John Newstead

John Newstead

Personal information
Full name	John Thomas Newstead
Born	8 September 1877 Marton, Middlesbrough, Yorkshire, England
Died	25 March 1952 (aged 74) Blackburn, Lancashire, England
Batting style	Right-hand batsman
Bowling style	Right-arm off-break and medium pace
International information
National side	England
Career statistics
Competition First-class Matches 109 Runs scored 2,104 Batting average 16.18 100s/50s 1/6 Top score 100* Balls bowled 15556 Wickets 310 Bowling average 19.18 5 wickets in innings 14 10 wickets in match 4 Best bowling 7-10 Catches/stumpings 83/–
Source: CricketArchive

John Thomas Newstead (8 September 1877 – 25 March 1952) was an English first-class cricketer, who played 96 first-class matches for Yorkshire County Cricket Club between 1903 and 1913.^[1]

Newstead was born in Marton, Middlesbrough, Yorkshire, England. An all-rounder who batted in the middle order, he was selected as one of Wisden Cricketers of the Year for 1909, when his 927 runs and 140 wickets were a big factor in regaining the County Championship for Yorkshire the previous season. A bowler of near medium pace, he also imparted the then fashionable in-duckers, or quick off spin.

Life and career

He learned the game under the tutorship of William Brunton - a North Riding cricketer of good local repute in the days of the England eleven. He made such rapid progress that aged seventeen he was given an engagement with Middlesbrough C.C. He was given two trials for the county in 1903 against Cambridge University and Derbyshire, but he was treated as a batsman and not as a bowler. As a result of the mistake he was not kept on. The turning point in his career was an engagement in Ireland in 1907. In twelve weeks' engagement with Woodbrook Bray C.C. he took over a hundred wickets and his possibilities as a bowler were realised by the Yorkshire authorities.

Newstead made his debut for Yorkshire in 1903,^[1] but then was on the MCC staff until 1906. Playing eight times for the club, he met with moderate results and was not regularly used as a bowler.

His emergence in 1908 was prefigured by an extraordinary analysis of 7 wickets for 10 runs against Worcestershire at Bradford, on his recall to the county eleven at the end of the 1907 campaign. However, Newstead's great season proved to be something of a flash in the pan, for he took only 151 further wickets. He lost his place before the end of 1909: he averaged only fourteen with the bat, and did not appear regularly again, making his final first-class, and only appearance of the season, in 1913.^[1] He played in the Lancashire League after World War I playing for Church Cricket Club and Haslingden Cricket Club.

In 1914 he joined Rishton Cricket Club, in Lancashire, taking 94 wickets at 7.57, and he later appeared for Lidget Green and East Bierley, then on to Church from 1919 to 1921 and finally Haslingden in 1922.

Newstead died in Blackburn, Lancashire, in March 1952.

Bibliography

• A History of Yorkshire Cricket - Tony Woodhouse

References

1. Warner, David (2011). The Yorkshire County Cricket Club: 2011 Yearbook (113th ed.). Ilkley, Yorkshire: Great Northern Books. p. 374. ISBN 978-1-905080-85-4.