Jack Crapp
Encyclopedia
John "Jack" Frederick Crapp (14 October 1912 - 13 February 1981) was an English
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 cricket
Cricket
Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of 11 players on an oval-shaped field, at the centre of which is a rectangular 22-yard long pitch. One team bats, trying to score as many runs as possible while the other team bowls and fields, trying to dismiss the batsmen and thus limit the...

er, who played first-class cricket
First-class cricket
First-class cricket is a class of cricket that consists of matches of three or more days' scheduled duration, that are between two sides of eleven players and are officially adjudged first-class by virtue of the standard of the competing teams...

 for Gloucestershire
Gloucestershire County Cricket Club
Gloucestershire County Cricket Club is one of the 18 major county clubs which make up the English and Welsh national cricket structure, representing the historic county of Gloucestershire. Its limited overs team is called the Gloucestershire Gladiators....

 between 1936
1936 English cricket season
The 1936 English cricket season saw Derbyshire County Cricket Club in 1936 win its first-ever County Championship.-Honours:*County Championship - Derbyshire*Minor Counties Championship - Hertfordshire...

 and 1956
1956 English cricket season
The 1956 English cricket season is memorable for the performances of Jim Laker, especially his unique feat in taking 19 wickets in a match, which he performed in the Old Trafford Test Match. He took a total of 46 wickets in the 5 Tests, a record in an England-Australia series...

, and played for England
English cricket team
The England and Wales cricket team is a cricket team which represents England and Wales. Until 1992 it also represented Scotland. Since 1 January 1997 it has been governed by the England and Wales Cricket Board , having been previously governed by Marylebone Cricket Club from 1903 until the end...

 on tour in the winter of 1948-49.

Cricket writer, Colin Bateman, noted that Crapp was a "sound rather than spectacular batsman who scored 1,000 runs in all but one of his fifteen seasons - that was 1954, when he struggled with the Gloucestershire captaincy". Crapp went on to become an umpire for twenty two seasons, including standing in four Test matches.

Life and career

Crapp was born in St Columb Major
St Columb Major
St Columb Major is a civil parish and town in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. Often referred to locally as St Columb, it is situated approximately seven miles southwest of Wadebridge and six miles east of Newquay...

, Cornwall
Cornwall
Cornwall is a unitary authority and ceremonial county of England, within the United Kingdom. It is bordered to the north and west by the Celtic Sea, to the south by the English Channel, and to the east by the county of Devon, over the River Tamar. Cornwall has a population of , and covers an area of...

, and began his career with Stapleton Cricket Club in Bristol, scoring a 'duck' for the third team on his debut. However, he soon moved up to the first XI following some spectacular performances, and was spotted by Wally Hammond
Wally Hammond
Walter Reginald "Wally" Hammond was an English Test cricketer who played for Gloucestershire in a career that lasted from 1920 to 1951. Beginning his career as a professional, he later became an amateur and was appointed captain of England...

 who invited him for trials with Gloucestershire. In 1936, he made his debut for Gloucestershire and was a fixture in their team for the next twenty seasons, eventually becoming their captain
Captain (cricket)
The captain of a cricket team often referred to as the skipper is the appointed leader, having several additional roles and responsibilities over and above those of a regular player...

.

Crapp was a dependable left-hand batsman and a fine slip fielder, who early in his career was thought of as a potential Test batsman. However, World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

 intervened and it was not until 1948
1948 English cricket season
The 1948 English cricket season marked the final appearance in England of Don Bradman, who was shortly to retire. Bradman's team, which included Arthur Morris, a very young Neil Harvey, Ray Lindwall and Keith Miller, went through the tour without being beaten and became known to cricket's folklore...

 that he became the first-ever Cornishman to play for England. Unfortunately for him, he came up against the Australian cricket team
Australian cricket team
The Australian cricket team is the national cricket team of Australia. It is the joint oldest team in Test cricket, having played in the first Test match in 1877...

 known as "The Invincibles". He was chosen on the strength of the Gloucestershire match against Australia, when Crapp scored 100, one of the few players to register a century against the Australians in 1948. Like many of the England players that summer, his performances did not do his talent justice.

He toured South Africa
South Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...

 with the England team in 1948-49
English cricket team in South Africa in 1948-49
The England national cricket team toured South Africa in the 1948-49 season. The tour was organised by the Marylebone Cricket Club and the side played five Test matches as England and 16 other first-class matches as "MCC". Two of the first-class matches took place in Rhodesia...

, but did not play spectacularly well in the Tests, although in the final Test he guided England home to victory with Allan Watkins
Allan Watkins
Allan Watkins Allan Watkins Allan Watkins (born Albert John Watkins (21 April 1922 – 3 August 2011) was a Welsh cricketer, who played for England in fifteen Tests from 1948 to 1952. He toured India and Pakistan in 1951-2 with the MCC, and also participated in the 1955-6 'A' Tour to Pakistan...

, with only three balls to spare.

Crapp was dropped from the Test side in 1949
1949 English cricket season
The 1949 English cricket season saw the County Championship being shared for the first time since the official competition began in 1890.-Honours:*County Championship - Middlesex, Yorkshire...

. He continued to perform well for Gloucestershire, becoming their first professional captain in 1953
1953 English cricket season
The 1953 English cricket season saw a tight Test series between England and Australia that was settled, after four drawn matches, in the final Test at The Oval, where England won to reclaim The Ashes for the first time since the Bodyline series of 1932/33....

. In 1955
1955 English cricket season
The 1955 English cricket season saw a continuation of Surrey's complete dominance as they won a fourth successive title and a second consecutive Minor Counties.-Honours:*County Championship - Surrey CCC*Minor Counties Championship - Surrey II...

 he handed over the role to George Emmett. In his later years, a debilitating skin condition affected his hands and this eventually led to his retirement.

After retiring Crapp became a first-class umpire
Umpire (cricket)
In cricket, an umpire is a person who has the authority to make judgements on the cricket field, according to the Laws of Cricket...

 and stood in four Tests, notably the match in which Fred Trueman
Fred Trueman
Frederick Sewards Trueman OBE was an English cricketer, generally acknowledged as one of the greatest fast bowlers in history. A bowler of genuinely fast pace who was widely known as Fiery Fred, Trueman played first-class cricket for Yorkshire County Cricket Club from 1949 until he retired in 1968...

 took his 300th Test wicket. For many years, Trueman would show people the ball he used to take the wicket. But shortly before his death, Crapp revealed to journalist, Frank Keating, that he had swapped balls preventing Trueman from keeping the historic one.

There is a story about a time he was sharing a room on tour with one of the Bedser twins. Returning to the hotel late one night, probably slightly worse for wear he approached reception to ask for his key. Now the touring England team were reported widely in the newspapers, and were recognisable to many people, and so he was not entirely surprised that before he could say anything the receptionist, asked "Bed, sir?" Jack replied, "No, Crapp", only for the receptionist to point him to the gents.

His England jacket is in the possession of St Columb Old Cornwall Society
Federation of Old Cornwall Societies
The Federation of Old Cornwall Societies was formed in 1924, on the initiative of Robert Morton Nance, with the objective of collecting and maintaining "all those ancient things that make the spirit of Cornwall — its traditions, its old words and ways, and what remains to it of its Celtic language...

. There is also a plaque in the garden of house at Bridge, St Columb Major where he was born.

Jack Crapp died in Knowle, Bristol
Knowle, Bristol
Knowle is a district and council ward in the south of Bristol. It is bordered by Filwood Park to the west, Brislington to the east, Whitchurch and Hengrove to the south and Totterdown to the north....

, at the age of 68.
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