Nicholas Wanostrocht
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Nicholas Wanostrocht (5 October 1804 – 3 September 1876), known as Nicholas Felix, was an English amateur "gentleman"
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 str ...
er. He was one of the few players who – at his request – was routinely known by his pseudonym, Felix. When his father died in 1824 he had inherited the running of his school, aged only nineteen, and he was afraid that the parents of pupils might think that cricket was too frivolous a pastime for a schoolmaster. Felix was a specialist left-handed batsman, although he did occasionally bowl underarm slow left-arm orthodox. He was a mainstay of the great
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 ...
team of the mid-19th century alongside such players as Alfred Mynn,
Fuller Pilch Fuller Pilch (17 March 1804 – 1 May 1870) was an English first-class cricketer, active from 1820 to 1854. He was a right-handed batsman who bowled at a slow pace with a roundarm action. Pilch played in a total of 229 first-class matches for a ...
, William Hillyer and Ned Wenman. In the words of the famous elegy, best loved of Bernard Darwin, :''And with five such mighty cricketers 'twas but natural to win'' :''As Felix, Wenman, Hillyer, Fuller Pilch and Alfred Mynn.'' Felix played for Kent from 1830 until 1852. He also appeared for MCC sides and was a member of
William Clarke's All-England Eleven The All-England Eleven (AEE) was an itinerant all-professional first-class cricket team created in 1846 by Nottinghamshire cricketer William Clarke. Widely known by its acronym AEE, it took advantage of opportunities offered by the newly deve ...
. In his overall first-class career, Felix played in 149 matches and scored 4,556 runs with a highest score of 113. He played at a time when prevailing conditions greatly favoured bowlers and was rated very highly as a batsman by his contemporaries.Carlaw D (2020) ''Kent County Cricketers A to Z. Part One: 1806–1914'' (revised edition), pp. 164–168.
Available online
at the
Association of Cricket Statisticians and Historians The Association of Cricket Statisticians and Historians (ACS) was founded in England in 1973 for the purpose of researching and collating information about the history and statistics of cricket. Originally called the Association of Cricket Statis ...
. Retrieved 2020-12-21.)
He was the author of a famous instruction book: ''Felix on the Bat'' published in 1845. He also invented the catapulta (a bowling machine) as well as India-rubber batting gloves. A man of many talents, he was also a classical scholar, musician, linguist, inventor, writer and artist. Felix died at
Wimborne Minster Wimborne Minster (often referred to as Wimborne, ) is a market town in Dorset in South West England, and the name of the Church of England church in that town. It lies at the confluence of the River Stour and the River Allen, north of Poo ...
in Dorset and is buried in
Wimborne Wimborne Minster (often referred to as Wimborne, ) is a market town in Dorset in South West England, and the name of the Church of England church in that town. It lies at the confluence of the River Stour and the River Allen, north of Poole ...
cemetery.


References

* ''Scores & Biographies, Volume 1'' by
Arthur Haygarth Arthur Haygarth (4 August 1825 – 1 May 1903) was a noted amateur cricketer who became one of cricket's most significant historians. He played first-class cricket for the Marylebone Cricket Club and Sussex between 1844 and 1861, as well as num ...
* ''Barclays' World of Cricket'' – 2nd Edition, 1980, Collins Publishers, , p. 10.


External links

* *
Felix on the Bat
{{DEFAULTSORT:Felix, Nicholas English cricketers Kent cricketers Marylebone Cricket Club cricketers All-England Eleven cricketers Surrey cricketers Gentlemen cricketers North v South cricketers English cricketers of 1826 to 1863 1804 births 1876 deaths Cricket historians and writers Surrey Club cricketers Left-Handed v Right-Handed cricketers Married v Single cricketers Nicholas Felix's XI cricketers Fast v Slow cricketers Gentlemen of Kent cricketers