Charles Edgar Winter (9 October 1866 – 3 April 1954) 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 who played 25 first-class matches 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 ...

between 1882 and 1895. A right-arm fast bowler, he claimed 50 wickets for the county 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 22.14. His highest score was 62, the only occasion on which he made a half-century.

Cricket career

Winter played his first match for

Somerset ( en, All The People of Somerset) , locator_map = , coordinates = , region = South West England , established_date = Ancient , established_by = , preceded_by = , origin = , lord_lieutenant_office =Lord Lieutenant of Somerset , lord_ ...

in 1879 aged just 12 in a match against Wells Cricket Club. His next matches for the then second-class county came in 1881 when he claimed three wickets against 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), and five against

Hampshire Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants) is a ceremonial county, ceremonial and non-metropolitan county, non-metropolitan counties of England, county in western South East England on the coast of the English Channel. Home to two major English citi ...

. Somerset were awarded first-class status in 1882, and it was in this season that Winter made his debut first-class appearance, playing for the county against Hampshire. By the time of his first-class debut, Winter was still only aged 15, making him among the youngest debutants to have played first-class cricket for Somerset. Coming on to bowl at the first change of bowling, Winter claimed a wicket in his first innings, with the Hampshire captain

Russell Bencraft Sir Henry William Russell Bencraft (4 March 1858 — 25 December 1943) was an English first-class cricketer, sports administrator, medical doctor, businessman and philanthropist. Bencraft was an important figure in the early history of Hampsh ...

being caught off his bowling. He was dismissed for six in both of Somerset's innings. In his second match, against the MCC, Winter claimed four wickets for 49 runs in the second-innings, achieving a return that would remain his best until 1885. It was another match against Hampshire in which Winter improved his bowling figures, taking four wickets for 20 runs. Playing the same opposition later that season, Somerset had only travelled to Southampton for the match with nine players. After scoring 22 in the first-innings, Winter was promoted to open the second for Somerset, and scored his highest total, and only half-century, making 62 runs. His son, also named Charles Winter, subsequently also played for Somerset.

References

Bibliography

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Winter, Charles 1866 births 1954 deaths English cricketers Somerset cricketers