Charles Christopher "Christie" Morris (June 30, 1882 – June 17, 1971) was an American

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 during the sport's brief North American "golden age". He was a right-handed batsman and a leg-break bowler.

Early cricket

The first known time he played cricket was in 1896 for his school team. By 1899 he was gaining wide recognition for his talents, and played for a Philadelphia Colts team against the touring

K S Ranjitsinhji Colonel H. H. Shri Sir Ranjitsinhji Vibhaji II, Jam Saheb of Nawanagar, (10 September 1872 – 2 April 1933), often known as Ranji or K. S. Ranjitsinhji, was the ruler of the Indian princely state of Nawanagar from 1907 to 1933, as Mah ...

's XI, although he met without success, scoring 1 and 0. In the summer of 1900, he played for the

Haverford College Haverford College ( ) is a private liberal arts college in Haverford, Pennsylvania. It was founded as a men's college in 1833 by members of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers), began accepting non-Quakers in 1849, and became coeducational ...

cricket team on a tour of England before he'd even began to attend classes. The following year, he first played for the USA national team in their match against

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

. He played for the USA five times in all.

First-class cricket

He was first selected for the

Philadelphian cricket team The Philadelphian cricket team was a team that represented Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in first-class cricket between 1878 and 1913. Even with the United States having played the first ever international cricket match against Canada in 1844, t ...

in their home two match series against BJT Bosanquet's XI in 1901. He went on to play 36 first-class matches, all but one for Philadelphia. He toured England with the Philadelphians on two occasions, in 1903 and 1908. On the 1903 tour, he scored 164 against

Nottinghamshire Nottinghamshire (; abbreviated Notts.) is a landlocked county in the East Midlands region of England, bordering South Yorkshire to the north-west, Lincolnshire to the east, Leicestershire to the south, and Derbyshire to the west. The traditi ...

, his only first-class century. His final first class match was for a combined Canada/USA team against

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 ...

in 1913.

Later life

Morris was still playing regular cricket in 1933, and played for the Haverford alumni as late as 1951 when he was 69 years old. Christie Morris kept cricket alive in the 1930s in America. His close relationship with Norman Seagram, President of the Toronto Cricket Club encouraged tours between Canada and Haverford and also Bermuda where Seagram had a summer home. In 1937 he worked with K.A. Auty of Chicago in organizing a Gymkhana of American sides that helped maintain the profile of the game in the United States. His alma mater Harverford College has a library named for him which features the largest collection of cricket literature and memorabilia in the western hemisphere. He died at home in June 1971 aged 88.

References

Wisden Almanack obituary

{{DEFAULTSORT:Morris, Christopher 1882 births 1971 deaths Philadelphian cricketers Cricketers from Pennsylvania American cricketers