John Thomas Newstead (8 September 1877 – 25 March 1952) 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, who played 96 first-class matches for

Yorkshire County Cricket Club Yorkshire County Cricket Club is one of 18 first-class county clubs within the domestic cricket structure of England and Wales. It represents the historic county of Yorkshire. Yorkshire are the most successful team in English cricketing hi ...

between 1903 and 1913. An

all-rounder An all-rounder is a cricketer who regularly performs well at both batting and bowling. Although all bowlers must bat and quite a handful of batsmen do bowl occasionally, most players are skilled in only one of the two disciplines and are consi ...

who batted in the middle order, he was selected as one of

Wisden Cricketers of the Year The ''Wisden'' Cricketers of the Year are cricketers selected for the honour by the annual publication ''Wisden Cricketers' Almanack'', based primarily on their "influence on the previous English season". The award began in 1889 with the naming ...

for 1909.

Life and career

Newstead was born in

Marton, Middlesbrough Marton (officially Marton-in-Cleveland) is an area of Middlesbrough, North Yorkshire, England. Until the 1950s, it was a small village next to the hamlet of Tollesby in Yorkshire's North Riding. The Marton parish originally stretched north to ...

Yorkshire Yorkshire ( ; abbreviated Yorks), formally known as the County of York, is a Historic counties of England, historic county in northern England and by far the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its large area in comparison with other Eng ...

. He learned the game under the tutorship of William Brunton - a North Riding cricketer of good local repute in the days of the England eleven. He made such rapid progress that aged seventeen he was given an engagement with Middlesbrough C.C. He was given two trials for the county in 1903 against

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 ...

and

Derbyshire Derbyshire ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands, England. It includes much of the Peak District National Park, the southern end of the Pennine range of hills and part of the National Forest. It borders Greater Manchester to the nor ...

, but he was treated as a batsman and not as a bowler. As a result of the mistake he was not kept on. He was then on the

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) staff until 1906. Playing eight times for the club, he met with moderate results and was not regularly used as a bowler. The turning point in his career was an engagement in Ireland in 1907. In twelve weeks' engagement with Woodbrook Bray C.C. he took over a hundred wickets and his possibilities as a bowler were realised by the Yorkshire authorities. His emergence in 1908 was prefigured by an extraordinary analysis of 7 wickets for 10 runs against

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 ...

at Bradford, on his recall to the Yorkshire team at the end of the 1907 campaign. In 1908 he made 927 runs and took 140 wickets and was a big factor in Yorkshire's regaining 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 ...

. A bowler of near medium pace, he also imparted the then fashionable in-duckers, or quick off spin. However, Newstead's great season proved to be something of a flash in the pan, for he took only 151 further wickets. He lost his place before the end of 1909: he averaged only fourteen with the bat, and did not appear regularly again, making his final first-class, and only appearance of the season, in 1913. In 1914 he joined

Rishton Cricket Club Rishton Cricket Club is a cricket club in the Lancashire League, which plays its home games at Blackburn Road in Rishton, Lancashire, England. For the 2017 season their captain is Matt Lambert and professional is Shaun von Berg. The club was ...

in the Lancashire League, taking 94 wickets at 7.57, and he later appeared for Lidget Green and East Bierley, then on to Church Cricket Club from 1919 to 1921 and finally

Haslingden Haslingden is a town in Rossendale, Lancashire, England. It is north of Manchester. The name means 'valley of the hazels' or 'valley growing with hazels'. At the time of the 2011 census the town (including Helmshore) had a population of 15,96 ...

in 1922. Newstead died in

Blackburn Blackburn () is an industrial town and the administrative centre of the Blackburn with Darwen borough in Lancashire, England. The town is north of the West Pennine Moors on the southern edge of the Ribble Valley, east of Preston and north-n ...

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 Lancashi ...

, in March 1952. He did not receive an obituary in ''

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 ...

'' until one appeared in the special "Supplementary Obituaries" section in the 1994 edition.''

'' 1994, p. 1363.

Bibliography

*''A History of Yorkshire Cricket'' by Tony Woodhouse

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Newstead, John 1877 births 1952 deaths Yorkshire cricketers Wisden Cricketers of the Year Cricketers from Middlesbrough English cricketers Players cricketers Marylebone Cricket Club cricketers North v South cricketers English cricketers of 1890 to 1918