John Harvey Gordon (15 June 1886 – 23 April 1933) 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. Gordon was a right-handed batsman whose bowling style is unknown. He played most of his first-class cricket for Oxford University, but also played

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 ...

for

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. ...

(at first-class level) and Dorset.

Career

Born at Reigate, Surrey, Gordon was educated at Winchester College, where he represented the school cricket team, then went on to study at

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 ...

. He made his debut in first-class cricket for the

University Cricket Club A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase ''universitas magistrorum et scholarium'', whic ...

against HDG Leveson-Gower's XI at the University Parks in 1906. Gordon made eight further first-class appearances for the University in that season, scoring 545 runs at an average of 27.35, with a high score of 117, his only first-class

century A century is a period of 100 years. Centuries are numbered ordinally in English and many other languages. The word ''century'' comes from the Latin ''centum'', meaning ''one hundred''. ''Century'' is sometimes abbreviated as c. A centennial or ...

, which came against

. He also made two first-class appearances ''for'' Surrey in that season's County Championship against Warwickshire and Worcestershire. He continued to play for Oxford University in 1907, making a further nine first-class appearances for the team, though he was less successful, scoring 251 runs at an average of 13.94, with a high score of 51. In his 18 first-class appearances for the University, Gordon scored 678 runs at an average of 19.94. He also made a single appearance for Surrey in that season's County Championship against Nottinghamshire at Trent Bridge. The following season he played

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 un ...

for Dorset, making a single appearance 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 ...

against

Berkshire Berkshire ( ; in the 17th century sometimes spelt phonetically as Barkeshire; abbreviated Berks.) is a historic county in South East England. One of the home counties, Berkshire was recognised by Queen Elizabeth II as the Royal County of Berk ...

. He later emigrated to the United States, playing for Merion Cricket Club in the

Halifax Cup The Halifax Cup was a cricket tournament held in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania between 1880 and 1926. A variety of clubs from the Philadelphia region were involved in the competition, including most principally the Philadelphia Cricket Club, Belmont C ...

from 1911–14. He died on 23 April 1933, at Charlottesville, Virginia.

References

External links

John Gordon
at ESPNcricinfo
John Gordon
at CricketArchive {{DEFAULTSORT:Gordon, John 1886 births 1933 deaths People from Reigate People educated at Winchester College Alumni of Magdalen College, Oxford English cricketers Oxford University cricketers Surrey cricketers Dorset cricketers British emigrants to the United States