Maxwell Raison (7 November 1901 – 26 July 1988) 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. Raison was a right-handed

batsman In cricket, batting is the act or skill of hitting the ball with a bat to score runs and prevent the loss of one's wicket. Any player who is currently batting is, since September 2021, officially referred to as a batter (historically, the ...

who bowled right-arm

medium pace Fast bowling (also referred to as pace bowling) is one of two main approaches to bowling in the sport of cricket, the other being spin bowling. Practitioners of pace bowling are usually known as ''fast'' bowlers, ''quicks'', or ''pacemen''. T ...

. He was born at

Wanstead Wanstead () is a town in East London, England, in the London Borough of Redbridge. It borders South Woodford to the north, Redbridge, London, Redbridge to the east and Forest Gate to the south, with Leytonstone and Walthamstow to the west. It is ...

Essex Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and G ...

and educated at

Forest School, Walthamstow Forest School is an independent day school in Walthamstow in the London borough of Waltham Forest. The school occupies a large campus around its original Grade II listed Georgian and Victorian terraced buildings. The school has more than 1,430 ...

. Raison made his first-class debut for

against

Oxford University Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

in 1928. He made sixteen further first-class appearances, the last of which came against

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 ...

in the 1930 County Championship. In his seventeen first-class appearances for Essex, he scored 451 runs at an

average In ordinary language, an average is a single number taken as representative of a list of numbers, usually the sum of the numbers divided by how many numbers are in the list (the arithmetic mean). For example, the average of the numbers 2, 3, 4, 7, ...

of 18.04, with a high score of 57. This score, which was his only first-class

fifty 50 (fifty) is the natural number following 49 and preceding 51. In mathematics Fifty is the smallest number that is the sum of two non-zero square numbers in two distinct ways: 50 = 12 + 72 = 52 + 52. It is also the sum of three squares, 50 = 32 ...

, came against

Hampshire Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants) is a ceremonial county, ceremonial and non-metropolitan county, non-metropolitan counties of England, county in western South East England on the coast of the English Channel. Home to two major English citi ...

in 1928. With the ball, he took 14 wickets at a

bowling average In cricket, a player's bowling average is the number of runs they have conceded per wicket taken. The lower the bowling average is, the better the bowler is performing. It is one of a number of statistics used to compare bowlers, commonly use ...

of 41.07, with best figures of 5/104. These figures, which were his only first-class

five wicket haul In cricket, a five-wicket haul (also known as a "five–for" or "fifer") occurs when a bowler takes five or more wickets in a single innings. This is regarded by critics as a notable achievement, equivalent to a century from a batsman. Taking ...

, came 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 ...

in 1928, including the wicket of

Wally Hammond Walter Reginald Hammond (19 June 1903 – 1 July 1965) was an English first-class cricketer who played for Gloucestershire in a career that lasted from 1920 to 1951. Beginning as a professional, he later became an amateur and was appointed cap ...

who had scored 244 runs. He was publisher and managing editor of ''

Picture Post ''Picture Post'' was a photojournalistic magazine published in the United Kingdom from 1938 to 1957. It is considered a pioneering example of photojournalism and was an immediate success, selling 1,700,000 copies a week after only two months. ...

''. He was also co-founder of ''

New Scientist ''New Scientist'' is a magazine covering all aspects of science and technology. Based in London, it publishes weekly English-language editions in the United Kingdom, the United States and Australia. An editorially separate organisation publishe ...

'' magazine. He died at

Theberton Theberton is a village in Suffolk, England. It is located north-east of Saxmundham, and miles north of Leiston, its post town. History During the First World War, a German Zeppelin airship, L48, was shot down near Theberton at 02:00 on the ...

Suffolk Suffolk () is a ceremonial county of England in East Anglia. It borders Norfolk to the north, Cambridgeshire to the west and Essex to the south; the North Sea lies to the east. The county town is Ipswich; other important towns include Lowes ...

on 26 July 1988, leaving five sons, one of whom was

Timothy Raison Sir Timothy Hugh Francis Raison (3 November 1929 – 3 November 2011) was a British Conservative politician. Early life and education The son of publisher and editor Maxwell Raison, general manager of '' Picture Post'', and his wife Celia, Ra ...

. His grandchildren include the actress

Miranda Raison Miranda Caroline Raison (born 18 November 1977) is an English actress and voice-over narrator. Early life Miranda Raison was born in Burnham Thorpe, Norfolk, on 18 November 1977. Her mother is former Anglia News reader Caroline Raison (''née ...

and the art historian Paul Raison.

References

External links

Max Raison
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 ...

Max Raison
at CricketArchive {{DEFAULTSORT:Raison, Max 1901 births 1988 deaths Free Foresters cricketers People from Wanstead People educated at Forest School, Walthamstow English cricketers Essex cricketers