Henry Royston (12 August 1819 – 30 September 1873) was an English 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 and cricket

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 , , and , : (as evidenced in cricke ...

. Royston was born at

Harrow on the Hill Harrow on the Hill or Harrow-on-the-Hill is a locality and historic village in the borough of London Borough of Harrow, Harrow in Greater London, England. The name refers to Harrow Hill, ,Mills, A., ''Dictionary of London Place Names'', (2001) ...

in August 1819. A professional all-round cricketer, he began his 25 year association with 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) in 1843, making 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 club 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, ...

Lord's Lord's Cricket Ground, commonly known as Lord's, is a cricket List of Test cricket grounds, venue in St John's Wood, Westminster. Named after its founder, Thomas Lord, it is owned by Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) and is the home of Middlesex C ...

. Throughout the 1840s, he played for a number of club sides and played his first-class cricket almost exclusively for the MCC, except for two appearances for an England XI in 1845 and 1847. He first played for

Middlesex Middlesex (; abbreviation: Middx) is a Historic counties of England, former county in South East England, now mainly within Greater London. Its boundaries largely followed three rivers: the River Thames, Thames in the south, the River Lea, Le ...

in 1850, debuting for the county in first-class matches against

Surrey Surrey () is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Greater London to the northeast, Kent to the east, East Sussex, East and West Sussex to the south, and Hampshire and Berkshire to the wes ...

. He also made first-class appearances for several other teams, including the Players in the

Gentlemen v Players Gentlemen v Players was a long-running series of cricket matches that began in July 1806 and was abolished in January 1963. It was a match between a team consisting of amateurs (the Gentlemen) and a team consisting of professionals (the Players ...

match, for the

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

in the

North v South The North of England and South of England cricket teams appeared in first-class matches between the 1836 and 1961 seasons, most often playing against each other but also individually in games against touring teams, Marylebone Cricket Club ( ...

fixture and for a United England Eleven amongst others. His four appearances for Middlesex were sporadic and spread over a period of twelve years, with his final appearance coming just two years before the formation of

Middlesex County Cricket Club Middlesex County Cricket Club is one of eighteen first-class county clubs within the domestic cricket structure of England and Wales. It represents the historic county of Middlesex which has effectively been subsumed within the ceremonial ...

. It was for the MCC that he played the vast majority of his first-class matches for, making a total of 51 appearances between 1843–61. In these matches he scored 974 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 12.02, with a high score of 60. Standing 5 foot 6 inches tall and bowling right-arm roundarm slow, he also took 91 wickets for the MCC 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 11.28, with best figures of 8 for 44. He took

five wickets in an innings 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 batter. Taking ...

on five occasions and took

ten wickets in a match In cricket, a ten-wicket haul occurs when a bowler takes ten wickets in either a single innings or across both innings of a two-innings match. The phrase ten wickets in a match is also used. Taking ten wickets in a match at Lord's earns the bow ...

once. His appearances in club cricket continued into the 1850s and early 1860s, demonstrating that Royston was a sought after player, with him making guest appearances for the personal teams of many leading cricket figures of the day, including Sir Frederick Hervey-Bathurst, Robert Grimston and Roger Kynaston. Besides playing, he was a well known

, standing in 133 first-class matches between 1846 and 1872. Away from cricket, Royston was by trade a confectioner. He died at

St John's Wood St John's Wood is a district in the London Borough of Camden, London Boroughs of Camden and the City of Westminster, London, England, about 2.5 miles (4 km) northwest of Charing Cross. Historically the northern part of the Civil Parish#An ...

in September 1873.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Royston, Henry 1819 births 1873 deaths People from Harrow on the Hill Cricketers from the London Borough of Harrow English cricketers Marylebone Cricket Club cricketers English cricket umpires Middlesex cricketers Over 36 v Under 36 cricketers Marylebone Cricket Club and Metropolitan Clubs cricketers Over 30s v Under 30s cricketers Non-international England cricketers United All-England Eleven cricketers Players cricketers North v South cricketers Confectioners