Nelson Graves
Encyclopedia
Nelson Zwinglius Graves was an American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 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, active in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Graves was one of the Philadelphian cricketers
Philadelphian cricket team
The Philadelphian cricket team was a team that represented Philadelphia in first-class cricket between 1878 and 1913. Even with the United States having played the first ever international cricket match against Canada in 1844, the sport began a slow decline in the country. This decline was...

 that played from the end of the 19th century through the early years of the next. He was born in Philadelphia and played a total of 34 first-class
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...

 matches before entering a successful career in manufacturing.

Graves began his first-class career for the Gentlemen of Philadelphia
Philadelphian cricket team
The Philadelphian cricket team was a team that represented Philadelphia in first-class cricket between 1878 and 1913. Even with the United States having played the first ever international cricket match against Canada in 1844, the sport began a slow decline in the country. This decline was...

 on 14 September 1894. This match was played on the Germantown Cricket Club ground against a team of Players of United States of America. Graves scored no runs in the two-day match which ended in a draw. As he was only 14 years old at the time, Graves' poor showing is hardly surprising. Four years later, Graves again played with the Philadelphians, this time against Sir Pelham Warner's
Plum Warner
Sir Pelham Francis Warner MBE , affectionately and better known as Plum Warner, or even "the Grand Old Man" of English cricket was a Test cricketer....

 touring side. This time he was one of the opening batsmen, though his performance in the loss still left something to be desired. Graves played in several other series against touring English sides while attending the University of Pennsylvania
University of Pennsylvania
The University of Pennsylvania is a private, Ivy League university located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Penn is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States,Penn is the fourth-oldest using the founding dates claimed by each institution...

. He then joined the Philadelphian cricket team in England in 1903. It was against Lancashire
Lancashire County Cricket Club
Lancashire County Cricket Club represents the historic county of Lancashire in cricket's County Championship. The club was founded in 1864 as a successor to Manchester Cricket Club and has played at Old Trafford since then...

 on 6 July of that year that Graves reached his highest run total. In the first innings at Old Trafford, he made only 19 runs but in the second he helped the Philadelphians to their nine wicket victory with a 103 not out. This score took 105 minutes to achieve and included 9 fours. His second highest first-class score came a month earlier against Nottinghamshire
Nottinghamshire County Cricket Club
Nottinghamshire County Cricket Club is one of the 18 major county clubs which make up the English and Welsh domestic cricket structure, representing the historic county of Nottinghamshire, and the current county champions. Its limited overs team is called the Nottinghamshire Outlaws...

 with a 62 not out. His highest recorded scores came during non-first class matches. One came during a match against Scotland on the same tour. This match saw Graves reach a score of 107. In 1898 he hit 128 against Canada.

Graves continued his international career during a tour of the Marylebone Cricket Club
Marylebone Cricket Club
Marylebone Cricket Club is a cricket club in London founded in 1787. Its influence and longevity now witness it as a private members' club dedicated to the development of cricket. It owns, and is based at, Lord's Cricket Ground in St John's Wood, London NW8. MCC was formerly the governing body of...

 in the United States. The side played two matches against the Philadelphians in 1905. He also joined the Philadelphian tour of England in 1908. In his last first-class match against Kent County Cricket Club
Kent County Cricket Club
Kent County Cricket Club is one of the 18 first class county county cricket clubs which make up the English and Welsh national cricket structure, representing the county of Kent...

 on 27 August, Graves only managed 7 runs in the first innings and 4 in the second.

After his cricket career came to an end, Graves entered the business world. Earning a great deal of wealth in manufacturing, he purchased the Christian Admiral Hotel in Cape May
Cape May
Cape May is a peninsula and island ; the southern tip of the island is the southernmost point of the state of New Jersey, United States. It runs southwards from the New Jersey mainland, separating Delaware Bay from the Atlantic Ocean...

, New Jersey
New Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. , its population was 8,791,894. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania and on the southwest by Delaware...

, although he subsequently declared bankruptcy in 1914. Graves died in Germantown, Pennsylvania
Germantown, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Germantown is a neighborhood in the northwest section of the city of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States, about 7–8 miles northwest from the center of the city...

 on 31 March 1918 at the age of 37.

External links

  • Player Profile: Nelson Graves from CricketArchive
    CricketArchive
    CricketArchive is a website that aims to provide a comprehensive archive of records relating to the sport of cricket. It claims to be the most comprehensive cricket database on the internet, including scorecards for all matches of first-class cricket , List A cricket , Women's Test cricket and...

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