Alfred Edward Johns (22 January 1868 – 13 February 1934) was an Australian

cricketer 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 ...

who 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 one of three or more days' scheduled duration between two sides of eleven players each and is officiall ...

for

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

and

Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Victoria (Australia), a state of the Commonwealth of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, provincial capital of British Columbia, Canada * Victoria (mythology), Roman goddess of Victory * Victoria, Seychelle ...

between 1895 and 1899.

Personal life

Born in

Hawthorn Hawthorn or Hawthorns may refer to: Plants * '' Crataegus'' (hawthorn), a large genus of shrubs and trees in the family Rosaceae * ''Rhaphiolepis'' (hawthorn), a genus of about 15 species of evergreen shrubs and small trees in the family Rosace ...

, Melbourne, he was one of eight children of Elizabeth (née Tudor) and

Peter Johns Peter Johns (19 April 1830 – 24 September 1899) was an Australian mechanical engineer who founded the company Johns & Waygood. History Johns was born in Pembroke, Wales, the son of builder Thomas Johns and his wife Elizabeth, née Tudor. He ...

, founder of the

lift Lift or LIFT may refer to: Physical devices * Elevator, or lift, a device used for raising and lowering people or goods ** Paternoster lift, a type of lift using a continuous chain of cars which do not stop ** Patient lift, or Hoyer lift, mobile ...

manufacturing firm Johns & Waygood. After attending Wesley College in Melbourne he studied law and practised as a lawyer in Melbourne. He gave up the law in 1899 when his father died, and succeeded his father as director of Johns & Waygood. Johns died in 1934 in Melbourne, aged 66.

Cricket career

Johns made his first-class debut for Victoria in a match against an A E Stoddart's XI in March 1895. A

wicket-keeper The wicket-keeper in the sport of cricket is the player on the fielding side who stands behind the wicket or stumps being watchful of the batsman and ready to take a catch, stump the batsman out and run out a batsman when occasion arises. Th ...

and left-handed batsman, he toured with the Australian national team to England twice in 1896 and 1899 without playing in a

Test Match Test match in some sports refers to a sporting contest between national representative teams and may refer to: * Test cricket * Test match (indoor cricket) * Test match (rugby union) * Test match (rugby league) * Test match (association football) ...

.. Unusually for an Australian player, over half of Johns' first-class matches were played in England rather than Australia. Johns returned early from the 1899 tour of England when his father died, and retired from cricket immediately.

Tom Horan Thomas Patrick Horan (8 March 1854 – 16 April 1916) was an Australian cricketer who played for Victoria and Australia, and later became an esteemed cricket journalist under the pen name "Felix". The first of only two players born in Ireland ...

wrote at the time that Johns was the best wicket-keeper Australia had ever had, apart from

Jack Blackham John McCarthy Blackham (11 May 1854 – 28 December 1932) was a Test cricketer who played for Victoria and Australia. A specialist wicket-keeper, Blackham played in the first Test match at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in March 1877 and the fam ...

References

External links

Johns' obituary
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" was first used in the 1930s by Alec Waugh in a ...

'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Johns, Alfred 1868 births 1934 deaths Cricketers from Melbourne Australian cricketers Victoria cricketers Melbourne Cricket Club cricketers Wicket-keepers People from Hawthorn, Victoria Australian people of Welsh descent

Personal life

Cricket career

See also

References

External links