Alfred Ernest Payne (29 December 1849 – 30 June 1927) was an

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Culture, language and peoples * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England * ''English'', an Amish ter ...

first-class

cricket Cricket is a Bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball game played between two Sports team, teams of eleven players on a cricket field, field, at the centre of which is a cricket pitch, pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two Bail (cr ...

er. The second son of Frederick Alexander Payne, he was born at Pentre Ucha,

Llanymynech Llanymynech is a village and former civil parish straddling the Wales-England border, border between Powys, Wales, and Shropshire, England, about north of the Welsh town of Welshpool. The name is Welsh language, Welsh for "Llan (placename), L ...

near

Oswestry Oswestry ( ; ) is a market town, civil parish and historic railway town in Shropshire, England, close to the England–Wales border, Welsh border. It is at the junction of the A5 road (Great Britain), A5, A483 road, A483 and A495 road, A495 ro ...

, Shropshire, in December 1849. He was educated at

Cheltenham Grammar School Pate's Grammar School is a grammar school with Academy (English school), academy status in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, England. It caters for pupils aged 11 to 18. The school was founded with a fund bestowed to Corpus Christi College, Oxford, ...

.Published under Association of Cricket Statisticians and Historians. He later studied at

Pembroke College, Oxford Pembroke College, a constituent college of the University of Oxford, is located on Pembroke Square, Oxford. The college was founded in 1624 by King James I of England and VI of Scotland, using in part the endowment of merchant Thomas Tesdale ...

where he graduated B.A., converted to M.A. in 1867, and was by 1879 a student of the

Inner Temple The Honourable Society of the Inner Temple, commonly known as the Inner Temple, is one of the four Inns of Court and is a professional association for barristers and judges. To be called to the Bar and practice as a barrister in England and Wa ...

, though he was never

called to the bar The call to the bar is a legal term of art in most common law jurisdictions where persons must be qualified to be allowed to argue in court on behalf of another party and are then said to have been "called to the bar" or to have received "call to ...

. In meantime he also acted as tutor to the sons of the

Earl of Dudley Earl of Dudley, of Dudley Castle in the County of the West Midlands (though previously in the County of Stafford) is a title that has been created twice in the Peerage of the United Kingdom, both times for members of the Ward family. Hist ...

. At university, Payne was also a rower in his college XI, achieving Head of River in 1872, and at Henley. He made his debut in

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 of three or more days scheduled duration between two sides of eleven players each and is officially adju ...

for the

Marylebone Cricket Club The Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) is a cricket club founded in 1787 and based since 1814 at Lord's, Lord's Cricket Ground, which it owns, in St John's Wood, London, England. The club was the governing body of cricket from 1788 to 1989 and retain ...

(MCC) against

Cambridge University The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209, the University of Cambridge is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, wo ...

Fenner's Fenner's is Cambridge University Cricket Club's ground. History Cambridge University Cricket Club had previously played at two grounds in Cambridge, the University Ground and Parker's Piece. In 1846, Francis Fenner leased a former cherry orc ...

in 1883. He played first-class cricket for the MCC until 1884, making seven appearances. Despite playing as a batsman for the MCC, Payne struggled in first-class cricket, scoring just 64 runs at an

average In colloquial, ordinary language, an average is a single number or value that best represents a set of data. The type of average taken as most typically representative of a list of numbers is the arithmetic mean the sum of the numbers divided by ...

of 5.33. He also made a first-class appearance for

W. G. Grace William Gilbert Grace (18 July 1848 – 23 October 1915) was an English cricketer who is widely considered one of the sport's all-time greatest players. Always known by his initials as "WG", his first-class career spanned a record-equalling 4 ...

's personal XI against Lord Sheffield's XI at Sheffield Park in 1883. Below first-class cricket, he played at county level for

Shropshire Shropshire (; abbreviated SalopAlso used officially as the name of the county from 1974–1980. The demonym for inhabitants of the county "Salopian" derives from this name.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the West M ...

between 1870 and 1904, in 118 matches in which he totaled 3,386 runs, achieved 4

centuries A century is a period of 100 years or 10 decades. Centuries are numbered ordinally in English and many other languages. The word ''century'' comes from the Latin ''centum'', meaning ''one hundred''. ''Century'' is sometimes abbreviated as c. A ...

and took 231 wickets; in 1888 he captained the county XI. During that time he played at club level for

(of which he was captain 1881–88) and

Baschurch Baschurch is a village and civil parish in Shropshire, England. It lies in the north of Shropshire. The village had a population of 2,503 as of the 2011 census. Shrewsbury is to the south-east, Oswestry is to the north-west, and Wem is to the n ...

in Shropshire and

Llanfyllin Llanfyllin ( – ) is a market town and Community (Wales), community in Powys, Wales. The community (which measures 41.8 square kilometres) population in 2021 was 1,586 and the town's name means ''church or parish'' (Llan (placename), llan) ''o ...

Montgomeryshire Montgomeryshire ( ) was Historic counties of Wales, one of the thirteen counties of Wales that existed from 1536 until their abolishment in 1974. It was named after its county town, Montgomery, Powys, Montgomery, which in turn was named after ...

, Wales. He was a member of the

Free Foresters Free Foresters Cricket Club is an England, English amateur cricket club, established in 1856 for players from the Midland counties of England. It is a 'wandering' (or nomadic) club, having no home ground. The Free Foresters were founded by the ...

from 1870. Payne was a Justice of the Peace for the county of Shropshire and an Alderman of

Shropshire County Council Shropshire Council, known between 1980 and 2009 as Shropshire County Council and prior to 1980 as Salop County Council, is the local authority for the non-metropolitan county of Shropshire in the West Midlands region of England. Since 2009 it h ...

from 1898, and one time President of the Shropshire Chamber of Agriculture. Besides coming to own the Pentre Ucha estate, he was resident at Roden Hall,

Wellington, Shropshire Wellington is a market town and a civil parish in the borough of Telford and Wrekin, Shropshire, England. It is situated northwest of Telford and east of Shrewsbury, near the western terminus of the M54 motorway. The summit of The Wrekin lie ...

; Walford Manor,

, Shropshire and Dudwell House,

Burwash Burwash, archaically known as Burghersh, is a rural village and civil parish in the Rother district of East Sussex, England. Situated in the High Weald of Sussex some inland from the port of Hastings, it is located south-west of Hurst Gre ...

, Sussex; Payne married in 1878 Sarah, daughter of Thomas Protheroe of London, by whom he had two daughters. Payne died aged 77 in June 1927 at Pen-y-Nant, Ruabon, Denbighshire. He was buried at

Kinnerley Kinnerley (historic Welsh name: ''Generdinlle'') is a small village in Shropshire, England. It lies between the neighbouring villages of Dovaston and Pentre and the nearest town is Oswestry. To the north is the village of Knockin. History A ...

parish church in Shropshire.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Payne, Alfred 1849 births 1927 deaths Sportspeople from Oswestry Alumni of Pembroke College, Oxford Members of the Inner Temple English cricketers Marylebone Cricket Club cricketers W. G. Grace's XI cricketers Cricketers from Shropshire