John Willoughby Dixie Smith (11 March 1882 – 2 October 1959) 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 and

rugby union Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In its m ...

player. Smith was a utility back in rugby and right-handed batsman in cricket, although his

bowling Bowling is a target sport and recreational activity in which a player rolls a ball toward pins (in pin bowling) or another target (in target bowling). The term ''bowling'' usually refers to pin bowling (most commonly ten-pin bowling), though ...

style is unknown. He was born at

Blaby Blaby () is a large village in the Blaby District in central Leicestershire, England, some five miles south of Leicester city centre. At the time of the 2011 census, Blaby had a population of 6,194, a slight fall from 6,240 in 2001 figures). B ...

Leicestershire Leicestershire ( ; postal abbreviation Leics.) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East Midlands, England. The county borders Nottinghamshire to the north, Lincolnshire to the north-east, Rutland to the east, Northamptonshire t ...

. He was also known as John Willoughby Dixie-Smith.

School and rugby

Smith attended Oundle School in

Northamptonshire Northamptonshire (; abbreviated Northants.) is a county in the East Midlands of England. In 2015, it had a population of 723,000. The county is administered by two unitary authorities: North Northamptonshire and West Northamptonshire. It is ...

in 1897 and 1898. On 20 January 1902 he made his debut for

Leicester Tigers Leicester Tigers (officially Leicester Football Club) are a professional rugby union club based in Leicester, England. They play in Premiership Rugby, England's top division of rugby. The club was founded in 1880 and since 1892 plays its hom ...

against Plymouth, scoring a try in a 5–3 defeat. Smith played against

Exeter Exeter () is a city in Devon, South West England. It is situated on the River Exe, approximately northeast of Plymouth and southwest of Bristol. In Roman Britain, Exeter was established as the base of Legio II Augusta under the personal comm ...

the next day, but did not feature again that season. He featured regularly in the 1903–04 & 1904–05 seasons before leaving the club for two seasons. He re-joined in 1907 and played most weeks, in 1908–09 he played in 36 games, the most of any of his seasons and captained the club on 3 occasions. He played his final match on 2 March 1912 against Headingly.

World War 1 and cricket

He later served in

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

with the Leicestershire Regiment, where he held the rank of

Lieutenant A lieutenant ( , ; abbreviated Lt., Lt, LT, Lieut and similar) is a commissioned officer rank in the armed forces of many nations. The meaning of lieutenant differs in different militaries (see comparative military ranks), but it is often sub ...

. Following the war, Smith made two first-class appearances for

in the

1921 County Championship The 1921 County Championship was the 28th officially organised running of the County Championship. Middlesex County Cricket Club won their third championship title. Glamorgan County Cricket Club Glamorgan County Cricket Club ( cy, Criced M ...

against

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

Glamorgan , HQ = Cardiff , Government = Glamorgan County Council (1889–1974) , Origin= , Code = GLA , CodeName = Chapman code , Replace = * West Glamorgan * Mid Glamorgan * South Glamorgan , Motto ...

. He scored 30 runs in his two matches with a high score of 25 and a batting average of 7.50. He died at Harrow on the Hill,

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 ...

on 2 October 1959.

References

External links

John Smith
at

ESPNcricinfo ESPN cricinfo (formerly known as Cricinfo or CricInfo) is a sports news website exclusively for the game of cricket. The site features news, articles, live coverage of cricket matches (including liveblogs and scorecards), and ''StatsGuru'', a ...

John Smith
at CricketArchive {{DEFAULTSORT:Smith, John 1882 births 1959 deaths Sportspeople from Blaby Rugby union players from Blaby Cricketers from Leicestershire People educated at Oundle School English cricketers Leicestershire cricketers British Army personnel of World War I Royal Leicestershire Regiment officers Military personnel from Leicestershire Leicester Tigers players