James Southerton

James Southerton

Personal information
Full name	James Southerton
Born	(1827-11-16)16 November 1827 Petworth, Sussex, England
Died	16 June 1880(1880-06-16) (aged 52) Mitcham, Surrey, England
Nickname	Man of Many Counties[1]
Height	5 ft 6[1] in (1.68 m)
Batting	Right-handed
Bowling	Right-arm roundarm slow Right-arm overarm slow[2]
International information
National side	England
Test debut (cap 10)	15 March 1877 v Australia
Last Test	4 April 1877 v Australia
Domestic team information
Years	Team
1854–1879	Surrey
1858–1872	Sussex
1861	Hampshire (pre-1864)
1864–1867	Hampshire
Umpiring information
FC umpired	12 (1864–1879)
Career statistics
Competition Test First-class Matches 2 286 Runs scored 7 3,159 Batting average 3.50 9.02 100s/50s 0/0 0/3 Top score 6 82 Balls bowled 263 68,668 Wickets 7 1,682 Bowling average 15.28 14.43 5 wickets in innings 0 192 10 wickets in match 0 59 Best bowling 4/46 9/30 Catches/stumpings 2/– 215/3
Source: ESPNcricinfo, 13 April 2020

James Southerton (16 November 1827 – 16 June 1880) was an English professional cricketer whose first-class career spanned 26 seasons from 1854 to 1879. Right-handed as both batsman and bowler, he began his career as a specialist batsman. He decided to concentrate on bowling and, using a roundarm action, developed into an outstanding slow bowler.

In the 1870 season, Southerton became the first bowler to take 200 first-class wickets in a season. He toured Australia in 1876–77 with James Lillywhite's team, and played for England against Australia at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, in what is retrospectively recognised as the first-ever Test match. He was 49 years and 119 days old when the match began, and remains the oldest Test debutant. In domestic cricket, Southerton was mostly associated with the county teams of Hampshire, Surrey, and Sussex. As he tended to play for more than one county in a season, he became known as the 'Man of Many Counties', and it was largely because of him that residence qualifications were introduced ahead of the 1873 season.

Southerton stood intermittently as an umpire between 1864 and 1879. For the last ten years of his life, he was the landlord of The Cricketers public house in Mitcham. He became the first Test cricketer to die in June 1880, when he succumbed to a short attack of pleurisy.