Old Ebor
A cricket tragic who writes about the pre-war history of the game
https://oldebor.wordpress.com
- During the later 19th century, when amateurs took control of English cricket from professionals, there was surprisingly little resistance to the new status quo. Except in Nottinghamshire, where an 1881 dispute became the last serious attempt to resist amateur domination.
- In 1892, an independently wealthy man called William Stiles died in faintly murky circumstances. There were questions whether he had been held against his wishes, and whether he had been forced to change his will in favour of his possible captors. open.substack.com/pub/lostlive...
- Aubrey Faulkner was one of the greatest all-rounders in the history of Test cricket but has received little attention from historians. He was a complex man about whom little is known, yet whose success on the cricket field possibly disguised several demons.
- The Tragedies of Sam Moss The suspicions over the legitimacy of Sam Moss's bowling action finished his career as a top league cricketer. He continued to play professionally for several years, but he was not destined for a happy ending.
- No-one ever knew who Mabel Grey was nor where she came from. Was she a courtesan or an invention? All attempts to define her failed before she vanished as mysteriously as she arrived. She was notorious and scandalous. And the press couldn't get enough open.substack.com/pub/lostlive...
- Samuel Moss, perhaps the fastest bowler in the world in the late 1890s, proved extremely successful playing for Bacup in the Lancashire League. But questions over the legality of his bowling action continued to grow as throwing became a controversial topic in English cricket
- The inventor (or discoverer) of the googly did not quite meet the ideal of a cricketing pioneer. Instead he was a mediocre player who had one blinding insight that changed the sport forever open.substack.com/pub/oldebor7...
- In 1888, a brutal and inexplicable murder took place in a quiet Somerset village called East Lambrook. Life was never quite the same again. lostlives.substack.com/p/across-the...
- For a time in the 1890s, the fastest bowler in the world was a league professional who never played first-class cricket. Sam Moss was usually too fast for the opposition batters but his career was tainted by suspicions about his action
- The New South Wales cricketer Andy Newell disappeared in 1907 and was assumed to have killed himself after suffering from depression. His obituary was even printed in Wisden. But he was not dead. Instead, he had left his home to begin a new life
- In January 1892, an Ilminster bank manager called William Lidderdale caught a train to London where he was meeting a surveyor to discuss a property he wanted to buy. He took just over £1,000 in cash but nothing else. He was due to be married in a week. He was never seen again
- He wrote a letter to his fiancée from the Great Western Hotel: a garbled note about someone called "Miss Vining" who he had mentioned before, and a suggestion the property deal had fallen through. He left no other trace, although he also left no evidence of wrongdoing
- Everyone was baffled and the story reached the newspapers. Where could such a respectable man have gone?
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View full threadThe full story can be read in three parts, starting here lostlives.substack.com/p/the-matter...
- William Lidderdale disappeared in 1892 on his way to London. His fate was never uncovered, although theories included kidnap, fatal illness and accident. Equally likely, he chose to vanish; and he invented a scorned woman to bolster his story lostlives.substack.com/p/the-unrave...
- Fifteen years after the mysterious disappearance of the bank manager William Lidderdale, a friend began the process of having him declared legally dead. But rather than settling the matter, it renewed fascination in the baffling case open.substack.com/pub/lostlive...
- Whether or not Joe Root scores that elusive century in Australia, he is going to be remembered as one of England's greatest batters. There is even an argument he is "the greatest". Where does he fit into the historical picture and who might the other candidates be? open.substack.com/pub/oldebor7...
- On 8 January 1892, a bank manager called William Lidderdale vanished without trace. But a fairly straightforward story was soon complicated by the publication of a death notice full of impossibilities… open.substack.com/pub/lostlive...
- Phil Mead scored 55,061 first-class runs and 153 centuries in a career lasting from 1905 until 1936. Yet he only played 17 times for England, despite a Test average of 49.37. The reasons are simple: he played for an unfashionable county and was easy neither on the eye nor on his team-mates.
- In 1883, a body was found hidden in the old boiler of a ruined mill. How did the woman came to be there, and how could she have been failed by literally everyone in her life? #history #biography #asylums open.substack.com/pub/lostlive...
- The just-completed series in New Zealand — a sort of "pre-Ashes tour" — revived but reversed an odd historical practice. For decades, England only bothered to visit New Zealand if they were going to Australia as well #NZvENG open.substack.com/pub/oldebor7...
- Ben Sealy of Trinidad played just one Test match for the West Indies during a career lasting from 1924 to 1941. Useful rather than essential, he never quite made enough impact to guarantee his place. But in 1933, he was one of the leading players in the West Indies team that toured England.
- In 1890, a Liverpool docker called Samuel McKay disappeared during a works outing to Matlock Bath in Derbyshire. And almost no-one seemed to notice. open.substack.com/pub/lostlive...
- Two English cricketers appeared in court within twelve months of each other in the mid-1920s, but their paths were very different and perfectly illustrate the divisions in English cricket at the time open.substack.com/pub/oldebor7...
- Lily Woodcock was a barmaid in Limehouse who twice escaped throwing herself in front of a train. But she was not quite the hysterical woman portrayed in the press, nor was her story quite as straightforward as it seemed #history #Limehouse #biography #asylums open.substack.com/pub/lostlive...
- Frank Ward spent many years on Lancashire's books, but later struggled with alcoholism and separated from his wife and family. However, he was one of the few such stories with a happy ending because he managed to turn his life completely back around and make a fresh start in New Zealand
- Leonard Peart was found in his photography studio after having shot himself. But like something out of the Strand Magazine, before he died, he had also shot one of his own photographs: a portrait of a woman called Miss Dempster open.substack.com/pub/lostlive...
- Sport and politics should not mix. Except, in practice, when they can't seem to help themselves. open.substack.com/pub/oldebor7...
- The story of her tragic death made the newspapers in 1934, published with a touch of sensationalism and no little implied moralising. But Toni Corazza was far more than just a journalistic cliche. open.substack.com/pub/lostlive...
- In 1908, a bookseller from Suffolk, who had been suffering from depression, disappeared in London, prompting a frantic search from his wife. He reappeared almost a month later having been living in the streets with no memory of his former life open.substack.com/pub/lostlive...
- Middlesex's J. T. Hearne was the epitome of the respectable professional in a career lasting from 1888 to 1923. One of only four men to take over 3,000 first-class wickets, he was also (less famously) one half of the world's first "celebrity" cricketing couple oldebor.wordpress.com/2025/09/29/y...
- Yours Respectably, J. T. Hearne Although famous for his success as a bowler — and as one of only four men to take over 3,000 first-class wickets — J. T. Hearne of Middlesex was just as well-known for his utter respectability, the epitome of what the amateur establishment wanted from professional…
- Sad news about Dickie Bird. He was one in a long line of great — and somewhat eccentric — English umpires. open.substack.com/pub/oldebor7...
- In 1891, just a few days after the census, two men died at a mill in the Lancashire town of Tyldesley. Philip Hill shot Thomas Syms dead and then turned the gun on himself. What led to the events of the Tyldesley Tragedy? open.substack.com/pub/lostlive...
- I often stumble across stories with no link to cricket which are extremely compelling. So I'm trying something different (not about the sport!). If you like stories from the past and finding out about lost lives, please have a look and maybe subscribe open.substack.com/pub/lostlive...
- Herbert Charles Tebbutt is one of only a handful of cricketers to have been murderers. An accomplished schoolboy cricketer and a wealthy man, he inexplicably killed his common-law wife Helen Williams (nee Jenks), her daughter, and their two children in 1932. He then killed himself
- No matter how dire the scenario, there is usually a precedent somewhere in cricket history. open.substack.com/pub/oldebor7...
