Thomas Cook (cricketer)
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Thomas Edwin Reed Cook (5 January 1901 – 15 January 1950) was an English sportsman. He played professional
football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...
, playing as a centre-forward and additionally had a substantial career in First-Class cricket primarily as a batsman.


Football Career

Cook commenced his football career with his home-town club Cuckfield Town. In 1921 he signed as an
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 ...
with Football League Third Division South club Brighton & Hove Albion and turned professional in 1923 and remained with Brighton & Hove until 1930. Cook remains Brighton's all-time top scorer, with 123 goals from 209 games played. In 1930 he moved on to Kent League club
Northfleet United Northfleet United Football Club was a football club based in Northfleet, Kent. Around 1890 organised team football was being played in the town and in 1892 the Northfleet F.C. club was founded. It flourished for a few years in the mid-1890s u ...
remaining for one season. Thereafter he moved on in 1931 for two seasons with Football League Third Division South Bristol Rovers after which, aged 32, he retired from football and focused on his cricket career. In February 1925 Cook became Brighton’s first player to play for England after he made one appearance for England in a
British Home Championship The British Home Championship * sco, Hame Internaitional Kemp * gd, Farpais lìg eadar-nàiseanta * cy, Pencampwriaeth y Pedair Gwlad, name=lang (historically known as the British International Championship or simply the International Champio ...
match against Wales. In June 1947 Cook returned to Brighton & Hove Albion as team manager but after a few difficult months in which the team won only 3 from 17 matches he lost his job.


Cricket Career

Primarily a right-handed batsman and also an occasional right-arm medium pace bowler he was recruited to
Sussex County Cricket Club Sussex County Cricket Club is the oldest of eighteen first-class county clubs within the domestic cricket structure of England and Wales. It represents the historic county of Sussex. Its limited overs team is called the Sussex Sharks. The c ...
after being spotted playing for Cuckfield's second X1. Cook played 460 first-class games over a 15 year career for Sussex. He scored 20,198 runs with 32 centuries and a highest score of 278 runs. As a bowler he took 60 wickets with one 5 wicket innings. He was prolific in the seasons of 1933 and 1934 when Sussex were County Championship runners-up.


Non-Sporting Life

Born in
Cuckfield Cuckfield ( ) is a village and civil parishes in England, civil parish in the Mid Sussex District, Mid Sussex District of West Sussex, England, on the southern slopes of the Weald. It lies south of London, north of Brighton, and east northeas ...
,
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 ...
Cook married twice. Firstly in 1925, then after divorce in April 1931 he remarried later that same year. Cook served in both world wars. In World War I he enlisted into the Royal Navy when only 16 years old and while serving in Russia he won a medal after diving into the freezing sea to save a shipmate's life. In World War 2 he signed-up to the Royal Air Force and in 1943, when attached to the South African Air Force, was involved in an air training crash in which he suffered physical and mental injuries and was hospitalised for six months. He died by taking his own life in 1950, overdosing on sleeping pills, ten days after his 49th birthday. In 2021 a book of his life and his highly successful careers with Brighton & Hove Albion and Sussex County Cricket Club entitled ''Tommy Cook, The Double Life of a Superstar Sportsman'' was published


References


External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Cook, Thomas 1901 births 1950 suicides Sussex cricketers English cricketers English footballers English football managers England international footballers Brighton & Hove Albion F.C. players Bristol Rovers F.C. players English Football League players Kent Football League (1894–1959) players Brighton & Hove Albion F.C. managers English Football League managers People from Cuckfield North v South cricketers Association football forwards 1950 deaths British military personnel of World War I South African Air Force personnel of World War II Drug-related suicides in England Child soldiers in World War I