John Alexander Dew (12 May 1920 – 7 September 2008) 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. Dew was a right-handed batsman who fielded as a wicket-keeper. He was born at

Horsham Horsham is a market town on the upper reaches of the River Arun on the fringe of the Weald in West Sussex, England. The town is south south-west of London, north-west of Brighton and north-east of the county town of Chichester. Nearby to ...

, Sussex. Educated at Tonbridge School, Dew played cricket and

rugby Rugby may refer to: Sport * Rugby football in many forms: ** Rugby league: 13 players per side *** Masters Rugby League *** Mod league *** Rugby league nines *** Rugby league sevens *** Touch (sport) *** Wheelchair rugby league ** Rugby union: 1 ...

for the school, it was in rugby that he captained the school. From Tonbridge, he read medicine at

St Catharine's College, Cambridge St Catharine's College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1473 as Katharine Hall, it adopted its current name in 1860. The college is nicknamed "Catz". The college is located in the historic city-centre of Camb ...

. While at St Catharine's he played cricket for Cambridge University Cricket Club (though the suspension of first-class cricket at the time due to World War II meant none of his matches were first-class), earning a wartime Blue. After leaving St Catharine's, he qualified as a

medical practitioner A physician (American English), medical practitioner (Commonwealth English), medical doctor, or simply doctor, is a health professional who practices medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring health through th ...

at the Royal London Hospital. In first-class cricket, Dew made two first-class appearances for

Sussex Sussex (), from the Old English (), is a historic county in South East England that was formerly an independent medieval Anglo-Saxon kingdom. It is bounded to the west by Hampshire, north by Surrey, northeast by Kent, south by the English ...

in the

1947 County Championship 1947 was the 48th season of County Championship cricket in England. It is chiefly remembered for the batting performances of Denis Compton and Bill Edrich who established seasonal records that, with the subsequent reduction in the number of fir ...

against Worcestershire and Warwickshire, scoring a total of 51 runs at an average of 17.00, with a high score of 29, while behind the

stumps In cricket, the stumps are the three vertical posts that support the bails and form the wicket. '' Stumping'' or ''being stumped'' is a method of dismissing a batsman. The umpire ''calling stumps'' means the play is over for the day. Part of ...

he took a single

catch Catch may refer to: In sports * Catch (game), children's game * Catch (baseball), a maneuver in baseball * Catch (cricket), a mode of dismissal in cricket * Catch or reception (gridiron football) * Catch, part of a rowing stroke In music * Catc ...

and made a single

stumping Stumped is a method of dismissing a batsman in cricket, which involves the wicket-keeper putting down the wicket while the batsman is out of his ground. (The batsman leaves his ground when he has moved down the pitch beyond the popping crease ...

. Fourteen years later, he made a third and last appearance in first-class cricket, this time for

L.C. Stevens' XI Col. L. C. Stevens' XI, sometimes shortened to L. C. Stevens' XI, was an English cricket team that played 30 matches (two of them first-class) at The Saffrons ground in Eastbourne from 1949 to 1968. The teams were raised by Lieutenant-Colonel Le ...

against Cambridge University at

The Saffrons, Eastbourne The Saffrons is a multi-purpose sports ground in Eastbourne, East Sussex. The ground is home to Eastbourne Cricket Club, Eastbourne Town Football Club, Eastbourne Hockey Club and Compton Croquet Club. There is also a sand dressed astroturf pitch ...

, with Dew scoring 9 runs in the match, as well as taking 4 catches. Outside of first-class cricket, he played for

Horsham Cricket Club Horsham Cricket Club is one of the oldest cricket clubs in the world and represents the Sussex market town of Horsham in the Sussex Cricket League, along with Roffey Cricket Club. Although cricket was played in Horsham before 1768, the first reco ...

, captaining the club for ten years and serving as its President for 47 years. He was the founder of the Sussex Cricket Festival, and was heavily involved in coaching young cricketers. Staying close to his roots for much of his life, Dew worked as a GP in the Horsham area. In addition to that, he was a founding member of the West Sussex Philharmonic Choir, as well as a governor of Collyer's College in Horsham. He also served as a Deputy Lieutenant of Sussex, and was appointed

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 ...

for services to the community. He died at the town of his birth on 7 September 2008. Following his death, he was awarded a Lifetime Achiever award by the England and Wales Cricket Board in October 2008, and a new building at Collyer's College was named after him.

References

External links

John Dew
at ESPNcricinfo
John Dew
at CricketArchive {{DEFAULTSORT:Dew, John 1920 births 2008 deaths People from Horsham People educated at Tonbridge School Alumni of St Catharine's College, Cambridge English cricketers Sussex cricketers L. C. Stevens' XI cricketers English cricket administrators 20th-century English medical doctors Members of the Order of the British Empire Deputy lieutenants of Sussex Wicket-keepers Cricketers from West Sussex