Frederick Lloyd Bowley (9 November 1873 – 31 May 1943) was a

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 ...

er who played

county cricket Inter-county cricket matches have been played since the early 18th century, involving teams that are representative of the historic counties of England and Wales. Two county championship competitions have existed since the late 19th century at ...

for

Worcestershire Worcestershire ( , ; written abbreviation: Worcs) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the West Midlands (region), West Midlands of England. It is bordered by Shropshire, Staffordshire, and the West Midlands (county), West ...

from the 1890s to the 1920s. He also represented the Players against the Gentlemen on four occasions.

Career

Having appeared for Worcestershire on a number of occasions before its elevation to the

County Championship The County Championship, currently known for sponsorship reasons as the Rothesay County Championship, is the only domestic first-class cricket competition in England and Wales. Established in 1890, it is organised by the England and Wales Cri ...

, Bowley made his first-class debut in Worcestershire's second match at that level, against

Sussex Sussex (Help:IPA/English, /ˈsʌsɪks/; from the Old English ''Sūþseaxe''; lit. 'South Saxons'; 'Sussex') is an area within South East England that was historically a kingdom of Sussex, kingdom and, later, a Historic counties of England, ...

Hove Hove ( ) is a seaside resort in East Sussex, England. Alongside Brighton, it is one of the two main parts of the city of Brighton and Hove. Originally a fishing village surrounded by open farmland, it grew rapidly in the 19th century in respon ...

in mid-May 1899. He opened the batting with

Wilfrid Foster Major Wilfrid Lionel Foster (2 December 1874 – 22 March 1958) was an English Army officer and a first-class cricketer: a right-handed batsman who played for Worcestershire County Cricket Club in their early years as a first-class team. He was ...

, but was bowled for 4 in each innings, though he did take a catch to dismiss opposing captain Billy Murdoch. Four further games that season produced a highest score of just 21. After a near miss with 95 against Sussex a few days earlier, Bowley scored his maiden hundred by hitting 118 against

Hampshire Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Berkshire to the north, Surrey and West Sussex to the east, the Isle of Wight across the Solent to the south, ...

at the end of May 1900. Although he made no further centuries that summer, he did pass a thousand runs for the season,

averaging In 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 how many nu ...

just over 24. For several years thereafter he was a significant contributor to Worcestershire's batting, enjoying the most productive season of his career in 1906 when he hit 1,629 first-class runs (1,466 of them for Worcestershire) with two hundreds and 11 fifties. He played rather fewer games in 1907 and 1908, and came nowhere near his thousand runs in either season, but from 1909 until first-class cricket was interrupted by the

First World War World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

he achieved the mark every year except 1912. In June 1914 he made his highest score, 276 against Hampshire at

Dudley Dudley ( , ) is a market town in the West Midlands, England, southeast of Wolverhampton and northwest of Birmingham. Historically part of Worcestershire, the town is the administrative centre of the Metropolitan Borough of Dudley. In the ...

; this established a county record that survived until surpassed by

Glenn Turner Glenn Maitland Turner (born 26 May 1947) played cricket for New Zealand and was one of the country's most prolific batsmen. He played domestically for Otago for most of his career and played in England for Worcestershire County Cricket Club ...

's 311 * 68 years later. Bowley was well into his forties when county cricket resumed in 1919, but he nevertheless played on for several years and scoring consistently in a weak Worcestershire side. His highest post-war innings was the 188 he hit against

Somerset Somerset ( , ), Archaism, archaically Somersetshire ( , , ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by the Bristol Channel, Gloucestershire, and Bristol to the north, Wiltshire to the east ...

in 1921, and that season he passed 1,000 runs for the 14th and last time, falling just short with 974 in 1922. He played one further first-class match, against Hampshire in May 1923, aged 49, but made just 0 and 5 as Worcestershire slipped to a two-day innings defeat. His bowling was of the strictly occasional variety, but he did take four wickets in first-class cricket, his first and last victims ( Albert Relf in 1900 and

Jack Board John Henry Board (23 February 1867 – 15 April 1924) was an English cricketer who played in six Tests from 1899 to 1906. Jack Board was a wicketkeeper and a right-handed batsman who started out as a tail-ender but developed into a useful playe ...

in 1904) being

Test Test(s), testing, or TEST may refer to: * Test (assessment), an educational assessment intended to measure the respondents' knowledge or other abilities Arts and entertainment * ''Test'' (2013 film), an American film * ''Test'' (2014 film) ...

players.

Note

Cricinfo ESPNcricinfo (formerly known as Cricinfo or CricInfo) is a Sports journalism, sports news website exclusively for the game of cricket. The site features news, articles, live coverage of cricket matches (including Liveblogging, liveblogs and sco ...

gives Bowley's career aggregate of catches as 148 rather than 15

References

External links

*
Statistical summary
from CricketArchive {{DEFAULTSORT:Bowley, Frederick 1873 births 1943 deaths Sportspeople from Brecon Welsh cricketers Worcestershire cricketers Players cricketers Players of the South cricketers North v South cricketers Non-international England cricketers