Cecil Fleming Biggs (2 May 1881 – 5 October 1944) was a British sportsman who played

rugby union Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In it ...

at centre for

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and the

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, and as a

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er represented Glamorgan. Biggs was one of six brothers to play rugby for Cardiff, and captained the team for a season in 1904/05. Although he was never capped at an international level, he has been described as "...one of the great uncapped Welsh players."Davies (1975), pg 242.

Rugby career

Biggs came from a large sporting family. Six of his brothers played for Cardiff Rugby Football Club, most notably

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(1886–1899) and Selwyn (1889–1901). Norman, Selwyn and Cecil himself were all captains of Cardiff RFC and all three also played for the Barbarians, though, unlike Norman and Selwyn, Cecil never represented

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the Bristol Channel to the south. It had a population in ...

.. Cecil Biggs joined Cardiff in the 1898/99 season, and by the next year he had been given his Reserves team cap.Davies (1975), pg 47. By the 1900/01 season he was part of the first team and in his first season he was the team's second highest

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scorer with 16.Davies (1975), pg 48. For the next three seasons, Biggs was the club's top scorer with 16, 16 and 24 tries respectively. In the 1904/05 season Cecil was elected as first team captain,Davies (1975), pg 53. after serving as Gwyn Nicholl's vice-captain in the previous season.Davies (1975), pg 51. Biggs chose as his vice-captain the prop forward Billy O'Neill (in many records shown as Billy Neill) Despite playing for Cardiff in the 1905/06 season, Biggs missed the encounter between Cardiff and the first touring All Blacks team. The next season saw the first tour of the South African national side, and Biggs was part of the Cardiff team to face them. Of all the Cardiff players on that day only Biggs and Dicky David were uncapped at international level, and David would be selected to play for Wales in

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. Cardiff beat the

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17–0, made all the more impressive by the fact that Biggs was injured in the first few minutes of the game, which as good as reduced the team to 14 men.Billot (1974), pg 60.

External links

Cricket Archive
Cricket biography of Cecil Biggs with portrait

Bibliography

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References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Biggs, Cecil English rugby union players 1881 births 1944 deaths Cardiff RFC players People from Kingston upon Thames Barbarian F.C. players English cricketers Glamorgan cricketers Rugby union players from Cardiff Cricketers from Cardiff Rugby union centres