William Robert James Croxford (4 September 1863 – 30 June 1950) was a New Zealand

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. He played six first-class matches for

Otago Otago (, ; mi, Ōtākou ) is a region of New Zealand located in the southern half of the South Island administered by the Otago Regional Council. It has an area of approximately , making it the country's second largest local government reg ...

between the 1890–91 and 1893–94 seasons. Croxford was born at

Clerkenwell Clerkenwell () is an area of central London, England. Clerkenwell was an ancient parish from the mediaeval period onwards, and now forms the south-western part of the London Borough of Islington. The well after which it was named was redisco ...

in London in 1863McCarron A (2010) ''New Zealand Cricketers 1863/64–2010'', p. 39. Cardiff: The Association of Cricket Statisticians and Historians. and emigrated to New Zealand with his family in 1874. His family settled in

Opoho Ōpoho is a suburb of the New Zealand city of Dunedin. It sits on the western flank of Signal Hill, New Zealand, to the northeast of the city centre, overlooking North East Valley and the Dunedin Botanic Gardens. The New Zealand Ministry for ...

, his father establishing a plumbing and hardware supplies business.Obituary, ''

Otago Daily Times The ''Otago Daily Times'' (ODT) is a newspaper published by Allied Press Ltd in Dunedin, New Zealand. The ''ODT'' is one of the country's four main daily newspapers, serving the southern South Island with a circulation of around 26,000 and a c ...

'', issue 27441, 14 July 1950, p. 10.
Available online
at Papers Past. Retrieved 17 June 2023.) Playing club cricket for North Dunedin and then Albion Cricket Clubs in

Dunedin Dunedin ( ; mi, Ōtepoti) is the second-largest city in the South Island of New Zealand (after Christchurch), and the principal city of the Otago region. Its name comes from , the Scottish Gaelic name for Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland. Th ...

,Intercolonial, ''

'', issue 9037, 12 February 1891, p. 2.
Available online
at Papers Past. Retrieved 17 June 2023.) Croxford made his first-class debut against

Canterbury Canterbury (, ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and UNESCO World Heritage Site, situated in the heart of the City of Canterbury local government district of Kent, England. It lies on the River Stour, Kent, River Stour. ...

on January 1891 as Otago's

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 ...

. After playing in all four of the province's first-class matches during the 1892–93 season, he made his final appearance for the representative side the following season. In total he scored 118 runs, took seven catches and made five

stumping Stumped is a method of dismissing a batsman in cricket, which involves the wicket-keeper putting down the wicket while the batsman is out of his ground. (The batsman leaves his ground when he has moved down the pitch beyond the popping crease ...

s.James Croxford
CricketArchive. Retrieved 17 June 2023. As well as cricket, he played

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 ...

for Otago in 1888 and stood as an

umpire An umpire is an official in a variety of sports and competition, responsible for enforcing the rules of the sport, including sportsmanship decisions such as ejection. The term derives from the Old French nonper, ''non'', "not" and ''per'', ...

in first-class cricket. Despite "several offers" to play as a professional in both sports, he worked as a lithographer for a variety of firms in Dunedin. He died at

Inch Valley Inch Valley is a lightly populated rural locality in the Otago region of New Zealand's South Island. It is northwest of Palmerston and Glenpark, east of Stoneburn, on the banks of the Shag River. Economic activity around Inch Valley is agricul ...

in 1950 aged 86.

References

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* 1863 births 1950 deaths New Zealand cricketers Otago cricketers People from Clerkenwell Cricketers from the London Borough of Islington New Zealand rugby union players Otago rugby union players {{NewZealand-cricket-bio-1860s-stub