Claude Percival Buckenham (16 January 1876 – 23 February 1937) 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 officia ...

er who played for

Essex Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and G ...

and

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe ...

. He also won a gold medal playing football at the

Olympic Games The modern Olympic Games or Olympics (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques) are the leading international sporting events featuring summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a multi ...

in 1900.

Life and career

Tall and gangling, and with a distinctive moustache, Percy Buckenham was a fast bowler and a useful lower order batsman. He played for Essex from 1899 to 1914, but suffered, particularly in his early years, from slipshod fielding which meant, according to his 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 ...

'', he was more expensive than he perhaps deserved. His career average, at more than 25, is high for the era in which he played. The 1906 season was the first in which he took more than 100 wickets, and he played several representative matches over the next few English seasons without breaking into the Test match team in England. He was picked in the squad for the fifth Test at

The Oval The Oval, currently known for sponsorship reasons as the Kia Oval, is an international cricket ground in Kennington, located in the borough of Lambeth, in south London. The Oval has been the home ground of Surrey County Cricket Club since ...

against the 1909 Australians, but was then left out of the team: his omission was described by

Sydney Pardon Sydney Herbert Pardon (23 September 1855 – 20 November 1925) was a sports journalist who was the editor of ''Wisden Cricketers' Almanack'' for 35 editions, from 1891 until his death. His father was the journalist George Frederick Pardon. He t ...

, editor of ''Wisden'', as "a fatal blunder" and the selectors' decision not to include a fast bowler at all "touched the confines of lunacy". Buckenham's only Test experience came on the 1909-10 tour to South Africa, under the captaincy of H. D. G. Leveson Gower. In four Tests, he took 21 wickets at 28 runs apiece, including five for 115 in the first South African innings of the third Test at

Johannesburg Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu language, Zulu and xh, eGoli ), colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, or "The City of Gold", is the largest city in South Africa, classified as a Megacity#List of megacities, megacity, and is List of urban areas by p ...

. But though he had his most productive season in 1911, with 134 first-class wickets, he was considered too old for the 1911-12 tour to Australia. Buckenham was a good amateur footballer and played county soccer for Essex. He played right-back for the Upton Park F.C. team that won the inaugural

Olympic Olympic or Olympics may refer to Sports Competitions * Olympic Games, international multi-sport event held since 1896 ** Summer Olympic Games ** Winter Olympic Games * Ancient Olympic Games, ancient multi-sport event held in Olympia, Greece b ...

football tournament in 1900. He is one of only four Test cricketers to compete at the Olympic Games. Buckenham retired from first-class cricket in 1914 to become professional at the Scottish club Forfarshire. After serving with the

Royal Garrison Artillery The Royal Garrison Artillery (RGA) was formed in 1899 as a distinct arm of the British Army's Royal Regiment of Artillery serving alongside the other two arms of the Regiment, the Royal Field Artillery (RFA) and the Royal Horse Artillery (RHA ...

in the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fig ...

he became cricket coach at

Repton School Repton School is a 13–18 co-educational, independent, day and boarding school in the English public school tradition, in Repton, Derbyshire, England. Sir John Port of Etwall, on his death in 1557, left funds to create a grammar school ...

References

* Buchanan, Ian ''British Olympians''. Guinness Publishing (1991)

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Buckenham, Claude 1876 births 1937 deaths Military personnel from London England Test cricketers English cricketers English Olympic medallists Essex cricketers English footballers Olympic footballers of Great Britain Footballers at the 1900 Summer Olympics Olympic gold medallists for Great Britain People from Herne Hill Footballers from the London Borough of Lambeth Upton Park F.C. players Olympic medalists in football Marylebone Cricket Club cricketers North v South cricketers Players cricketers East of England cricketers Medalists at the 1900 Summer Olympics Association football fullbacks Royal Garrison Artillery soldiers Cricketers from Greater London S. H. Cochrane's XI cricketers L. G. Robinson's XI cricketers Lord Londesborough's XI cricketers P. F. Warner's XI cricketers British Army personnel of World War I Marylebone Cricket Club South African Touring Team cricketers