Frederick Eustace Reade Fryer (7 January 1849 – 1 October 1917) was an English first-class cricketer.

Life and cricket

The son of Colonel Frederick Daniel Fryer, he was born at Holbrook House in

Holbrook, Suffolk Holbrook is a village situated close to the northern shore of the estuary of the River Stour, in Suffolk, England. It is located on the Shotley Peninsula in Babergh district, around south of Ipswich. To the south of the village is the Royal ...

. He was educated at

Harrow School (The Faithful Dispensation of the Gifts of God) , established = (Royal Charter) , closed = , type = Public schoolIndependent schoolBoarding school , religion = Church of E ...

, before going up to

Caius College, Cambridge Gonville and Caius College, often referred to simply as Caius ( ), is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1348, it is the fourth-oldest of the University of Cambridge's 31 colleges and one of th ...

in 1869. He later migrated to

Downing College, Cambridge Downing College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge and currently has around 650 students. Founded in 1800, it was the only college to be added to Cambridge University between 1596 and 1869, and is often described as the olde ...

in 1872. 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 one of three or more days' scheduled duration between two sides of eleven players each and is officiall ...

came for the

Gentlemen of the South A gentleman (Old French: ''gentilz hom'', gentle + man) is any man of good and courteous conduct. Originally, ''gentleman'' was the lowest rank of the landed gentry of England, ranking below an esquire and above a yeoman; by definition, the ...

against the Players of the South 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 1869. The following year he debuted for

Cambridge University , mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts. Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge. , established = , other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...

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 orchar ...

against 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 ...

. He would play for Cambridge in 23 first-class matches to 1873, at a time when university cricket was particularly strong with the likes of

William Yardley William Yardley (1632 – 6 May 1693) was an early settler of Bucks County, Pennsylvania, and is the namesake of the borough of Yardley, Pennsylvania. As a persecuted Quaker minister, Yardley and his wife, Jane ( nee Heath) moved from Ranscloug ...

and

Cuthbert Ottaway Cuthbert John Ottaway (19 July 1850 – 2 April 1878)''Jackson's Oxford Journal'', 6 April 1878. was an English footballer. He was the first captain of the England football team and led his side in the first official international football ma ...

. He captained Cambridge in 1873, as well as receiving his cricket blue in 1870, 1871, 1872, and 1873. He remained an avid cricketer following his graduation from Cambridge, playing in first-class cricket for several teams until 1883, including the

South South is one of the cardinal directions or Points of the compass, compass points. The direction is the opposite of north and is perpendicular to both east and west. Etymology The word ''south'' comes from Old English ''sūþ'', from earlier Pro ...

Gentlemen of Marylebone Cricket Club A gentleman (Old French: ''gentilz hom'', gentle + man) is any man of good and courteous conduct. Originally, ''gentleman'' was the lowest rank of the landed gentry of England, ranking below an esquire and above a yeoman; by definition, the ...

Gentlemen A gentleman (Old French: ''gentilz hom'', gentle + man) is any man of good and courteous conduct. Originally, ''gentleman'' was the lowest rank of the landed gentry of England, ranking below an esquire and above a yeoman; by definition, the ra ...

, England XI,

Gentlemen of England Cricket, and hence English amateur cricket, probably began in England during the medieval period but the earliest known reference concerns the game being played c.1550 by children on a plot of land at the Royal Grammar School, Guildford, Surrey ...

Oxford and Cambridge Universities Past and Present 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 ...

, and the

Orleans Club The Orleans Club was a London-based cricket club that existed from 1878 to 1888 and took part in four first-class matches. It was founded by C. I. Thornton who had organised occasional teams to play on the Orleans Club Ground at Orleans Road, Tw ...

. His playing style was described by ''

Wisden Cricketers' Almanack ''Wisden Cricketers' Almanack'', or simply ''Wisden'', colloquially the Bible of Cricket, is a cricket reference book published annually in the United Kingdom. The description "bible of cricket" was first used in the 1930s by Alec Waugh in a ...

'' as:

"Upright, easy and graceful, Fryer was a beautiful bat to watch—as attractive to look at as
Lionel Palairet Lionel Charles Hamilton Palairet (27 May 1870 – 27 March 1933) was an English amateur cricketer who played for Somerset and Oxford University. A graceful right-handed batsman, he was selected to play Test cricket for England twice in 190 ...
in our own time."

Across 58 first-class appearances, Fryer scored 2,149 runs at an

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, ...

of 21.92. A strong

leg side The leg side, or on side, is defined to be a particular half of the field used to play the sport of cricket. It is the side of the field that corresponds to the batsman's non-dominant hand, from their perspective. From the point of view of a righ ...

player, Fryer made twelve first-class half centuries, four of which came at Fenners and three at The Oval. He never managed to make a century, with his highest score being 91. A competent

medium pace Fast bowling (also referred to as pace bowling) is one of two main approaches to bowling in the sport of cricket, the other being spin bowling. Practitioners of pace bowling are usually known as ''fast'' bowlers, ''quicks'', or ''pacemen''. T ...

bowler, Fryer took 39 wickets at a

bowling average In cricket, a player's bowling average is the number of runs they have conceded per wicket taken. The lower the bowling average is, the better the bowler is performing. It is one of a number of statistics used to compare bowlers, commonly use ...

of 29.00, twice taking a

five wicket haul In cricket, a five-wicket haul (also known as a "five–for" or "fifer") occurs when a bowler takes five or more wickets in a single innings. This is regarded by critics as a notable achievement, equivalent to a century from a batsman. Taking ...

Personal life

He succeeded his father as a

justice of the peace A justice of the peace (JP) is a judicial officer of a lower or ''puisne'' court, elected or appointed by means of a commission ( letters patent) to keep the peace. In past centuries the term commissioner of the peace was often used with the sa ...

for Suffolk in 1875. Fryer married Mary Alice Lucas in February 1885, the sister of the baronet and first-class cricketer

Arthur Lucas Arthur Lucas (December 18, 1907 - December 11, 1962), originally from the U.S. state of Georgia, was one of the last two people to be executed in Canada, on 11 December 1962. Lucas had been convicted of the murder of 44-year-old Therland Crater ...

, with the couple having three daughters Later in life he took up

golf Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a course in as few strokes as possible. Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standardized playing area, and coping wi ...

, becoming a skilled player. He died at Poplar in October 1917.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Fryer, Frederick (cricketer) 1849 births 1917 deaths People from Babergh District People educated at Harrow School Alumni of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge Alumni of Downing College, Cambridge English cricketers Cambridge University cricketers Gentlemen of the South cricketers North v South cricketers Gentlemen of Marylebone Cricket Club cricketers Gentlemen cricketers Non-international England cricketers Oxford and Cambridge Universities Past and Present cricketers Orleans Club cricketers English justices of the peace Cricketers from Suffolk