Bart King
Template:Infobox NonTest Cricketer
John Barton King (October 19 1873–October 17 1965) was one of the greatest American cricketers of all time. He was the most prominent player in the United States during the sport's brief North American "Golden Age". Donald Bradman called Bart King "America's greatest cricketing son"[1] and he is arguably the greatest of all cricketers to have come from North America. He was noted as a preeminent fast and swing bowler.[2]
Early and personal life
King was born in Philadelphia in 1873. Early in his life, he worked in the linen trade. This was the family business but his father later allowed him to enter the insurance industry as a career. King was a member of the aristocratic and wealthy families of Philadelphia that produced many of the era's top cricketers. It has been suggested, however, that his career in insurance was set up for him by those families to allow him to continue playing the game. In 1913, King married a young woman by the name of Lockhart. The marriage lasted for fifty years, though he outlived his wife by two years.[3] King died in 1965 in his native Philadelphia just two days short of his 92nd birthday.[4]
Cricketing career
Like most young men of his era, Bart King came to cricket only after first playing baseball. It was not until he was 15 years old that he first turned to cricket.[5] It was in 1888 that he began playing club cricket for Tioga in Philadelphia. This was one of the premier Philadelphian cricket clubs, though there are no matches recorded for him until the next year. In that season he took 37 wickets for 99 runs.
King was not only an outstanding bowler, but he was also an very fine batsman. To this day, his 344 runs for Belmont stand as the North American record. He also scored 39 centuries in his career and he topped 1,000 runs in a season six times, in 4 of them also taking over 100 wickets. He took over 100 wickets on 4 other occasions also. In his whole career he scored 19,808 runs for an average of 36.47 and took 2,088 wickets for an average of 10.47.[6]
King played for Tioga until 1896, when he joined the Belmont Cricket Club. During this period, in 1908, King topped the England bowling averages with the extraordinary figure of 11.01 which was not to be bettered until 1958 by Les Jackson of Derbyshire with a figure of 10.99.[7] But the most dominating matches in which he played had been in the two previous tours. In 1897, he took 7 for 13 against the full Sussex team. In the second innings, he took 5 for 102 he helped the Philadelphians to a victory by 8 wickets.[8] King made use of a lethal delivery which he called "the angler", a product of his experience as a baseball pitcher to confuse the English batsmen.[9]
King's even more masterful tour came in 1903 against Surrey. In the first innings, he scored 98 runs before being run out and took 3 for 89. In the second innings he made 113 and took 3 for 98. Surrey lost the match by 110 runs. It would seem that after the match, at a banquet, he fell asleep during a speech by the Lord Chief Justice.[10]
Legacy
In 1912, he took part in his last two international matches against Australia and his performances were of high quality for a bowler nearing his fortieth year. In the first match, which Philadelphia won by 2 runs, he took 9 for 78 runs and in the second, which Australia won by 45 runs, he took 8 for 74. After that season he joined the Philadelphia Cricket Club and in 1916 he retired. King's twenty-seven year career ended when he played his last game for the Philadelphia Cricket Club against Frankford, on 20 July 1916. On this occasion, his bowling and batting were nothing remarkable but his batting average was 43.33 for the season.
Bart King took all 10 wickets in an innings on three occasions (on five others he took 9 wickets). One of these occasions, against the Gentlemen of Ireland, in 1909 was followed by his taking the hat-trick in the second innings.
King was elected an honorary member of our Incogniti Cricket Club in 1908 and an honorary life member of the Marylebone Cricket Club in 1962.
Teams
International
USA first-class
Philadelphia club
- Belmont
- Tioga
Statistics links
Notes
- ^ Donald Bradman. The Art of Cricket. Robson Books (1998).
- ^ Neil Cohen. The Everything You Want to Know About Sports Encyclopedia. Bantam Books (1994), 99.
- ^ Obituary. Cricket Quarterly (1966), 61.
- ^ Cricinfo.com Player Profile
- ^ Obituary. Cricket Quarterly (1966), 61.
- ^ Obituary. Cricket Quarterly (1966), 61.
- ^ The Society for American Baseball Research.
- ^ Obituary. Cricket Quarterly (1966), 61.
- ^ The Society for American Baseball Research.
- ^ Obituary. Cricket Quarterly (1966), 61.