Arthur Ernest Pothecary (1 March 1906 – 21 May 1991) was an English

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 ...

er. Pothecary was a left-handed

batsman In cricket, batting is the act or skill of hitting the ball with a bat to score runs and prevent the loss of one's wicket. Any player who is currently batting is, since September 2021, officially referred to as a batter (historically, the ...

who bowled

slow left-arm orthodox Left-arm orthodox spin, Left-arm off spin also known as slow left-arm orthodox spin bowling, is a type of Finger spin, left-arm finger spin bowling (cricket), bowling in the sport of cricket. Left-arm orthodox spin is bowled by a left-arm bow ...

spin. Pothecary made his first-class debut for

Hampshire County Cricket Club Hampshire County Cricket Club is one of eighteen first-class county clubs within the domestic cricket structure of England and Wales. It represents the historic county of Hampshire. Hampshire teams formed by earlier organisations, principal ...

in the 1927

County Championship The County Championship (referred to as the LV= Insurance County Championship for sponsorship reasons) is the domestic first-class cricket competition in England and Wales and is organised by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB). It bec ...

against

Surrey Surrey () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South East England, bordering Greater London to the south west. Surrey has a large rural area, and several significant urban areas which form part of the Greater London Built-up Area. ...

. Early in his career Pothecary was tried by the club as a replacement for the likes of

Phil Mead Charles Phillip Mead (9 March 1887 – 26 March 1958) was an English first-class cricketer. He played as a left-handed batsman for Hampshire and England between 1905 and 1936. He was born at 10 Ashton Buildings (since pulled down), second elde ...

George Brown George Brown may refer to: Arts and entertainment * George Loring Brown (1814–1889), American landscape painter * George Douglas Brown (1869–1902), Scottish novelist * George Williams Brown (1894–1963), Canadian historian and editor * G ...

, Jack Newman and

Alec Kennedy Alec or Aleck is a Scottish form of the given name Alex. It may be a diminutive of the name Alexander or a given name in its own right. Notable people with the name include: People * Alec Aalto (1942–2018), Finnish diplomat *Alec Acton (1938– ...

. Early in his career Pothecary showed signs of class, but although a consistent performer, Pothecary's potential was never fully realised. Pothecary represented Hampshire in 268 first-class matches from 1927 until the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

and played a further three for the county after the war in 1946, with his final appearance for the county coming in 1946 against

Sussex Sussex (), from the Old English (), is a historic county in South East England that was formerly an independent medieval Anglo-Saxon kingdom. It is bounded to the west by Hampshire, north by Surrey, northeast by Kent, south by the English ...

Dean Park Cricket Ground Dean Park is a cricket ground in Bournemouth, England, currently used by Bournemouth University Cricket Club, as well as by Parley Cricket Club and Suttoners Cricket Club. It was formerly used by Hampshire and Dorset County Cricket Clubs. This v ...

Bournemouth Bournemouth () is a coastal resort town in the Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole council area of Dorset, England. At the 2011 census, the town had a population of 183,491, making it the largest town in Dorset. It is situated on the Southern ...

. In his 271 matches for the county, Pothecary scored 9,447 runs at a

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 23.34, with 47 half centuries, 9 centuries and a high score of 130 against the touring

New Zealanders New Zealanders ( mi, Tāngata Aotearoa), colloquially known as Kiwis (), are people associated with New Zealand, sharing a common history, culture, and language (New Zealand English). People of various ethnicities and national origins are citiz ...

in 1937. Pothecary scored over 1,000 runs in a season on four occasions: 1933, 1936, 1937 and 1938. With the ball Pothecary took 52 wickets at a

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 41.14, with best figures of 4/47 which came on debut against Surrey; Pothecary's wickets included

Jack Hobbs Sir John Berry Hobbs (16 December 1882– 21 December 1963), always known as Jack Hobbs, was an English professional cricketer who played for Surrey from 1905 to 1934 and for England in 61 Test matches between 1908 and 1930. Known as "The Mast ...

Andy Sandham Andrew Sandham (6 July 1890 – 20 April 1982) was an English cricketer, a right-handed batsman who played 14 Test matches between 1921 and 1930. Sandham made the first triple century in Test cricket, 325 against the West Indies in 1930, and ...

, Alfred Jeacocke and Tom Shepherd. In the field Pothecary took 147 catches for Hampshire, fielding mostly at

cover point Fielding in the sport of cricket is the action of fielders in collecting the ball after it is struck by the striking batter, to limit the number of runs that the striker scores and/or to get a batter out by either catching a hit ball before ...

Later activities

Pothecary was appointed to the first-class

Umpires An umpire is an official in a variety of sports and competition, responsible for enforcing the rules of the sport, including sportsmanship decisions such as ejection. The term derives from the Old French nonper, ''non'', "not" and ''per'', ...

list in 1949, where from 1949 to 1958 he stood in 254 first-class matches, with his final match standing as an Umpire between an England XI and a Commonwealth XI. Pothecary later became a

groundsman Groundskeeping is the activity of tending an area of land for aesthetic or functional purposes, typically in an institutional setting. It includes mowing grass, trimming hedges, pulling weeds, planting flowers, etc. The U.S. Department of Labor e ...

, taking charge of the

Royal Air Force Sports Ground The Royal Air Force Sports Ground is a cricket ground in Uxbridge, situated behind RAF Uxbridge. The ground also goes by the name of Vine Lane, a nearby main road. It was first used in 1939 by the RAF. Teams such as the MCC, the Middlesex Crick ...

Uxbridge Uxbridge () is a suburban town in west London and the administrative headquarters of the London Borough of Hillingdon. Situated west-northwest of Charing Cross, it is one of the major metropolitan centres identified in the London Plan. Uxbrid ...

. Pothecary died at

Iver Iver is a large civil parish in Buckinghamshire, England. In addition to the central clustered village, the parish includes the residential neighbourhoods of Iver Heath and Richings Park. Geography, transport and economy Part of the 43-square- ...

Buckinghamshire Buckinghamshire (), abbreviated Bucks, is a ceremonial county in South East England that borders Greater London to the south-east, Berkshire to the south, Oxfordshire to the west, Northamptonshire to the north, Bedfordshire to the north-ea ...

on 21 May 1991.

Family

Pothecary's uncle

Sidney Pothecary Sidney George Pothecary (26 September 1886 – 31 October 1976) was an English first-class cricketer. Pothecary was born at Southampton in September 1886. He made his debut in first-class cricket for Hampshire County Cricket Club, Hampshire a ...

played 12 first-class matches for Hampshire.

External links

Arthur Pothecary
at

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 ...

Arthur Pothecary
at CricketArchive

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pothecary, Arthur 1906 births 1991 deaths Cricketers from Southampton English cricketers Hampshire cricketers English cricket umpires