Geoffrey Norman Foster (16 October 1884 – 11 August 1971) 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 for

Worcestershire Worcestershire ( , ; written abbreviation: Worcs) is a county in the West Midlands of England. The area that is now Worcestershire was absorbed into the unified Kingdom of England in 927, at which time it was constituted as a county (see His ...

and

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 ...

s, as well as appearing a number of times for

Oxford University Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

and MCC. He was one of the seven Foster brothers, all of whom played first-class cricket for Worcestershire, and he led the county on a few occasions in the absence of the regular captain. He was a fast scorer, once making 101 in an hour for Oxford against Gentlemen of England.

Early life

Foster was born at

Malvern Malvern or Malverne may refer to: Places Australia * Malvern, South Australia, a suburb of Adelaide * Malvern, Victoria, a suburb of Melbourne * City of Malvern, a former local government area near Melbourne * Electoral district of Malvern, an e ...

in 1884, the fifth son of the Reverend Henry Foster and his wife Sophia.Carlaw D (2020) ''Kent County Cricketers A to Z. Part Two: 1919–1939'', pp.79–80.
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 Statis ...

. Retrieved 2020-07-01.) He, like all his brothers, was educated at

Malvern College Malvern College is an Independent school (United Kingdom), independent coeducational day and boarding school in Malvern, Worcestershire, Malvern, Worcestershire, England. It is a public school (United Kingdom), public school in the British sen ...

, where he was in the cricket eleven from 1902 and 1904.Foster, Geoffrey N
Obituaries in 1971, ''

Wisden Cricketers' Almanack ''Wisden Cricketers' Almanack'', or simply ''Wisden'', colloquially the Bible of Cricket, is a cricket reference book published annually in the United Kingdom. The description "bible of cricket" was first used in the 1930s by Alec Waugh in a ...

'' 1972. Retrieved 30 December 2021. He made his first-class debut for Worcestershire against

Leicestershire Leicestershire ( ; postal abbreviation Leics.) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East Midlands, England. The county borders Nottinghamshire to the north, Lincolnshire to the north-east, Rutland to the east, Northamptonshire t ...

at New Road in August 1903, but made a

duck Duck is the common name for numerous species of waterfowl in the family Anatidae. Ducks are generally smaller and shorter-necked than swans and geese, which are members of the same family. Divided among several subfamilies, they are a form t ...

in his only innings. He played a handful more matches in that and the following season, but his only achievement of note was an innings of 81 against

Somerset ( en, All The People of Somerset) , locator_map = , coordinates = , region = South West England , established_date = Ancient , established_by = , preceded_by = , origin = , lord_lieutenant_office =Lord Lieutenant of Somerset , lord_ ...

in August 1905.

Cricket

He went up to

Worcester College, Oxford Worcester College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. The college was founded in 1714 by the benefaction of Sir Thomas Cookes, 2nd Baronet (1648–1701) of Norgrove, Worcestershire, whose coat of arms w ...

, in 1904 and was awarded a cricket

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every year between 1905 and 1908. In 1905 he took the first of his few wickets, that of Gentlemen of England's

Maynard Ashcroft Edward Maynard Ashcroft (27 September 1875 – 26 February 1955) was an English doctor and cricketer who played first-class cricket for Derbyshire between 1897 and 1906 and captained the Derbyshire team in 1904. Early life Ashcroft was born at ...

. A fine all-round sportsman, Foster was also a Blue at

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and racquets, as well as captaining the university's

association football Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

team in 1908. Cricket was, however, his forté, and combining his appearances for Oxford with those for his county, he scored particularly heavily in 1907, when he hit 1,182 first-class runs, his best season's aggregate, at an

average In ordinary language, an average is a single number taken as representative of a list of numbers, usually the sum of the numbers divided by how many numbers are in the list (the arithmetic mean). For example, the average of the numbers 2, 3, 4, 7, ...

of over 40. He also passed a thousand runs in 1908. In 1909–10 Foster went to

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

, playing twice for Europeans in the Bombay Presidency Match and Triangular, though his contribution was negligible: he totalled just three runs, held one catch and did not bowl. In 1910 he made his thousand runs for the third and last time when he played 19 first-class games and took 25 catches, both figures being his most in a single season. He appeared 17 times in 1911, but thereafter his business commitments limited his appearances to a handful each season. However, he did make a career-best 175 against Leicestershire in 1913, only to see Worcestershire fall to an eight-run defeat, despite Worcestershire having enforced the follow-on. His stand of 195 with John Cuffe in that match was at the time a county record for the sixth wicket. In 1912 he played (for the only time in his career) as

wicket-keeper The wicket-keeper in the sport of cricket is the player on the fielding side who stands behind the wicket or stumps being watchful of the batsman and ready to take a catch, stump the batsman out and run out a batsman when occasion arises. Th ...

against the

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at New Road, stumping the opposing keeper, Harold Webster. The

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

intervened after the 1914 season, and Foster did not play again until 1920, when he appeared once each for

Free Foresters Free Foresters Cricket Club is an English amateur cricket club, established in 1856 for players from the Midland counties of England. It is a 'wandering' (or nomadic) club, having no home ground. The Free Foresters were founded by the Rev. Will ...

and MCC, hitting 143 in his match for the latter side against Oxford University. In 1921 he played eight times for Kent, for whom he turned out twice more the following season. After that his first-class appearances were sporadic: he played for Harlequins in one of their few first-class matches, against the

South Africans The population of South Africa is about 58.8 million people of diverse origins, cultures, languages, and religions. The South African National Census of 2022 was the most recent census held; the next will be in 2032. In 2011, Statistics Sout ...

in 1924, and later that decade played four games for Free Foresters against Oxford University. Finally, he played a few games for MCC in 1931, the last being against – once again – Oxford.

Later life

He was the Public Schools and Independent Schools F.A. representative on the Council of the

Football Association The Football Association (also known as The FA) is the governing body of association football in England and the Crown Dependencies of Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man. Formed in 1863, it is the oldest football association in the world an ...

from 1920 to 1924.5. The Public Schools FA AND ISFA
. ISFA. Retrieved 16 July 2010. Foster died in

Westminster Westminster is an area of Central London, part of the wider City of Westminster. The area, which extends from the River Thames to Oxford Street, has many visitor attractions and historic landmarks, including the Palace of Westminster, Bu ...

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

at the age of 86.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Foster, Geoffrey 1884 births 1971 deaths English cricketers Europeans cricketers Free Foresters cricketers Kent cricketers People educated at Malvern College Alumni of Worcester College, Oxford Oxford University cricketers Worcestershire cricketers People from Malvern, Worcestershire Marylebone Cricket Club cricketers Gentlemen cricketers Harlequins cricketers Geoffrey L. G. Robinson's XI cricketers Lord Londesborough's XI cricketers Cricketers from Worcestershire