James Michael Cornford (born 6 September 1978) is an

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

former first-class cricketer. The son of an antiques restorer, Cornford was born in

Crewe Crewe () is a railway town and civil parish in the unitary authority of Cheshire East in Cheshire, England. The Crewe built-up area had a total population of 75,556 in 2011, which also covers parts of the adjacent civil parishes of Willaston ...

. After completing his secondary education, Cornford attended

Reaseheath College Reaseheath College is a land-based further education college offering a range of diplomas, apprenticeships, and adult courses. It is mainly located on the outskirts of Nantwich in Cheshire, England. The college offers courses in adventure sports, ...

where he studied golf course and green management. Having found himself unemployed six months after leaving Reaseheath College, Cornford took a loan of £3,000 from

The Prince's Trust The Prince's Trust ( cy, Ymddiriedolaeth y Tywysog) is a charity in the United Kingdom founded in 1976 by King Charles III (then Prince of Wales) to help vulnerable young people get their lives on track. It supports 11-to-30-year-olds who are u ...

to start his own

cricket bat A cricket bat is a specialised piece of equipment used by batters in the sport of cricket to hit the ball, typically consisting of a cane handle attached to a flat-fronted willow-wood blade. It may also be used by a batter who is making ground ...

making business, which by 2000 counted

Keith Semple Keith Semple (born 20 September 1981) is a Northern Irish singer and musician. He originally had his own band Keith Semple Band. In 2002, he took part and was a winner in ''Popstars: The Rivals'', consequently becoming a member of the boyband ...

and Muazam Ali as clients. He made his debut in

minor counties cricket The National Counties, known as the Minor Counties before 2020, are the cricketing counties of England and Wales that do not have first-class status. The game is administered by the National Counties Cricket Association (NCCA), which comes unde ...

for

Cheshire Cheshire ( ) is a ceremonial and historic county in North West England, bordered by Wales to the west, Merseyside and Greater Manchester to the north, Derbyshire to the east, and Staffordshire and Shropshire to the south. Cheshire's county t ...

in the 1999

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 ...

against

Devon Devon ( , historically known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South West England. The most populous settlement in Devon is the city of Plymouth, followed by Devon's county town, the city of Exeter. Devon is ...

. He made five appearances in 1999 and nine in 2000. Cornford also made six appearances for Cheshire in the 2000

MCCA Knockout Trophy The National Counties Cricket Association Knockout Cup was started in 1983 as a knockout one-day competition for the National Counties in English cricket. At first it was known as the ''English Industrial Estates Cup'', before being called the ...

, and one appearance in the 2001 MCCA Knockout Trophy. He travelled to Zimbabwe in March 2002 to play for the

Midlands cricket team The Midlands cricket team was a first-class cricket team representing the Midlands province in Zimbabwe. They competed in the Logan Cup from 1999 until the competition was revamped after the 2004–05 season. The club played their home matches at ...

, making his debut in

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 ...

in the 2001–02 Logan Cup against

Matabeleland Matabeleland is a region located in southwestern Zimbabwe that is divided into three provinces: Matabeleland North, Bulawayo, and Matabeleland South. These provinces are in the west and south-west of Zimbabwe, between the Limpopo and Zambezi r ...

. He made four further appearances during the competition, ending as Midlands' leading run-scorer for the season with 314 runs. Returning to England, Cornford played one match for the

Worcestershire Cricket Board The Worcestershire Cricket Board is the governing body for all recreational cricket in the historic county of Worcestershire Worcestershire ( , ; written abbreviation: Worcs) is a county in the West Midlands of England. The area that is n ...

in the 2002 MCCA Knockout Trophy, before returning to Zimbabwe to play List A one-day cricket for Midlands in the

2002–03 Faithwear Inter-Provincial One-Day Series The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen b ...

, making two appearances against Matabeleland and

Mashonaland Mashonaland is a region in northern Zimbabwe. Currently, Mashonaland is divided into four provinces, * Mashonaland West * Mashonaland Central * Mashonaland East * Harare The Zimbabwean capital of Harare, a province unto itself, lies entirely ...

. By 2009, his cricket equipment business was supplying the

England cricket team The England cricket team represents England and Wales in international cricket. Since 1997, it has been governed by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB), having been previously governed by Marylebone Cricket Club (the MCC) since 1903. Engla ...

and the

Australia national cricket team The Australia men's national cricket team represents Australia in men's international cricket. As the joint oldest team in Test cricket history, playing in the first ever Test match in 1877, the team also plays One-Day International (ODI) an ...

with training aids.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Cornford, James 1978 births Living people Sportspeople from Crewe Cricketers from Cheshire English cricketers Cheshire cricketers Midlands cricketers Worcestershire Cricket Board cricketers English businesspeople