Cosmo Stafford Crawley (27 May 1904 – 10 February 1989) was an English first-class

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, rackets and

real tennis Real tennis – one of several games sometimes called "the sport of kings" – is the original racquet sport from which the modern game of tennis (also called "lawn tennis") is derived. It is also known as court tennis in the United Sta ...

player.

Early life and cricket

Crawley was the eldest son of Arthur Stafford Crawley, then a

curate A curate () is a person who is invested with the ''care'' or ''cure'' (''cura'') ''of souls'' of a parish. In this sense, "curate" means a parish priest; but in English-speaking countries the term ''curate'' is commonly used to describe clergy w ...

St Luke's, Chelsea The Parish Church of St Luke, Chelsea, is an Anglican church, on Sydney Street, Chelsea, London SW3, just off the King's Road. Ecclesiastically it is in the Deanery of Chelsea, part of the Diocese of London. It was designed by James Savage in ...

. He was educated at

Harrow School (The Faithful Dispensation of the Gifts of God) , established = (Royal Charter) , closed = , type = Public schoolIndependent schoolBoarding school , religion = Church of E ...

, where he played for the school cricket team against

Eton Eton most commonly refers to Eton College, a public school in Eton, Berkshire, England. Eton may also refer to: Places *Eton, Berkshire, a town in Berkshire, England * Eton, Georgia, a town in the United States * Éton, a commune in the Meuse dep ...

and

Winchester Winchester is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city in Hampshire, England. The city lies at the heart of the wider City of Winchester, a local government Districts of England, district, at the western end of the South Downs Nation ...

, with him heading the averages in 1922. From there, he matriculated to

Magdalen College, Oxford Magdalen College (, ) is a constituent college of the University of Oxford. It was founded in 1458 by William of Waynflete. Today, it is the fourth wealthiest college, with a financial endowment of £332.1 million as of 2019 and one of the s ...

. He played one first-class cricket match for Hampshire ''against'' Oxford University at Oxford in 1923. The following season, he played once ''for'' Oxford University against Middlesex, in addition to playing for the Free Foresters ''against'' Oxford University. In 1925, he made a further two appearance for Oxford University against

Leicestershire Leicestershire ( ; postal abbreviation Leics.) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East Midlands, England. The county borders Nottinghamshire to the north, Lincolnshire to the north-east, Rutland to the east, Northamptonshire t ...

. He would later make two further first-class appearances, playing for the Harlequins in 1927, and for Middlesex in 1929, with Oxford University the opponents in both matches; all six of his first-class appearances thus came either for or against Oxford University. In his six matches at first-class level, Crawley scored 243 runs at an average of 22.09, with one half century.

Rackets and real tennis

Crawley played rackets while at Harrow School, and both rackets and

while studying at Oxford. He won the British amateur rackets doubles championship in 1936 and 1937 with J. C. F. Simpson, and in 1939 and 1946 with

John Pawle John Hanbury Pawle (18 May 1915 – 20 January 2010) was an English sportsman, stockbroker and painter. Pawle was educated at Harrow School, where he played cricket for the school and was captain in 1934, and Pembroke College, Cambridge, wh ...

. He and Pawle also won the 1939 amateur real tennis doubles, beating the 3rd and 4th Lord Aberdares, then aged 54 and 20, in the final. He also captained the English rackets team against the United States in 1947, in addition to winning the Canadian Championship doubles with Pawle. Writing in '' The Times'' after Crawley's death,

Alec Douglas-Home Alexander Frederick Douglas-Home, Baron Home of the Hirsel (; 2 July 1903 – 9 October 1995), styled as Lord Dunglass between 1918 and 1951 and being The 14th Earl of Home from 1951 till 1963, was a British Conservative politician who se ...

noted that "In the doubles he was master of all the arts of this fastest of ball-games".

Later life and death

Crawley joined the insurance broking firm of C.T. Bowring & Co. in 1925 and was a director 1934–67 and a consultant to the firm 1967–73. He was an underwriting member of

Lloyd's Lloyd's of London, generally known simply as Lloyd's, is an insurance and reinsurance market located in London, England. Unlike most of its competitors in the industry, it is not an insurance company; rather, Lloyd's is a corporate body gove ...

. At the outbreak of the Second World War, he was given an emergency commission as a

second lieutenant Second lieutenant is a junior commissioned officer military rank in many armed forces, comparable to NATO OF-1 rank. Australia The rank of second lieutenant existed in the military forces of the Australian colonies and Australian Army until ...

in the Coldstream Guards, serving until 1945. Crawley died at Westminster in February 1989. His brother,

Aidan Aidan or Aiden is a modern version of a number of Celtic language names, including the Irish male given name ''Aodhán'', the Scottish Gaelic given name Aodhan and the Welsh name Aeddan. Phonetic variants, such as spelled with an "e" instead of ...

, was a first-class cricketer and politician. His cousin, Charles Crawley, was also a first-class cricketer.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Crawley, Cosmo 1904 births 1989 deaths People from Chelsea, London Cricketers from the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea People educated at Harrow School Alumni of Magdalen College, Oxford English cricketers Hampshire cricketers Oxford University cricketers Free Foresters cricketers Harlequins cricketers Middlesex cricketers English racquets players English real tennis players Coldstream Guards officers British Army personnel of World War II 20th-century British businesspeople British businesspeople in insurance