Nathaniel Frampton Davis Thomson (29 May 1839 – 2 September 1896) was an Australian

cricketer 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 ...

who played in the first two

Tests 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), ...

ever played, in 1877. When Australia won the toss on 15 March 1877 and elected to bat, Nat Thomson came out with Australia's No. 1 batsman

Charles Bannerman Charles Bannerman (3 July 1851 – 20 August 1930) was an English-born Australian cricketer. A right-handed batsman, he represented Australia in three Test matches between 1877 and 1879. At the domestic level, he played for the New South Wa ...

to form the first-ever Test batting partnership. Thomson was 37 years 290 days old, which made him the second-oldest player on the ground behind England's

James Southerton James Southerton (16 November 1827 – 16 June 1880) was a professional cricketer who played first-class cricket between 1854 and 1879. After a slow start, he became, along with Alfred Shaw, the greatest slow bowler of the 1870s. He played in th ...

, who remains to this day the oldest Test debutant ever. Thomson has the distinction of being the first batsman dismissed in a Test match, when he was clean bowled by England's

Allen Hill Allen Hill may refer to: * Allen Hill (cricketer) Allen Hill (14 November 1845, Kirkheaton, Huddersfield, Yorkshire – 28 August 1910, Leyland, Lancashire) played in the first-ever cricket Test, taking the first wicket. Hill also went on to um ...

for 1 when the score was 2. In the Second Test a fortnight later he made 41 in the second innings, adding 88 for the first wicket with Dave Gregory. Thomson began his career with

New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...

in the 1850s principally as a fieldsman, but his batting improved, and he scored New South Wales' first inter-colonial fifty in 1867–68. He was offered a position on the Australian touring team to

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 ...

in 1878 but declined due to business reasons and thus finished his brief international career. Until 1993 ''

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 ...

'' listed him as Nathaniel Thompson (without middle names), born 21 April 1838 in

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the West ...

, and the brief biographical details in

Bill Frindall William Howard Frindall, (3 March 1939 – 29 January 2009) was an English cricket scorer and statistician, who was familiar to cricket followers as a member of the Test Match Special commentary team on BBC radio. He was nicknamed the Bearded Wo ...

's ''Wisden Book of Test Cricket 1876-77 to 1977-78'' list him as such. This would have made him the earliest-born Australian Test cricketer. However, a note in the Births and Deaths section of the 1993 ''Wisden'' announced that research had "led to a change in the details for N.F.D. Thomson (formerly listed as Thompson)",''

'' 1993, p. 1220. and since that time Thomson's name and birth information have been listed as in this article. Thomson and

Ned Gregory Edward James Gregory (29 May 1839 – 22 April 1899) was an Australian cricketer who played in the first recognised Test in 1877 between Australia and England in Melbourne. Ned was the father of a famous Australian cricketer, Syd Gregory, and b ...

are now assumed to have been born on the same day, and jointly hold the distinction of being the earliest-born Australian Test cricketer.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Thomson, Nat 1839 births 1896 deaths Australia Test cricketers New South Wales cricketers Australian cricketers Wicket-keepers