Richard More

Richard Edwardes More (3 January 1879 – 24 November 1936) was an English cricketer.^[1] A right-handed batsman and right-arm medium pace bowler,^[2] he played first-class cricket for Oxford University and Middlesex, amongst others, in addition to playing for the Egypt national cricket team.^[3]

Biography

Born in Shropshire in 1879,^[2] Richard More was educated at Westminster School, where he captained the cricket and football teams. He then went to Oxford University^[1] and made his first-class debut for the university cricket team against the MCC during the 1898 English cricket season. He also played a first-class match for the university against Essex that year.^[4]

He did not play for the university in 1899 and returned to the side for the 1900 season when he played matches against Surrey, Sussex and the MCC before gaining his blue when playing against Cambridge University at Lord's.^[4]

He played eight first-class matches for the university side in 1901^[4] in addition to a non-first-class match against Dublin University in Dublin.^[5] He made his debut for Middlesex that year, when he played a County Championship match against Nottinghamshire. He played thirteen further County Championship matches that season, also playing in the Gentlemen v Players match. He then toured North America with a team captained by Bernard Bosanquet, playing two first-class matches against Philadelphia.^[4]

After not playing first-class cricket in 1902 or 1903, he returned to the Middlesex team for nine County Championship matches in the 1904 season, also playing for the Gentlemen of England against the Players of the South that year. He played two first-class matches for the MCC in 1905 – against Cambridge University and Oxford University.^[4]

He played four County Championship matches for Middlesex during the 1909 season, before his last season in 1910, when he played nine times.^[4] In June 1910, he played for the MCC against Belgium and the Netherlands^[5] as part of a cricket tournament in Brussels organised as part of the World's Fair^[6] that also featured France.^[7]

At some point he began to work for the Egyptian civil service^[1] and came back to England with a combined Egypt/Sudan team to play the MCC at Lord's in 1914.^[5] He also played his final first-class match in 1914, playing for GJV Weigall's XI against Oxford University.^[4]

He evidently settled in Egypt, as he played two matches for the Egyptian national side in the 1920s. One against Free Foresters in 1927 and another against HM Martineau's XI in 1929.^[5] He was still working for the Egyptian Civil service at the time of his death in Cairo in 1936.^[1]

Statistics

In his 57 first-class matches, Richard More scored 1671 runs at an average of 20.88, including three centuries. He took 124 wickets at an average of 27.67, taking five wickets in an innings four times and ten wickets in a match twice.^[2]

His top score of 133^[2] was made for Oxford University^[8] against Surrey^[9] in 1901.^[10] His best innings bowling performance of 6/28^[2] was for BJT Bosanquet's XI^[11] against Philadelphia^[12] on his 1901 tour of North America.^[1]

References