Peter Cranmer (10 September 1914 – 29 May 1994) was an English sportsman who captained

Warwickshire Warwickshire (; abbreviated Warks) is a county in the West Midlands region of England. The county town is Warwick, and the largest town is Nuneaton. The county is famous for being the birthplace of William Shakespeare at Stratford-upon-Avon an ...

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 ...

and earlier in his career represented England at

rugby union Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In its m ...

. After World War II he gave up on rugby and focused purely on cricket.

Cricket

While primarily a specialist batsman, Cranmer was also a decent medium pace bowler. His highest score at first-class level was made for Warwickshire in his first year, an innings of 113 versus Northamptonshire at Edgbaston. Although he went to

Christ Church, Oxford Christ Church ( la, Ædes Christi, the temple or house, '' ædēs'', of Christ, and thus sometimes known as "The House") is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. Founded in 1546 by King Henry VIII, the college is uniqu ...

, he did not play cricket for the university side. Cranmer, a Major, served with the military during the war and spent time in both Burma and Egypt. He ended up at India in 1944 and appeared in a cricket match for the Europeans team. Cranmer also performed particularly well with the ball in a first-class match for the Bengal Governor's XI when he took 7 for 52 against Services XI at Eden Gardens. He had been appointed captain of Warwickshire in 1938 and remained in the role until 1947 before he retired, citing business commitments. One of his final innings as captain was in a match against the touring South Africans when he made 101 runs. Cranmer subsequently captained Warwickshire's second eleven in the 1960s and 1970s, playing his final season at the age of 57.

Rugby

Cranmer played for Oxford University RFC in two Varsity Matches and made his debut for England at the age of 21 in 1934. He played for England from 1934 and 1938, earning 16 caps, and took part in their Triple Crown winning Home Nations Championship campaigns of 1934 and 1937. A centre three-quarter, he also captained his country twice in the 1938 season. In 1936 he was a member of the English team which defeated New Zealand for the first time and helped to set up

Alexander Obolensky Prince Alexander Sergeevich Obolensky KStJ (russian: Александр Серге́евич Оболенский; 17 February 1916 – 29 March 1940) was a Rurikid prince of Russian origin who became a naturalised Briton, having spent most of h ...

's famous tries. Cranmer had to decline an invitation to take part in the

1938 British Lions tour to South Africa The 1938 British Isles tour to South Africa was the fourteenth tour by a British Isles team and the sixth to South Africa. The tour is retrospectively classed as one of the British Lions tours, as the Lions naming convention was not adopted unt ...

because of his commitment as Warwickshire's cricket captain and although he took part in an England trial match in 1939, injury prevented him playing for the national team that season. He played in two wartime rugby internationals but that marked the end of his high-level rugby career.

Later life

After leaving cricket, Cranmer became a journalist and worked with BBC Midlands. He commentated on two Test Matches for

Test Match Special ''Test Match Special'' (also known as ''TMS'') is a British sports radio programme, originally, as its name implies, dealing exclusively with Test cricket matches, but currently covering any professional cricket. It broadcasts on BBC Radio 4 LW ( ...

, one in 1965 and one in 1968. Illness caused him to retire from his job in 1976 and he began to use a wheelchair when he had both legs amputated. He died in 1994 at his home town of

Peacehaven Peacehaven is a town and civil parish in the Lewes district of East Sussex, England. It is located above the chalk cliffs of the South Downs approximately six miles () east of Brighton city centre, on the A259 road. Its site coincides with th ...

Sussex Sussex (), from the Old English (), is a historic county in South East England that was formerly an independent medieval Anglo-Saxon kingdom. It is bounded to the west by Hampshire, north by Surrey, northeast by Kent, south by the English ...

Bibliography

David Goodyear, Tiz All Accordin' – The Life of Peter Cranmer'', Brewin Books, 2000, .

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cranmer, Peter 1914 births 1994 deaths English cricketers Warwickshire cricketers Warwickshire cricket captains Europeans cricketers English rugby union players England international rugby union players Moseley Rugby Football Club players English cricket commentators Royal Warwickshire Fusiliers officers British Army personnel of World War II Alumni of Christ Church, Oxford People educated at St Edward's School, Oxford Marylebone Cricket Club cricketers Oxford University RFC players English male non-fiction writers North v South cricketers 20th-century English male writers People from Peacehaven Rugby union players from Birmingham, West Midlands