Francis Henry Bateman-Champain (17 June 1877 – 29 December 1942) 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 playing primarily for

Gloucestershire County Cricket Club Gloucestershire County Cricket Club is one of eighteen first-class county clubs within the domestic cricket structure of England and Wales. It represents the historic county of Gloucestershire. Founded in 1870, Gloucestershire have always ...

and Oxford University Cricket Club between 1895 and 1914. A right-handed batsman and occasional right-arm slow bowler, he came from a cricketing family: his brothers John,

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and

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all played first-class cricket. His uncles Fendall, Frederick, Robert and William Currie also played. Francis played 114 matches in his career, scoring 4,677 runs at a batting average of 24.61. over 3,300 of these were scored for Gloucestershire, for whom he made four of his five centuries. Born in Richmond Hill,

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. ...

, he died in Tiverton, Devon.

First-class career

Champain made his debut for Gloucestershire in 1895, before going up to Oxford, but he had limited success in those initial first-class appearances, scoring only four runs in his three innings, with combined bowling figures of 2/38 His 1896 season for Gloucestershire was rather better, with 152 first-class runs while being dismissed seven times, although without taking any wickets. In the 1897 season he played for both Gloucestershire and Oxford University, switching between the two depending upon whether the university was in term. His season for Oxford was excellent, with 515 first-class runs at 30.29, leading it to be commented that ''"Mr Champain again shewed himself to be one of the best of the young amateurs of the day"''. He then played for Gloucestershire, scoring a further 364 runs at 22.75, to finish the season with 879 runs at 26.53. The 1898 season again saw Champain play for both Oxford University and Gloucestershire. Although Champain's averages for both Oxford and Gloucestershire were down on the previous season - finishing with 553 runs at 19.06 in all first-class cricket - he made his maiden first-class century against Lancashire in July, an innings described as ''"almost perfect"''. Bateman-Champaign was educated at Cheltenham College and Hertford College, Oxford. He became a schoolteacher and taught at

Wellington College Wellington College may refer to: *Wellington College, Berkshire, an independent school in Crowthorne, Berkshire, England ** Wellington College International Shanghai ** Wellington College International Tianjin *Wellington College, Wellington, New Z ...

and at Cheltenham College.

References

;Notes ;Sources * {{DEFAULTSORT:Bateman-Champain, Francis Henry 1877 births 1942 deaths Sportspeople from Richmond, London English cricketers Gloucestershire cricketers Oxford University cricketers Gentlemen cricketers Midland Counties cricketers People educated at Cheltenham College Alumni of Hertford College, Oxford Schoolteachers from Surrey W. G. Grace's XI cricketers