patel Jeetan Shashi Patel (born 7 May 1980) is a former New Zealand international cricketer. A right arm off spin bowler, he plays for Wellington in New Zealand and Warwickshire in England. He is also the spin bowling coach for the England cricket ...

.Trott and Patel give Warwickshire hope

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 d ...

, Retrieved on 14 May 2009 Croom's son,

Leslie Leslie may refer to: * Leslie (name), a name and list of people with the given name or surname, including fictional characters Families * Clan Leslie, a Scottish clan with the motto "grip fast" * Leslie (Russian nobility), a Russian noble family ...

, played four matches for Warwickshire in 1949.

References

External links

*
Cricket Archive
{{DEFAULTSORT:Croom, Alfred 1896 births 1947 deaths Sportspeople from Reading, Berkshire English cricketers Warwickshire cricketers Berkshire cricketers Players cricketers English cricketers of 1919 to 1945