Digby Loder Armroid Jephson (23 February 1871 – 19 January 1926) was a

cricketer 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 ...

who played for

Cambridge University , mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts. Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge. , established = , other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...

and

Surrey Surrey () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South East England, bordering Greater London to the south west. Surrey has a large rural area, and several significant urban areas which form part of the Greater London Built-up Area. ...

. Jephson was a right-handed middle order batsman. But his enduring fame rests on his reputation as one of the last lob bowlers, bowling slow right-arm underarm lobs. His action was described as a little like setting a wood in

crown green bowling Crown green bowls (or crown green) is a code of bowls played outdoors on a grass or artificial turf surface known as a bowling green. The sport's name is derived from the intentionally convex or uneven nature of the bowling green which is tradi ...

. In fact, he started as an overarm right-handed fast bowler, but switched to lobs with great success when he took up regular county cricket in the late 1890s.

Life

Digby Jephson was the son of Cuthbert Armroid Jephson of

Clapham Clapham () is a suburb in south west London, England, lying mostly within the London Borough of Lambeth, but with some areas (most notably Clapham Common) extending into the neighbouring London Borough of Wandsworth. History Early history T ...

. He was educated at Manor House School in Clapham and at

Peterhouse, Cambridge Peterhouse is the oldest constituent college of the University of Cambridge in England, founded in 1284 by Hugh de Balsham, Bishop of Ely. Today, Peterhouse has 254 undergraduates, 116 full-time graduate students and 54 fellows. It is quite ...

. Despite fairly modest achievements, Jephson won his Blue at Cambridge for three years from 1890 to 1892, and he played for Surrey regularly in 1894, again without distinction. He barely played in 1895, and not at all in 1896, but from July 1897 he returned to regular county cricket with Surrey and appeared in most matches for the next five and half seasons. He scored more than 1,000 runs in the four seasons from 1898 to 1901, with a best of 1,952 runs, average 41.53, in 1900, when he appeared in 38 first-class matches. His lob bowling seemed to get more effective with the passing years. In 1899 he took 6 for 21 in the

Gentlemen v Players Gentlemen v Players was a long-running series of English first-class cricket matches. Two matches were played in 1806, but the fixture was not played again until 1819. It became an annual event, usually played at least twice each season, exc ...

match at Lord's which the Gentlemen won by an innings. In 1900 he took 66 wickets and the following year he managed 77, including career best figures of seven for 51 against

Gloucestershire Gloucestershire ( abbreviated Glos) is a county in South West England. The county comprises part of the Cotswold Hills, part of the flat fertile valley of the River Severn and the entire Forest of Dean. The county town is the city of Gl ...

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 ...

. Jephson captained Surrey from 1900 to 1902, but stood down before the end of the 1902 season, and thereafter appeared only a few times in first-class cricket. Aside from his first-class career, he was also a prolific batsman in London club cricket, in particular for the touring side Wanderers. He worked in the

London Stock Exchange London Stock Exchange (LSE) is a stock exchange in the City of London, England, United Kingdom. , the total market value of all companies trading on LSE was £3.9 trillion. Its current premises are situated in Paternoster Square close to St Pau ...

before becoming a journalist and a part-time cricket coach at

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge bec ...

. He published ''A Few Overs'', a book of 25 poems about cricket, with a foreword by

C. B. Fry Charles Burgess Fry (25 April 1872 – 7 September 1956) was an English sportsman, teacher, writer, editor and publisher, who is best remembered for his career as a cricketer. John Arlott described him with the words: "Charles Fry could b ...

, in 1913.Anthony Bradbury, "The Lobster", ''Cricketer'', April 1981, pp. 57-59.

References

External links

*
Article on lob bowling

{{DEFAULTSORT:Jephson, Digby 1871 births 1926 deaths English cricketers Surrey cricketers Surrey cricket captains Alumni of Peterhouse, Cambridge Cambridge University cricketers Marylebone Cricket Club cricketers North v South cricketers Gentlemen cricketers Home Counties cricketers

Life

See also

References

Further reading

External links