Francis Wilfrid Stocks (10 December 1873 – 21 May 1929) was an English cricketer active from 1894 to 1903 who played for Leicestershire. He was born in

Market Harborough Market Harborough is a market town in the Harborough district of Leicestershire, England, in the far southeast of the county, forming part of the border with Northamptonshire. Market Harborough's population was 25,143 in 2020. It is the adm ...

and died in

Framlingham Framlingham is a market town and civil parish in Suffolk, England. Of Anglo-Saxon origin, it appears in the 1086 Domesday Book. The parish had a population of 3,342 at the 2011 Census and an estimated 4,016 in 2019. Nearby villages include Ea ...

. He appeared in 63 first-class matches as a lefthanded

batsman In cricket, batting is the act or skill of hitting the cricket ball, ball with a cricket bat, bat to score runs (cricket), runs and prevent the dismissal (cricket), loss of one's wicket. Any player who is currently batting is, since Septembe ...

who

bowled In cricket, the term bowled has several meanings. First, is the act of propelling the ball towards the wicket defended by a batsman. Second, it is a method of dismissing a batsman, by hitting the wicket with a ball delivered by the bowler. (Th ...

left arm medium pace. He scored 834 runs with a highest score of 58 and took 208

wicket In cricket, the term wicket has several meanings: * It is one of the two sets of three stumps and two bails at either end of the pitch. The fielding team's players can hit the wicket with the ball in a number of ways to get a batsman out. ...

s with a best performance of eight for 22. Stocks was a son of John Stocks who at that time was

vicar A vicar (; Latin: '' vicarius'') is a representative, deputy or substitute; anyone acting "in the person of" or agent for a superior (compare "vicarious" in the sense of "at second hand"). Linguistically, ''vicar'' is cognate with the English pre ...

of Market Harborough. He was educated at

Lancing College Lancing College is a public school (English independent day and boarding school for pupils aged 13–18) in southern England, UK. The school is located in West Sussex, east of Worthing near the village of Lancing, on the south coast of England. ...

Denstone College Denstone College is a mixed, independent, boarding and day school in Denstone, Uttoxeter, Staffordshire, England. It is a Woodard School, having been founded by Nathaniel Woodard, and so Christian traditions are practised as part of Colleg ...

and New College, Oxford. He became a schoolteacher and for thirteen years was an assistant master and house-master at

Felsted School (Keep your Faith) , established = , closed = , type = Public schoolIndependent day and boarding , religion = Church of England , president = , head_label = Headmaster , head = Chris Townsend , r_head_l ...

; then he was headmaster of

Framlingham College Framlingham College is a public school (independent day and boarding school) in the town of Framlingham, near Woodbridge, Suffolk, England. Together with its preparatory school and nursery at Brandeston Hall, it serves pupils from 3 to 18 ye ...

1913–1929.STOCKS, Francis W.
''Who Was Who'', A & C Black, 1920–2016 (online edition, Oxford University Press, 2014)

Notes

1873 births 1929 deaths English cricketers Leicestershire cricketers Oxford University cricketers Gentlemen cricketers People from Market Harborough Cricketers from Leicestershire People educated at Lancing College People educated at Denstone College Alumni of New College, Oxford Schoolteachers from Leicestershire P. F. Warner's XI cricketers Oxford University Past and Present cricketers {{england-cricket-bio-1870s-stub