Frederic Tristram Welman (1849–1931) was an English

amateur An amateur () is generally considered a person who pursues an avocation independent from their source of income. Amateurs and their pursuits are also described as popular, informal, autodidacticism, self-taught, user-generated, do it yourself, DI ...

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 who played 65 first-class matches for the

Marylebone Cricket Club Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) is a cricket club founded in 1787 and based since 1814 at Lord's Cricket Ground, which it owns, in St John's Wood, London. The club was formerly the governing body of cricket retaining considerable global influence ...

Somerset ( en, All The People of Somerset) , locator_map = , coordinates = , region = South West England , established_date = Ancient , established_by = , preceded_by = , origin = , lord_lieutenant_office =Lord Lieutenant of Somerset , lord_ ...

and

Middlesex Middlesex (; abbreviation: Middx) is a Historic counties of England, historic county in South East England, southeast England. Its area is almost entirely within the wider urbanised area of London and mostly within the Ceremonial counties of ...

. He was a

wicket-keeper The wicket-keeper in the sport of cricket is the player on the fielding side who stands behind the wicket or stumps being watchful of the batsman and ready to take a catch, stump the batsman out and run out a batsman when occasion arises. Th ...

who also played as a lower-order batsman. He did not pass 50 runs in any first-class innings during his career.

Early life

Welman was born 19 February 1849 at Norton Manor in

Norton Fitzwarren Norton Fitzwarren is a village, electoral ward, and civil parish in Somerset, England, situated north west of Taunton in the Somerset West and Taunton district. The village has a population of 3,046. History The village is on the southern slope ...

, just outside

Taunton Taunton () is the county town of Somerset, England, with a 2011 population of 69,570. Its thousand-year history includes a 10th-century monastic foundation, Taunton Castle, which later became a priory. The Normans built a castle owned by the ...

, the son of Charles Noel Welman, a

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for Somerset. He was educated at

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 ...

, but was not rated as good enough to feature in the university's cricket side. His first noted cricket appearance was for 'Surrey Club' against

Uppingham School Uppingham School is a public school (English independent day and boarding school for pupils 13-18) in Uppingham, Rutland, England, founded in 1584 by Robert Johnson (rector), Robert Johnson, the Archdeacon of Leicester, who also established Oa ...

, a two-day match played at

The Oval The Oval, currently known for sponsorship reasons as the Kia Oval, is an international cricket ground in Kennington, located in the borough of Lambeth, in south London. The Oval has been the home ground of Surrey County Cricket Club since ...

in London. During the 1870s, he appeared for both the Gentlemen of Devon, and the Gentlemen of Somerset a few times each year. When the two sides faced he each other, he appeared for the Somerset side. His first-class debut came in 1874, when he appeared for the

(MCC) against

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. In a nine wicket loss for the MCC, he was dismissed for a

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in the first innings, and three runs in the second. He did not play another first-class match for almost five years, when he faced

for the MCC, during which he once again was dismissed without scoring in the first innings.

First-class regular

In 1880, Welman began playing significantly more first-class cricket; in addition to a match for the MCC, he also played on three occasions for

Middlesex County Cricket Club Middlesex County Cricket Club is one of eighteen first-class county clubs within the domestic cricket structure of England and Wales. It represents the historic county of Middlesex which has effectively been subsumed within the ceremonial ...

, and was selected for the 'Gentlemen of England' to face Oxford University. He played five or more first-class matches in each of the seasons from 1880 until 1888, with the exception of 1881 when he made only one first-class appearance. His best seasons with the bat were in 1882 and 1883, in each of which he passed 100 runs in total, though on both occasions his

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, ...

remained under 20. He enjoyed greatest success as a wicket-keeper slightly later, the majority of his catches and stumpings coming between 1884 and 1887. His final first-class game was in 1901, for Somerset against the touring

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. He continued to play second-class cricket for the MCC until 1905, appearing when the London club toured in the South West of England.

Personal life

There is no record of Welman being paid to work, an indication that he was likely quite wealthy. He married May, 11 years his junior, sometime between the 1881 and 1901

censuses A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording and calculating information about the members of a given population. This term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common censuses incl ...

. He died in

South Ascot South Ascot is a village just south of and down the hill from the small town of Ascot in the English county of Berkshire. It is bounded on the west by the Kingsride area of Swinley Woods, on the north by the Reading to Waterloo railway line an ...

, Berkshire, on 30 December 1931, aged 82.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Welman, Tristram 1849 births 1931 deaths English cricketers Marylebone Cricket Club cricketers Middlesex cricketers Somerset cricketers North v South cricketers Gentlemen cricketers Gentlemen of England cricketers People from Norton Fitzwarren E. J. Sanders' XI cricketers A. J. Webbe's XI cricketers Cricketers from Somerset