Rev. George Barkley Raikes (14 March 1873 – 18 December 1966) was an English sportsman 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 ...

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

Hampshire Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants) is a ceremonial county, ceremonial and non-metropolitan county, non-metropolitan counties of England, county in western South East England on the coast of the English Channel. Home to two major English citi ...

as well as representing the

England national football team The England national football team has represented England in international Association football, football since the first international match in 1872. It is controlled by The Football Association (FA), the governing body for football in Engl ...

Early life

Raikes was born at

Carleton Forehoe Carleton Forehoe is a village and former civil parish west of Norwich, now in the parish of Kimberley, in the South Norfolk district, in the county of Norfolk, England. In 1931 the parish had a population of 123. History Carleton Forehoe's nam ...

near

Wymondham Wymondham ( ) is a market town and civil parishes in England, civil parish in the South Norfolk district of Norfolk, England, south-west of Norwich, England, Norwich off the A11 road (England), A11 road to London. The River Tiffey runs through ...

Norfolk Norfolk () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in East Anglia in England. It borders Lincolnshire to the north-west, Cambridgeshire to the west and south-west, and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the No ...

,Skipper K (2021
Bowled over by cricketing reverend's sporting achievements
''

Eastern Daily Press The ''Eastern Daily Press'' (''EDP'') is a regional newspaper covering Norfolk, northern parts of Suffolk and eastern Cambridgeshire, and is published daily in Norwich, UK. Founded in 1870 as a broadsheet called the ''Eastern Counties Daily ...

'', 13 June 2021. Retrieved 2021-06-14. Raikes was the second son of Francis Raikes, a clergyman. He grew up at Hedenham Hall in south Norfolk and was educated at

Shrewsbury School Shrewsbury School is a public school (English independent boarding school for pupils aged 13 –18) in Shrewsbury. Founded in 1552 by Edward VI by Royal Charter, it was originally a boarding school for boys; girls have been admitted into the ...

.Foster J (1893
Oxford men, 1880-1892, with a record of their schools, honours and degrees
p.499. Oxford: James Parker.The Reverend George Raikes

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 ...

(includes text from Raikes' obituary published in ''The Cricketer Spring Annual'' in 1967). Retrieved 2021-06-14. He played cricket for the school between 1888 and 1892, captaining the side in his last three years, and kept goal for the school football team between 1890 and 1892. He went up to

Magdalen College, Oxford Magdalen College (, ) is a constituent college of the University of Oxford. It was founded in 1458 by William of Waynflete. Today, it is the fourth wealthiest college, with a financial endowment of £332.1 million as of 2019 and one of the s ...

in 1893. At Oxford he won a

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 ...

in football in each of the four years from 1893 to 1896 and cricket blues in 1894 and 1895.

Cricket career

Raikes, a middle order batsman and right-arm fast-medium bowler, played his early first-class cricket at Oxford University where he won his Blue in 1894 and 1895. He joined Hampshire in 1900 and performed well with the bat, making two half-centuries in his first three matches and also scoring a pair of 40s. His brother

Ernest Ernest is a given name derived from Germanic languages, Germanic word ''ernst'', meaning "serious". Notable people and fictional characters with the name include: People *Archduke Ernest of Austria (1553–1595), son of Maximilian II, Holy Roman ...

and nephew

Thomas Thomas may refer to: People * List of people with given name Thomas * Thomas (name) * Thomas (surname) * Saint Thomas (disambiguation) * Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274) Italian Dominican friar, philosopher, and Doctor of the Church * Thomas the Ap ...

both played first-class cricket. The all-rounder was also a successful cricketer in the

Minor Counties Championship The NCCA 3 Day Championship (previously the Minor Counties Cricket Championship) is a season-long competition in England and Wales that is contested by the members of the National Counties Cricket Association (NCCA), the so-called national cou ...

, where he captained

Norfolk County Cricket Club Norfolk County Cricket Club is one of twenty minor county cricket clubs within the domestic cricket structure of England and Wales. It represents the historic county of Norfolk. The team is currently a member of the Minor Counties Champion ...

to the Minor Counties Championship title in 1905 and 1910. Raikes scored 3,419 runs for Norfolk in Minor Counties matches 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 30.80 runs per innings. He took 282 wickets at a

bowling average In cricket, a player's bowling average is the number of runs they have conceded per wicket taken. The lower the bowling average is, the better the bowler is performing. It is one of a number of statistics used to compare bowlers, commonly use ...

of 15.86 runs per wicket, 57 of which were taken during the 1910 Championship winning season. Despite having not played first-class cricket for a decade, Raikes returned in 1912 for a match with an England XI against Australia at

Norwich Norwich () is a cathedral city and district of Norfolk, England, of which it is the county town. Norwich is by the River Wensum, about north-east of London, north of Ipswich and east of Peterborough. As the seat of the See of Norwich, with ...

Football career

goalkeeper In many team sports which involve scoring goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie or keeper) is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by blocking or intercepting o ...

at football, he played at club level for

, Wymondham Town and

Corinthian Corinthian or Corinthians may refer to: *Several Pauline epistles, books of the New Testament of the Bible: **First Epistle to the Corinthians **Second Epistle to the Corinthians **Third Epistle to the Corinthians (Orthodox) *A demonym relating to ...

.Raikes, The Rev George Bailey
Obituaries in 1966, ''

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 ...

'', 1967. Retrieved 2021-06-14. Whilst at Oxford, Raikes was capped four times for England, making his international debut in a 1–1 draw with Wales in 1895. His three other appearances came in 1896, 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 ...

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the Wales–England border, east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the ...

and

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

respectively. There is some dispute over whether or not Raikes captained England in their international against Ireland on 7 March 1896, with Gilbert Smith and Vaughan Lodge the others in the frame. The list provided by the F.A. does not include Raikes as an England captain however both the ''Irish Saturday Night'' and ''The Irish Times'' gave Raikes the captaincy.

Career in the church

After being ordained in 1897, he was a curate of

Portsea, Portsmouth Portsea Island is a flat and low-lying natural island in area, just off the southern coast of Hampshire in England. Portsea Island contains the majority of the city of Portsmouth. Portsea Island has the third-largest population of all th ...

, the largest parish of the city until 1905 and then chaplain to the

Duke of Portland Duke is a male title either of a monarch ruling over a duchy, or of a member of royalty, or nobility. As rulers, dukes are ranked below emperors, kings, grand princes, grand dukes, and sovereign princes. As royalty or nobility, they are rank ...

. In 1920 he became Rector of

Bergh Apton Bergh Apton (Ber-Guh App-ton) is a village and civil parish in the South Norfolk district of Norfolk, England, 7 miles (11 km) south-east of Norwich just south of the A146 between Yelverton and Thurton. According to the 2001 census it ha ...

in Norfolk, remaining there until 1936. Before his death, at the age of 93, Raikes had been one of the oldest living first-class cricketers.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Raikes, George Barkley 1873 births 1966 deaths People from Wymondham People educated at Shrewsbury School Alumni of Magdalen College, Oxford English cricketers Oxford University cricketers Hampshire cricketers Norfolk cricketers English footballers England international footballers Association football goalkeepers Oxford University A.F.C. players Corinthian F.C. players 20th-century English Anglican priests Sportspeople from Norfolk Oxford University Past and Present cricketers Non-international England cricketers Wymondham Town F.C. players