Lionel Lord Cranfield (11 October 1883 – 17 May 1968) played first-class

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 ...

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

Somerset ( en, All The People of Somerset) , locator_map = , coordinates = , region = South West England , established_date = Ancient , established_by = , preceded_by = , origin = , lord_lieutenant_office =Lord Lieutenant of Somerset , lord_ ...

between 1903 and 1922. He was born in

Brixton Brixton is a district in south London, part of the London Borough of Lambeth, England. The area is identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London. Brixton experienced a rapid rise in population during the 19th ce ...

, London and died at

Sale, Cheshire Sale is a town in Trafford, Greater Manchester, England, in the historic county of Cheshire on the south bank of the River Mersey, south of Stretford, northeast of Altrincham, and southwest of Manchester. In 2011, it had a population of 1 ...

. Cranfield was a right-handed lower-order batsman and a left-arm orthodox spin bowler. He had a very spasmodic career in first-class cricket, playing four games for Gloucestershire in 1903, four for Somerset in 1906, and then two more for Gloucestershire in 1910. In 1913 and 1914 he appeared in seven and eight games respectively, and there were then four appearances in three different seasons after the First World War; all of these later matches were for Gloucestershire. As late as the early 1930s he was playing Lancashire League cricket for

Enfield Enfield may refer to: Places Australia * Enfield, New South Wales * Enfield, South Australia ** Electoral district of Enfield, a state electoral district in South Australia, corresponding to the suburb ** Enfield High School (South Australia) ...

. Cranfield's best bowling figures were achieved in the first innings of his first first-class match: six for 67 against the

Gentlemen of Philadelphia The Philadelphian cricket team was a team that represented Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in first-class cricket between 1878 and 1913. Even with the United States having played the first ever international cricket match against Canada in 1844, t ...

Cheltenham Cheltenham (), also known as Cheltenham Spa, is a spa town and borough on the edge of the Cotswolds in the county of Gloucestershire, England. Cheltenham became known as a health and holiday spa town resort, following the discovery of mineral s ...

in 1903. He passed 50 only once in a first-class innings, making an undefeated 51 against

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 ...

Gloucester Gloucester ( ) is a cathedral city and the county town of Gloucestershire in the South West of England. Gloucester lies on the River Severn, between the Cotswolds to the east and the Forest of Dean to the west, east of Monmouth and east ...

in 1914; he also made 46 in the second innings of this match. His brother,

Beaumont Cranfield Beaumont Cranfield (28 August 1872 – 20 January 1909) was an English professional cricketer who played first-class cricket for Somerset County Cricket Club and the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) between 1897 and 1908. A slow left-arm orthodox b ...

, played for Somerset between 1897 and 1908 and Lionel's son, Monty Cranfield, played for Gloucestershire from 1934 to 1951.

League cricket

The cricket writer John Kay, in his anecdotal history of Lancashire League cricket, ''Cricket in the Leagues'', wrote a whole chapter on Lionel Cranfield as "The Man who Inspired". Cranfield, he wrote, had set up a florist shop in Middleton and joined

Middleton Cricket Club Middleton Cricket Club, based in Middleton, in the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale, Greater Manchester are an English Cricket team currently playing in the Lancashire Cricket League. Basil D'Oliveira, Hedley Verity, Roy Gilchrist and Peter Sle ...

as its professional "for less money than he could have obtained elsewhere in league cricket because of the challenge the job offered and the prospect that his engagement might be good for (the) florist business". He had earlier played for clubs in the Bolton League, the

Central Lancashire League The Central Lancashire Cricket League (CLCL) was a fifteen team cricket league, traditionally based in Lancashire and the West Riding of Yorkshire. It was then based in Greater Manchester and West Yorkshire. The league ran competitions at First T ...

and the Lancashire League. Kay records that Cranfield was an inspirational cricket coach and that, when his League cricket playing career was over, he became assistant coach at

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 ...

, working alongside

George Hirst George Herbert Hirst (7 September 1871 – 10 May 1954) was a professional English cricketer who played first-class cricket for Yorkshire County Cricket Club between 1891 and 1921, with a further appearance in 1929. One of the best all-r ...

, before retiring from that back to Middleton.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cranfield, Lionel 1883 births 1968 deaths English cricketers Gloucestershire cricketers Somerset cricketers People from Brixton Cricketers from the London Borough of Lambeth