Francis Booker (8 October 1746 – 13 November 1806) was an English

first-class cricket First-class cricket, along with List A cricket and Twenty20 cricket, is one of the highest-standard forms of cricket. A first-class match is one of three or more days' scheduled duration between two sides of eleven players each and is officiall ...

er who played at the end of the 18th century. Booker was born at

Eynsford Eynsford ( or ) is a village and civil parish in the Sevenoaks District of Kent, England. It is located south east of Swanley, south of Dartford. The village including its farmland and woods occupies the northern half of the triangle formed b ...

near Sevenoaks in

Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...

in 1746.Francis Booker

CricInfo ESPN cricinfo (formerly known as Cricinfo or CricInfo) is a sports news website exclusively for the game of cricket. The site features news, articles, live coverage of cricket matches (including liveblogs and scorecards), and ''StatsGuru'', a d ...

. Retrieved 2022-06-27. He lived his whole life in the village and kept the ''Soho Inn''. A left-handed batsman, Booker played in a total of 45 first-class matches between 1773 and 1790. He played 23 of these for Kent sides as well as two for

West Kent Kent is a traditional county in South East England with long-established human occupation. Prehistoric Kent Kent has been occupied since the Lower Palaeolithic as finds from the quarries at Fordwich and Swanscombe attest. The Swanscombe skul ...

and two for sides organised by Kent patron the

Duke of Dorset Duke of Dorset was a title in the Peerage of Great Britain. It was created in 1720 for the politician Lionel Sackville, 7th Earl of Dorset. History The Sackville family descended from Sir Richard Sackville. His only surviving son, Thomas Sa ...

. Another 12 were played for England sides.Francis Booker
CricketArchive. Retrieved 2022-03-20. He was briefly mentioned in John Nyren's book, ''

The Cricketers of My Time ''The Cricketers of My Time'' is a memoir of cricket, nominally written by the former Hambledon Club, Hambledon cricketer John Nyren about the players of the late 18th century, most of whom he knew personally. Nyren, who had no recognised litera ...

'', described as one of three players Nyren considered to be "excellent and steady batters, strong hitters, and sure fields". He was noted as a fine hitter of the ball and as a very good

outfielder An outfielder is a person playing in one of the three defensive positions in baseball or softball, farthest from the batter. These defenders are the left fielder, the center fielder, and the right fielder. As an outfielder, their duty is to cat ...

. He was rated a good

single wicket Single wicket cricket is a form of cricket played between two individuals, who take turns to bat and bowl against each other. The one bowling is assisted by a team of fielders, who remain as fielders at the change of innings. The winner is the one w ...

player. Haygarth A (1862) ''

Scores & Biographies Arthur Haygarth (4 August 1825 – 1 May 1903) was a noted amateur cricketer who became one of cricket's most significant historians. He played first-class cricket for the Marylebone Cricket Club and Sussex between 1844 and 1861, as well as num ...

'', vol. 1 (1744–1826), p. 7. Lillywhite He scored 835 first-class runs and took at least seven wickets. Booker died in 1806 at Eynsford. He was 60 years of age.

Notes

References

English cricketers Kent cricketers English cricketers of 1701 to 1786 1746 births 1806 deaths English cricketers of 1787 to 1825 Left-Handed v Right-Handed cricketers Non-international England cricketers West Kent cricketers People from Eynsford {{England-cricket-bio-1740s-stub