George Herbert Chesterton

MBE Mbe may refer to: * Mbé, a town in the Republic of the Congo * Mbe Mountains Community Forest, in Nigeria * Mbe language, a language of Nigeria * Mbe' language, language of Cameroon * ''mbe'', ISO 639 code for the extinct Molala language Molal ...

(15 July 1922 – 3 November 2012) 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 who played

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 ...

between 1949 and 1966. The bulk of his appearances were 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 ...

, whom he represented between 1950 and 1957. He was capped by the county in 1950. Very much a specialist bowler, he never reached 50 in over 100 first-class innings.

Early life and career

Chesterton 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 ...

and

Brasenose College, Oxford Brasenose College (BNC) is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. It began as Brasenose Hall in the 13th century, before being founded as a college in 1509. The library and chapel were added in the mi ...

. He made his first-class debut in 1948, representing

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. Willi ...

in a drawn match against

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 ...

The University Parks The Oxford University Parks, commonly referred to locally as the University Parks, or just The Parks, is a large parkland area slightly northeast of the city centre in Oxford, England. The park is bounded to the east by the River Cherwell, thoug ...

. He made 29

not out In cricket, a batter is not out if they come out to bat in an innings and have not been dismissed by the end of an innings. The batter is also ''not out'' while their innings is still in progress. Occurrence At least one batter is not out at t ...

in his only innings, and took two wickets, including that of future

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

Test Test(s), testing, or TEST may refer to: * Test (assessment), an educational assessment intended to measure the respondents' knowledge or other abilities Arts and entertainment * ''Test'' (2013 film), an American film * ''Test'' (2014 film), ...

player

Clive van Ryneveld Clive Berrangè van Ryneveld (19 March 1928 – 29 January 2018) was a South African cricketer who played in 19 Test cricket, Test matches between 1951 and 1958. He was the son of Reginald Clive Berrangè van Ryneveld (b. 7 July 1891, d. 1969) a ...

. Although that was his only first-class appearance of the season, he did also represent

Cornwall Cornwall (; kw, Kernow ) is a historic county and ceremonial county in South West England. It is recognised as one of the Celtic nations, and is the homeland of the Cornish people. Cornwall is bordered to the north and west by the Atlantic ...

twice against the

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. ...

Second XI in August, something he would do twice more in August 1949. That 1949 season saw Chesterton play frequently for the Oxford side, and his final aggregate of 46 wickets was the highest he managed in any summer, as was his total of four five-wicket innings hauls. His best innings return that season was the 6–11 he claimed against Free Foresters in late May; this game also saw him make his highest score of 43. In early July he played against

Cambridge University , mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts. Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge. , established = , other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...

in the

University Match The University Match in a cricketing context is generally understood to refer to the annual fixture between Oxford University Cricket Club and Cambridge University Cricket Club. From 2001, as part of the reorganisation of first-class cricket, ...

Lord's Lord's Cricket Ground, commonly known as Lord's, is a cricket venue in St John's Wood, London. Named after its founder, Thomas Lord, it is owned by Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) and is the home of Middlesex County Cricket Club, the England and ...

, though he took only one wicket as Oxford went down to a seven-wicket defeat. Chesterton's 1950 season began with a match ''against'' Oxford at Lord's, and he also represented MCC against

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

in Dublin at the end of the season, but the year was most notable for his first summer of

county cricket Inter-county cricket matches are known to have been played since the early 18th century, involving teams that are representative of the historic counties of England and Wales. Since the late 19th century, there have been two county championship ...

with Worcestershire. He took 38 first-class wickets in all (32 in England and six in Ireland), twice taking six wickets in an innings: 6–61 versus

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated Lancs) is the name of a historic county, ceremonial county, and non-metropolitan county in North West England. The boundaries of these three areas differ significantly. The non-metropolitan county of Lancashi ...

in early August and 6–59 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_ ...

later that same month. In 1951 Chesterton played only once, but between 1952 and 1957 he made about half a dozen appearances a year for Worcestershire, generally picking up 20 or 30 wickets each season, as well as continuing to take the trip to Ireland with MCC in 1952, 1954 and 1956. It was on the 1956 tour that he recorded his career-best innings return, taking 7–14. He followed that up with 3–38 in the second innings to record his only ten-wicket match haul. Chesterton ended his county cricket career after 1957, but he did have one final game for Free Foresters against Oxford in 1961, and continued to accompany MCC to Ireland well into the 1960s. His final first-class game came in that fixture in September 1966, but his farewell to cricket was not a success despite MCC's victory: Chesterton made 0 in both innings and did not take a wicket in 20 overs of bowling.

Later career

Chesterton wrote a book on coaching for young people with

Alan Duff Alan Duff (born 26 October 1950) is a New Zealand novelist and newspaper columnist. He is best known as the author of the novel ''Once Were Warriors'' (1990), which was made into a film of the same name in 1994. Biography Alan Duff was bor ...

, entitled ''Your Book of Cricket''. He also co-wrote ''Oxford and Cambridge Cricketers'' with

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge bec ...

blue Blue is one of the three primary colours in the RYB colour model (traditional colour theory), as well as in the RGB (additive) colour model. It lies between violet and cyan on the spectrum of visible light. The eye perceives blue when obs ...

and

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

Test player Hubert Doggart. In 1991, he founded The Chesterton Cup, an annual cricket competition between schools in the

English Midlands The Midlands (also referred to as Central England) are a part of England that broadly correspond to the Kingdom of Mercia of the Early Middle Ages, bordered by Wales, Northern England and Southern England. The Midlands were important in the Ind ...

. Schools which regularly participate include RGS Worcester (record five times winner),

Cheltenham College ("Work Conquers All") , established = , closed = , type = Public schoolIndependent School Day and Boarding School , religion = Church of England , president = , head_label = Head , head = Nicola Huggett ...

and Monmouth School. In 2011, he was appointed president of the Cricketer Cup. Outside cricket, Chesterton worked at Malvern College, the school he had attended as a boy, until 1982, becoming deputy head. In 1990 was published ''Malvern College: 125 Years'', a book which he wrote. In 2006, the Malvernian Society held a dinner in his honour at the college to celebrate his 70-year association with Malvern. He wrote a book, called ''Also Flew'', about his war-time service in the RAF during the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

; and Andrew Murtagh has written a biography about him called ''A Remarkable Man''. He died aged 90 on 3 November 2012.
www.telegraph.co.uk. Retrieved 2012-11-07.

Notes

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Chesterton, George English cricketers Worcestershire cricketers Marylebone Cricket Club cricketers Oxford University cricketers Free Foresters cricketers 1922 births 2012 deaths Members of the Order of the British Empire Alumni of Brasenose College, Oxford People educated at Malvern College Royal Air Force personnel of World War II Cornwall cricketers Gentlemen of England cricketers Military personnel from Staffordshire