John Shuter (9 February 1855 – 5 July 1920) was a
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 str ...
er who played for
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
and
Surrey in the late 19th century. He is best remembered for captaining Surrey to a string of wins in the County Championship around the time it became official in 1890, aided by the bowler
George Lohmann
George Alfred Lohmann (2 June 1865 – 1 December 1901) was an English cricketer, regarded as one of the greatest bowlers of all time. Statistically, he holds the lowest lifetime Test bowling average among bowlers with more than fifteen wickets ...
and back up by
John Sharpe and
William Lockwood. Shuter first led Surrey to the County Championship in 1887. They then came first in 1888, tied with
Lancashire
Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated Lancs) is the name of a historic county, ceremonial county, and non-metropolitan county in North West England. The boundaries of these three areas differ significantly.
The non-metropolitan county of Lancash ...
and
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 trad ...
in 1889, and won again in 1890, 1891 and 1892. Shuter was a batsman and chiefly an off-side player.
John Shuter
CricketArchive. Retrieved 2020-06-05. .
Shuter was born in Thornton Heath, Surrey, England, the son of Leonard Shuter, a stave timber merchant, and Caroline. John went to Winchester College
Winchester College is a public school (fee-charging independent day and boarding school) in Winchester, Hampshire, England. It was founded by William of Wykeham in 1382 and has existed in its present location ever since. It is the oldest of ...
, playing in its cricket eleven from 1871 to 1873. Though a Surrey man by birth, Shuter had played much club cricket in Bexley and was thus qualified by residence for Kent
Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...
. After a single match in 1874, Shuter was rejected by Kent. He first played for his native county in 1877 and the following year jumped abruptly to the front rank of batsmen. He scored a century (then an exceptional feat due to the primitive pitches) against Sussex at Hove the following year and in 1880 became captain of Surrey.
At first, rewards for this move were slow and Surrey entered a crisis around 1883 - by which time Shuter had become established as one of the best batsmen in England despite a number of failures for the Gentlemen against the Players in the years since 1879. However, after overcoming the crisis Surrey rapidly developed into a top-flight county side through Lohmann's bowling, which headed the list of first-class wicket-takers for seven successive years from 1885 to 1891. Shuter had his best seasons in batting from 1882 to 1887, though he never reached 1,000 runs in a season. He played one Test on his home ground in 1888, but by 1890, with only one score of over fifty, it was clear his best days as a batsman were over. He continued though, to play a major role as captain of Surrey until 1893, when owing to the failure of Abel
Abel ''Hábel''; ar, هابيل, Hābīl is a Biblical figure in the Book of Genesis within Abrahamic religions. He was the younger brother of Cain, and the younger son of Adam and Eve, the first couple in Biblical history. He was a shepherd ...
and their other top batsmen, they declined from first to sixth among nine counties.
Shuter made no score above 44 that season and owing to business resigned the captaincy. His only subsequent first-class match was for Surrey against Oxford University in 1909 at the age of fifty-four - with a team including Bill Hitch
John William Hitch (7 May 1886 – 7 July 1965) was a cricketer who played for Surrey and England.
A Lancastrian, Hitch was bowling for a club in Cambridgeshire when he was spotted by Surrey's batsman Tom Hayward and recommended to The Oval. ...
, over thirty-one years younger.
Long after he retired he was appointed as a 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), ...
selector (for the triangular tournament held in 1912) and secretary of Surrey in 1919 - a role which he did not hold for long as a stroke caused his sudden death in 1920. Although most noted for his cricketing exploits, Shuter joined his father in business as a stave timber merchant and cooper. His nephew, Leonard Shuter, was also a first-class cricketer.[Carlaw D (2020) ''Kent County Cricketers A to Z. Part One: 1806–1914'' (revised edition), pp. 489–490.]
Available online
at the Association of Cricket Statisticians and Historians
The Association of Cricket Statisticians and Historians (ACS) was founded in England in 1973 for the purpose of researching and collating information about the history and statistics of cricket. Originally called the Association of Cricket Statis ...
. Retrieved 2020-12-21.)
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Shuter, John
1855 births
1920 deaths
English cricket administrators
England Test cricketers
English cricketers
Kent cricketers
Surrey cricketers
Surrey cricket captains
Marylebone Cricket Club cricketers
Gentlemen cricketers
North v South cricketers
People from Thornton Heath
England cricket team selectors
People educated at Winchester College
Gentlemen of England cricketers