Samuel Cosstick (1 January 1836 – 8 April 1896) was an important figure in developing cricket in

Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Victoria (Australia), a state of the Commonwealth of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, provincial capital of British Columbia, Canada * Victoria (mythology), Roman goddess of Victory * Victoria, Seychelle ...

in its formative years. He is well known for umpiring in the second ever Test match, played between Australia and

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 Melbourne, 1877.

Biography

Cosstick was born at

Croydon Croydon is a large town in south London, England, south of Charing Cross. Part of the London Borough of Croydon, a local government district of Greater London. It is one of the largest commercial districts in Greater London, with an extensi ...

, Surrey, England. He was attracted to Victoria by the gold fever of the early 1850s and joined the

Melbourne Cricket Club The Melbourne Cricket Club (MCC) is a sports club based in Melbourne, Australia. It was founded in 1838 and is one of the oldest sports clubs in Australia. The MCC is responsible for management and development of the Melbourne Cricket Ground, ...

on arrival. There he was employed as a ground bowler, bowling in the nets to the members for hours at a time for a salary of £150 a year. Cosstick was a right-hand batsman and right-arm medium-fast roundarm bowler. He played 18 matches for

from 1860 to 1876. As a batsman he scored 315 runs at an average of 9.84 with a highest score of 36. He took 106 wickets at an average of 9.41, with best figures of 9 for 61. He took

five wickets in an innings 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. Taki ...

11 times, and

ten wickets in a match In cricket, a ten-wicket haul occurs when a bowler takes ten wickets in either a single innings or across both innings of a two-innings match. The phrase ten wickets in a match is also used. Taking ten wickets in a match at Lord's earns the bo ...

on 5 occasions. He also took 14 catches. In 1869 Cosstick took 6 wickets for 1 run against Tasmania, which is still the cheapest 6-wicket analysis in first-class cricket history. In the match between Eighteen of Victoria and the

All-England Eleven In English cricket since the first half of the 18th century, various ''ad hoc'' teams have been formed for short-term purposes which have been called England (or sometimes "All-England"; i.e., in the sense of "the rest of England") to play against, ...

led by H. H. Stephenson played at

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...

in January 1862 – the first international match played in Australia – Cosstick made 8 and 11, and took 1 wicket for 31 runs for a team that was decisively beaten by an innings in spite of its advantage in numbers.

W. G. Grace William Gilbert Grace (18 July 1848 – 23 October 1915) was an English amateur cricketer who was important in the development of the sport and is widely considered one of its greatest players. He played first-class cricket for a record-equal ...

brought out an English team in the 1873-74 season, and Cosstick’s bowling, along with the batting of

Bransby Cooper Bransby Beauchamp Cooper (15 March 1844 – 7 August 1914) was a member of the Australian cricket team that played the inaugural Test match at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in 1877. Cooper was born in Dacca in what was then British India in 184 ...

and

John Conway John Horton Conway (26 December 1937 – 11 April 2020) was an English mathematician active in the theory of finite groups, knot theory, number theory, combinatorial game theory and coding theory. He also made contributions to many branches ...

and the bowling of

Frank Allan Francis Erskine Allan (2 December 1849 – 9 February 1917) was an Australian cricketer who represented Victoria in first-class intercolonial matches and made one Test appearance for Australia. A tall, wiry left-arm medium pacer known by the ...

and Harry Boyle were responsible for the visitors’ defeat by an innings by Eighteen of Victoria. Impressive though the result was, a newspaper correspondent wrote "any numbskulls who talk about Eleven Victorian natives playing this Eleven of England are prattling about what they don’t understand." In Sydney, playing for a Combined Fifteen of Victoria and New South Wales, the crowd urged Cosstick to return to the crease after he was given out. He did so, claiming that the wrong umpire had given him out. With three batsmen at the wicket, Grace led his team from the field until Cosstick abandoned his protest. At the age of 41, Cosstick umpired in the second ever Test match, played between Australia and

in Melbourne on 31 March to 4 April 1877. His colleague was Ben Terry, who was also an English professional at Melbourne Cricket Club. Cosstick died at

West Maitland Maitland () is a city in the Lower Hunter Valley of New South Wales, Australia and the seat of Maitland City Council, situated on the Hunter River approximately by road north of Sydney and north-west of Newcastle. It is on the New England ...

References

* Pollard, Jack, ‘’Australian Cricket: 1803-1893, The Formative Years’’. Sydney, The Book Company, 1995. ()

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Cosstick, Sam 1836 births 1896 deaths Australian cricketers Victoria cricketers Australian Test cricket umpires Melbourne Cricket Club cricketers New South Wales cricketers People from Croydon English emigrants to Australia

Biography

See also

References

External links