Beaumont Cranfield (28 August 1872 – 20 January 1909) was an English professional

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 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

Somerset County Cricket Club Somerset 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 Somerset. Founded in 1875, Somerset was initially regarded as a minor ...

and the

Marylebone Cricket Club Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) is a cricket club founded in 1787 and based since 1814 at Lord's Cricket Ground, which it owns, in St John's Wood, London. The club was formerly the governing body of cricket retaining considerable global influence ...

(MCC) between 1897 and 1908. A

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 ...

bowler, Cranfield took 621 wickets in first-class cricket, and took 100 or more wickets in a season in three successive years at his peak. Cranfield first played for Somerset in 1897, and took five wickets on his debut. Somerset hoped that he would be able to replace

Ted Tyler Edwin ("Ted") James Tyler (13 October 1864 in Kidderminster, Worcestershire, England – 25 January 1917 in North Town, Taunton, Somerset, England) was a cricketer who played first-class cricket for Somerset County Cricket Club between 1891 Eng ...

, whose career was effectively ended in 1900 when he was repeatedly

no-ball In cricket, a no-ball is a type of illegal delivery to a batter (the other type being a wide). It is also a type of extra, being the run awarded to the batting team as a consequence of the illegal delivery. For most cricket games, especially a ...

ed for

throwing Throwing is an action which consists in accelerating a projectile and then releasing it so that it follows a ballistic trajectory, usually with the aim of impacting a remote target. This action is best characterized for animals with prehensile l ...

. At his prime, Cranfield was capable of bowling with significant curve, sufficient to allow him to place almost all of his fielders on the

leg side The leg side, or on side, is defined to be a particular half of the field used to play the sport of cricket. It is the side of the field that corresponds to the batsman's non-dominant hand, from their perspective. From the point of view of a righ ...

. However, he lacked consistency, particularly regarding the length of his bowling. In 1901, 1902 and 1903, Cranfield took 100 or more wickets in first-class cricket, peaking in the middle year, when he claimed 141, at an

average In ordinary language, an average is a single number taken as representative of a list of numbers, usually the sum of the numbers divided by how many numbers are in the list (the arithmetic mean). For example, the average of the numbers 2, 3, 4, 7, ...

of 18.56. He was invited to play for representative sides twice, appearing for the Players against the Gentlemen at Scarborough in 1902, and then for the "Players of the South" against the Gentlemen in 1904. Despite his professional status, Cranfield also appeared for the "Gentlemen of England" in 1903 against

Oxford University Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

, taking seven wickets in the match. His best bowling performance came the following year, when he claimed eight wickets for 39 runs against

Gloucestershire Gloucestershire ( abbreviated Glos) is a county in South West England. The county comprises part of the Cotswold Hills, part of the flat fertile valley of the River Severn and the entire Forest of Dean. The county town is the city of Gl ...

. In all, he took

five wickets in an innings In cricket, a five-wicket haul (also known as a "five–for" or "fifer") occurs when a bowler takes five or more wickets in a single innings. This is regarded by critics as a notable achievement, equivalent to a century from a batsman. Taki ...

47 times, and on twelve occasions he claimed

10 wickets in a match In cricket, a ten-wicket haul occurs when a bowler takes ten wickets in either a single innings or across both innings of a two-innings match. The phrase ten wickets in a match is also used. Taking ten wickets in a match at Lord's earns the bow ...

. Cranfield's batting was lowly regarded, and club historian Eddie Lawrence describes him as "an obvious number eleven in the batting order". Cranfield was rarely a healthy man, and in January 1909, he caught a chill while watching a football match. Four days later, he died of

pneumonia Pneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung primarily affecting the small air sacs known as alveoli. Symptoms typically include some combination of productive or dry cough, chest pain, fever, and difficulty breathing. The severity ...

. His brother, Lionel Cranfield, and his nephew (Lionel's son) Monty Cranfield both also played first-class cricket.

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* {{DEFAULTSORT:Cranfield, Beaumont 1872 births 1909 deaths Deaths from pneumonia in England English cricketers Somerset cricketers Marylebone Cricket Club cricketers London County cricketers Players cricketers Gentlemen of England cricketers Players of the South cricketers H. D. G. Leveson Gower's XI cricketers Cricketers from Bath, Somerset