Frank Lipscomb (13 March 1863 – 25 September 1951) was an English amateur

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 18 first-class matches, mainly for

Kent County Cricket Club Kent County Cricket Club is one of the eighteen first-class county clubs within the domestic cricket structure of England and Wales. It represents the historic county of Kent. A club representing the county was first founded in 1842 but Ke ...

, between 1882 and 1884.

Early life

Lipscomb was born at

East Peckham East Peckham is a village and civil parish in Kent, England on the River Medway. The parish covers the main village as well as Hale Street and Beltring. History The Domesday entry for East and West Peckham reads:- :'' The Archbishop himself ...

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 1863 and educated at Stangrove House School in

Edenbridge Edenbridge may mean: * Edenbridge (band), a symphonic metal band from Austria *Edenbridge, Kent, a town in England *Edenbridge, Saskatchewan, a former Jewish settlement in Canada *Humber Valley Village Humber Valley Village is a neighbourhood lo ...

. He was the son of Lucy and Bob Lipscomb, a farmer who played in 48 first-class matches for Kent between 1862 and 1873.Carlaw D (2020) ''Kent County Cricketers A to Z. Part One: 1806–1914'' (revised edition), pp.332–334.
Available online
at the

Association of Cricket Statisticians and Historians The Association of Cricket Statisticians and Historians (ACS) was founded in England in 1973 for the purpose of researching and collating information about the history and statistics of cricket. Originally called the Association of Cricket Stati ...

. Retrieved 7 May 2021.)Carlaw, ''op. cit'', pp.334–335.

Cricket

Like his father, Lipscomb was a right-arm fast bowler and was described by

Lord Harris Colonel George Robert Canning Harris, 4th Baron Harris, (3 February 1851 – 24 March 1932), generally known as Lord Harris, was a British colonial administrator and Governor of Bombay. He was also an English amateur cricketer, mainly active f ...

as a "tearaway" bowler. He made his first-class debut for Kent against

Yorkshire Yorkshire ( ; abbreviated Yorks), formally known as the County of York, is a Historic counties of England, historic county in northern England and by far the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its large area in comparison with other Eng ...

in 1882 at

Bramall Lane Bramall Lane is a association football, football stadium in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England, which is the home of Sheffield United F.C., Sheffield United. The stadium was originally a cricket ground, built on a road named after the Bramal ...

, being called in to the side despite having played little recognised cricket at the time. He took three wickets on debut, and 27 in total in the eight first-class matches he played in his first season. He played five matches in 1883, taking 17 wickets, and another four for Kent in 1884, taking eight wickets. He was awarded his

county cap In sport, a cap is a player's appearance in a game at international level. The term dates from the practice in the United Kingdom of awarding a cap to every player in an international match of rugby football and association football. In the ea ...

in 1884.Kent County Cricket Club - Capped Male Players

. Retrieved 8 May 2021. Lipscomb's best bowling figures in first-class cricket were five wickets for the cost of 19 runs (5/19) against

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. ...

Mote Park Mote Park is a multi-use public park in Maidstone, Kent. Previously a country estate it was converted to landscaped park land at the end of the 18th century before becoming a municipal park. It includes the former stately home Mote House toget ...

in 1884, when he and

Jimmy Wootton James Wootton (9 March 1860 – 21 February 1941) was an English first-class cricketer. Wootton was a left-handed batsman who bowled left-arm medium pace. Wootton made his first-class debut for Kent in 1880 against Sussex. Wootton represented ...

bowled unchanged to dismiss Surrey for 44 on a wicket described by ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (fou ...

'' as "treacherous" and on which 24 wickets fell on the same day.Cricket: Kent v Surrey, ''

'', 29 July 1884, p.5.
Available online
at The Times Digital Archive . Retrieved 7 May 2021.)
CricketArchive. Retrieved 7 May 2021. Like his father, Lipscomb played as an amateur and made most of his appearances for Kent, playing 16 of his 18 first-class matches for the side. He played club cricket for

Tunbridge Wells Royal Tunbridge Wells is a town in Kent, England, southeast of central London. It lies close to the border with East Sussex on the northern edge of the Weald, High Weald, whose sandstone geology is exemplified by the rock formation High Roc ...

, Tonbridge Town and Town Malling and made appearances for the

Gentlemen of Kent Kent County Cricket Club is one of the eighteen first-class county clubs within the domestic cricket structure of England and Wales. It represents the historic county of Kent. A club representing the county was first founded in 1842 but Ke ...

as well as making a single first-class appearance for the United Eleven in 1882 and for

WG Grace William Gilbert Grace (18 July 1848 – 23 October 1915) was an English amateur cricketer who was important in the development of the sport and is widely considered one of its greatest players. He played first-class cricket First-class c ...

's XI in 1884, both against touring Australian sides.

Personal life

After his father lost his farm during the agricultural depression of the 1870s, Lipscomb trained as a

brewer Brewing is the production of beer by steeping a starch source (commonly cereal grains, the most popular of which is barley) in water and fermenting the resulting sweet liquid with yeast. It may be done in a brewery by a commercial brewer, ...

at Melbourne Bros brewery in

Stamford, Lincolnshire Stamford is a town and civil parish in the South Kesteven District of Lincolnshire, England. The population at the 2011 census was 19,701 and estimated at 20,645 in 2019. The town has 17th- and 18th-century stone buildings, older timber-framed ...

. He emigrated to Australia in 1886, working in the brewing industry before becoming a member of the

New South Wales Police Force The New South Wales Police Force (NSW Police Force; previously the New South Wales Police Service and New South Wales Police) is the primary law enforcement agency of the state of New South Wales, Australia. Divided into Police Area Commands (P ...

in 1894. He played some club cricket for Albion Cricket Club at

Maitland Maitland is an English and Scottish surname. It arrived in Britain after the Norman conquest of 1066. There are two theories about its source. It is either a nickname reference to "bad temper/disposition" (Old French, ''Maltalent''; Anglo Norm ...

and is believed to have also played for a police team. Lipscomb lived with his wife at Randwick in Sydney. He died there in 1951 aged 88.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Lipscomb, Frank 1863 births 1951 deaths English cricketers Kent cricketers W. G. Grace's XI cricketers People from East Peckham English emigrants to colonial Australia Cricketers from Kent