Eric Jesser Fulcher (12 March 1890 – 14 February 1923) was an English
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. He played ten
first-class matches between 1913 and 1921.
Early life
Fulcher was born at
Bearsted in
Kent in 1890. His father,
Arthur Fulcher
Arthur William Fulcher (7 May 1855 – 17 May 1932) was an English yacht racer and cricketer.
Early life
He was born at Pau, France, the second son of Captain Edward Fulcher of the 87th Royal Irish Fusiliers and educated at Westminster schoo ...
, had played cricket for Kent and was a noted yachtsman and his eldest brother, Edward, played cricket for
Devon and for Kent's Second XI. Fulcher was educated at Castlemount College in
Dover
Dover () is a town and major ferry port in Kent, South East England. It faces France across the Strait of Dover, the narrowest part of the English Channel at from Cap Gris Nez in France. It lies south-east of Canterbury and east of Maidstone ...
and then at
Radley College where he played cricket for the school in 1906 and 1907.
[Lewis P (2013) ''For Kent and Country'', pp.180–181. Brighton: Reveille Press. ] He scored over 350 runs and took 51 wickets in his final year at school, and was described as an "outstanding" fielder by ''
Wisden''.
[Carlaw D (2020) ''Kent County Cricketers A to Z. Part Two: 1919–1939'', pp.84–85.]
Available online
at the Association of Cricket Statisticians and Historians. Retrieved 23 December 2020.)[Fulcher, Capt. Eric Jesser]
Obituaries in 1923, '' Wisden Cricketers' Almanack'', 1924. Retrieved 23 December 2020. After leaving school he moved to
Attleborough
Attleborough is a market town and civil parish located on the A11 between Norwich and Thetford in Norfolk, England. The parish is in the district of Breckland and has an area of .
The 2001 Census recorded the town as having a population of 9 ...
in
Norfolk, farming and studying land management.
[
]
Cricket
Fulcher played 71 Minor Counties Championship
The NCCA 3 Day Championship (previously the Minor Counties Cricket Championship) is a season-long competition in England and Wales that is contested by the members of the National Counties Cricket Association (NCCA), the so-called national cou ...
matches for Norfolk County Cricket Club between 1910 and 1922 as an attacking middle-order batsman and change bowler. He toured Argentina with an MCC side led by Lord Hawke in 1912 and played the first of his 10 first-class matches on the tour. He played first-class matches for LG Robinson's XI at Old Buckingham in Norfolk in both 1913 and 1914.[Hounsome K (2015) ''A Game Well Played: a history of cricket in Norfolk'', p.190. Norwich: Hounsome. ][Eric Fulcher]
CricketArchive. Retrieved 23 December 2020. Norfolk won the Minor Counties Championship in 1913 in a rain affected match, Fulcher taking a five-wicket haul
In cricket, a five-wicket haul (also known as a "five–for" or "fifer") occurs when a bowler takes five or more wickets in a single innings. This is regarded by critics as a notable achievement, equivalent to a century from a batsman.
Takin ...
to bowl Glamorgan
, HQ = Cardiff
, Government = Glamorgan County Council (1889–1974)
, Origin=
, Code = GLA
, CodeName = Chapman code
, Replace =
* West Glamorgan
* Mid Glamorgan
* South Glamorgan
, Motto ...
out and ensure Norfolk had a first-innings lead - the method of breaking a tie in the competition.[
After the end of the First World War, Fulcher played again at Old Buckingham in May 1919 against the ]Australian Imperial Force Touring XI
When the First World War ended in November 1918, thousands of Australian servicemen were in Europe as members of the First Australian Imperial Force (AIF) and many remained until the spring of 1919. In England, a new first-class cricket seas ...
. He was part of a side which included several Kent players, and made his first-class county debut in June, playing in four County Championship matches for Kent. His final first-class appearance came for MCC against Oxford University in 1921.[Lewis, '']op. cit.
''Op. cit.'' is an abbreviation of the Latin phrase ' or ''opere citato'', meaning "the work cited" or ''in the cited work'', respectively.
Overview
The abbreviation is used in an endnote or footnote to refer the reader to a cited work, standing ...
'', pp.183–186. His final match for Norfolk was the challenge match to determine the 1922 Minor Counties champions, a match which Norfolk lost to Buckinghamshire
Buckinghamshire (), abbreviated Bucks, is a ceremonial county in South East England that borders Greater London to the south-east, Berkshire to the south, Oxfordshire to the west, Northamptonshire to the north, Bedfordshire to the north-ea ...
, being bowled out for 89 chasing just 98 for victory.[
Fulcher scored 2,057 Minor Counties Championship runs for Norfolk at an average of 19.40 runs per innings. He took 64 wickets for the county.][
]
Military service
During World War I Fulcher served in the Royal West Kent Regiment, enlisting in the army in 1914 and being commissioned 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 RWK by the end of the year. He served in France from 1915 onward, initially with the 1st battalion around Ypres. He was promoted to temporary lieutenant at the end of 1915 and saw action during the closing stages of the Battle of the Somme
The Battle of the Somme ( French: Bataille de la Somme), also known as the Somme offensive, was a battle of the First World War fought by the armies of the British Empire and French Third Republic against the German Empire. It took place bet ...
the following year.[
A series of illnesses kept him out of the front line at times throughout the war, and he spent the first half of 1918 away from the battalion before returning in August and was given command of A company, promoted to the rank of ]captain
Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police department, election precinct, e ...
. Fulcher led the company during the Second Battle of the Somme
The Second Battle of the Somme of 1918 was fought during the First World War on the Western Front from late August to early September, in the basin of the River Somme. It was part of a series of successful counter-offensives in response to th ...
during August, and was awarded the Military Cross for bravery.[
]
Family and later life
After leaving the military, Fulcher returned to play cricket for Norfolk and joined the board of Norwich City F.C.[ In 1922 he moved to ]Monmouthshire
Monmouthshire ( cy, Sir Fynwy) is a county in the south-east of Wales. The name derives from the historic county of the same name; the modern county covers the eastern three-fifths of the historic county. The largest town is Abergavenny, with ...
and farmed near Chepstow. He died as a result of a shotgun accident in February 1923, aged 32.[Jeater D (2020) ''County Cricket: Sundry Extras'' (second edition), p.62.]
Available online
at the Association of Cricket Statisticians and Historians. Retrieved 21 December 2020.)
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fulcher, Eric
1890 births
1923 deaths
Military personnel from Kent
English cricketers
Kent cricketers
Marylebone Cricket Club cricketers
Norfolk cricketers
L. G. Robinson's XI cricketers
People from Bearsted
British Army personnel of World War I
Queen's Own Royal West Kent Regiment officers
Recipients of the Military Cross
Royal Norfolk Regiment officers
Firearm accident victims
Accidental deaths in Wales
Deaths by firearm in Wales
Cricketers from Kent