Herbert Fox

Herbert Francis Fox (1 August 1858 – 20 January 1926) was an English cricketer who made 10 first-class appearances for Somerset County Cricket Club between 1882 and 1891.^[1] He later played for Oxfordshire and Suffolk in the Minor Counties Championship.^[2]

Life and career

Herbert Francis was the fourth son of Francis Ker and Mary Fox. He attended Clifton College, who he represented in a number of cricket matches in 1876 and 1877.^[3] He continued his education at University College, Oxford. He married Rachel Mary Garrett on 27 August 1892 in Bathwick, Taunton, Somerset.^[4] He tutored at Brasenose College,^[5] and later edited a piece in the Westminster Gazette entitled 'Renderings into Greek and Latin verse', in which readers submitted Latin and Greek verse.^[6]

Cricket career

Having played for Clifton College, Fox made his first appearance for Somerset County Cricket Club in August 1877, playing for the "Gentlemen of Somerset" against a similarly named Devon side. Batting at number nine, Fox scored a duck in his only innings.^[7] He continued to play for Somerset in the following years, during which time they played second-class cricket. His batting was inconsistent during these years; he failed to score as many as 20 runs in a single innings at all for Somerset during 1877 and 1878, but in 1879 he scored three half-centuries.^[7] His highest score for Somerset came in a second-class match during 1881, when he scored 89 runs against Gloucestershire.^[7]

He made his first-class debut in 1882, playing in Somerset's first-ever match at this level. He never scored 50 runs or more in a single innings in first-class cricket, his highest score being the 31 he reached against Hampshire in his second first-class match.^[7] He played irregularly for Somerset, making four appearances in 1882, three the following season and two in 1884. He continued to play for the county after they lost their first-class status, between 1886 and 1890, but only played once more after they had regained it, appearing in his final first-class match, against Gloucestershire in 1891.^[7] He continued to play cricket after this, appearing for Incogniti, Lansdown and the Marylebone Cricket Club. In the early twentieth century, he made a small number of appearances in the Minor Counties Championship, playing three times for Oxfordshire in 1902, for whom he scored a century and a 99, and twice for Suffolk in 1908.^[7]

References