John Francis MacLean (1 March 1901 – 9 March 1986) was an English

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 ...

er: a

wicketkeeper The wicket-keeper in the sport of cricket is the player on the fielding side who stands behind the wicket or stumps being watchful of the batsman and ready to take a catch, stump the batsman out and run out a batsman when occasion arises. Th ...

-batsman who 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

Gloucestershire Gloucestershire ( abbreviated Glos) is a county in South West England. The county comprises part of the Cotswold Hills, part of the flat fertile valley of the River Severn and the entire Forest of Dean. The county town is the city of Gl ...

and

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 ...

between the wars In the history of the 20th century, the interwar period lasted from 11 November 1918 to 1 September 1939 (20 years, 9 months, 21 days), the end of the First World War to the beginning of the Second World War. The interwar period was relativel ...

. He was selected for the Gentlemen against the Players in 1923, and also appeared at first-class level for

Marylebone Cricket Club Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) is a cricket club founded in 1787 and based since 1814 at Lord's Cricket Ground, which it owns, in St John's Wood, London. The club was formerly the governing body of cricket retaining considerable global influence ...

(MCC), HK Foster's XI and

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 ...

. MacLean attended

Eton College Eton College () is a public school in Eton, Berkshire, England. It was founded in 1440 by Henry VI under the name ''Kynge's College of Our Ladye of Eton besyde Windesore'',Nevill, p. 3 ff. intended as a sister institution to King's College, C ...

and

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 ...

without playing in their First XIs.''

Wisden ''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 ...

'' 1988, p. 1243. He made his first-class debut for HK Foster's XI against Worcestershire at

Hereford Hereford () is a cathedral city, civil parish and the county town of Herefordshire, England. It lies on the River Wye, approximately east of the border with Wales, south-west of Worcester and north-west of Gloucester. With a population ...

in July 1919, making 12 and 18

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 ...

. He made no dismissals in the match, nor in his appearance for the same side against the Australian Imperial Forces just two days later. His third match, again for HK Foster's XI and once more against Worcestershire, produced an innings of 59 from number ten, but again no dismissals. He did not play first-class cricket again until 1922, when he was a regular part of a very weak Worcestershire side (they finished bottom of the

County Championship The County Championship (referred to as the LV= Insurance County Championship for sponsorship reasons) is the domestic first-class cricket competition in England and Wales and is organised by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB). It bec ...

with only one win from 26 matches). His county debut, against

Warwickshire Warwickshire (; abbreviated Warks) is a county in the West Midlands region of England. The county town is Warwick, and the largest town is Nuneaton. The county is famous for being the birthplace of William Shakespeare at Stratford-upon-Avon an ...

Edgbaston Edgbaston () is an affluent suburban area of central Birmingham, England, historically in Warwickshire, and curved around the southwest of the city centre. In the 19th century, the area was under the control of the Gough-Calthorpe family an ...

, at last gave him his maiden dismissal when he

stumped 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 ...

opener

Leonard Bates Leonard Thomas Ashton Bates (20 March 1895 – 11 March 1971) was an English cricketer. He was a right-hand batsman and right-arm medium pace bowler who played for Warwickshire. Born in the pavilion at Edgbaston Cricket Ground where his father, ...

in the second innings. It was not a particularly successful season overall for MacLean, however: he finished with only 459 runs from 41 innings and made 16 dismissals (6 caught, 10 stumped). That winter MacLean toured

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

and

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

with MCC, and though he did poorly against the Australian state sides, he performed rather better on the New Zealand section of the tour, making two half-centuries including 84 in an unofficial

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), ...

against

Wellington Wellington ( mi, Te Whanganui-a-Tara or ) is the capital city of New Zealand. It is located at the south-western tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Remutaka Range. Wellington is the second-largest city in New Zealand by me ...

. Returning to England, he enjoyed the best summer of his career with both bat and gloves. His 710 runs included his only hundred: a rearguard, if ultimately unsuccessful, 121 in an hour and a half against

Nottinghamshire Nottinghamshire (; abbreviated Notts.) is a landlocked county in the East Midlands region of England, bordering South Yorkshire to the north-west, Lincolnshire to the east, Leicestershire to the south, and Derbyshire to the west. The traditi ...

after Worcestershire had fallen to 56/5 in their second innings. Behind the stumps MacLean managed 46 dismissals, easily his best season's tally. He played only half a dozen games in 1924, without conspicuous success, and was then absent from first-class cricket until 1930, by which time he had moved to Gloucestershire. He played three times for them that year, and thrice more in 1932, making his last first-class appearance against

Middlesex Middlesex (; abbreviation: Middx) is a Historic counties of England, historic county in South East England, southeast England. Its area is almost entirely within the wider urbanised area of London and mostly within the Ceremonial counties of ...

Clifton College ''The spirit nourishes within'' , established = 160 years ago , closed = , type = Public schoolIndependent boarding and day school , religion = Christian , president = , head_label = Head of College , head ...

in early August 1932. MacLean's father

Montague MacLean Montague Francis MacLean (12 September 1870 – 14 January 1951) was an English first-class cricketer. The son of Sir Francis William Maclean and Mattie Sowerby, he was born at Kensington in November 1871.1933 Colliery Year Book and Coal Trade ...

played five first-class matches in the 1890s, for MCC and

Lord Hawke Martin Bladen Hawke, 7th Baron Hawke (16 August 1860 – 10 October 1938), generally known as Lord Hawke, was an English amateur cricketer active from 1881 to 1911 who played for Yorkshire and England. He was born in Willingham by Stow, near Ga ...

's XI.

References

External links

*
Statistical summary
from CricketArchive {{DEFAULTSORT:Maclean, John 1901 births 1986 deaths People educated at Eton College Alumni of the University of Cambridge English cricketers Gloucestershire cricketers Worcestershire cricketers Free Foresters cricketers Gentlemen cricketers Cricketers from Northumberland Marylebone Cricket Club cricketers English cricketers of 1919 to 1945 Wicket-keepers