Robert Fowler (cricketer)
Encyclopedia
Captain
Robert St Leger Fowler MC
(7 April 1891 – 13 June 1925) was an Irish
cricketer
, regarded as the best Irish cricketer not to have represented Ireland itself. Fowler was a right-handed batsman who bowled right-arm off break
. He is perhaps best known for his outstanding all round performance as captain of Eton College
in the match against Harrow
in 1910, with the match commonly referred to as Fowler's match
.
, County Meath
, Ireland. His father Robert Henry Fowler
had attended RMC Sandhurst and joined the British Army
in 1878, becoming a captain in the King's Shropshire Light Infantry in 1886, and had played one first-class cricket match for Cambridge University
against the Marylebone Cricket Club
in 1876. His great-great grandfather, also Robert, was Bishop of Ossory
and then Bishop of Ossory, Ferns and Leighlin
from 1817 until his death in 1841, and his great-great-great grandfather, Robert Fowler
was a Protestant clergyman who settled in Ireland in the 1760s and was Archbishop of Dublin
from 1779 until his death in 1801.
Fowler attended Mr Hawtrey's prep school in Westgate-on-Sea
, and then Eton College
, where was influenced by his housemaster, Cyril Wells
, an amateur cricketer who played for Middlesex
. Fowler played for Eton against Harrow School
in the 1908 and 1909 Eton v Harrow
fixtures. Harrow won easily in 1908, and the 1909 fixture was drawn, although Fowler's 11 wickets for 79 runs gave Eton a fighting chance.
of cricket in his last year at Eton. His performance in the 1910 Eton v Harrow
match has become a cricket legend, of such note that the 1910 match has been nicknamed Fowler's match
.
The two-day two-innings cricket match was held at Lord's on Friday 8 and Saturday 9 July 1910. He was one of only three survivors from Eton's 1909 team, but Harrow had seven veterans from the 1909 match and came to the match unbeaten. Before the match, The Times noted that Harrow's captain Guy Earle
"bowls extraordinarily fast for a boy" but that "is not deadly on on a good wicket, but can make every use of a difficult one". Also playing in the match was a schoolboy who would become a field-marshal (Alexander), another an air vice-marshal (Blount
), and a third an attorney-general (Monckton), together with various sons of nobility.
Harrow won the toss, and batted first, scoring 232. Despite some bad luck, Fowler took 4 wickets. Eton were dismissed early on the second day for 67, with Fowler top scorer on 21, the only Eton batsman to reach double figures. Eton followed on, and subsided to 65-5 shortly after lunch. But Fowler was still batting, and added 42 runs for the sixth wicket with Wigan and 57 runs for the seventh wicket with Boswell. Fowler was eventually out for 64 runs, the highest individual innings in the match, with 8 fours, a three, 10 twos and 9 singles, with Eton one run ahead. Heroic batting by the tenth wicket partnership of Manners and Lister-Kaye gave Eton a slender lead of 55 runs. Fowler's extraordinary bowling took 8 wickets, 5 bowled, to dismiss Harrow for 45, 10 runs short of the target.
Fowler's outstanding all round batting
and bowling
performance allowed Eton to win a match that appeared all but lost after Harrow School
asked Eton to follow on 165 runs in arrears. Wisden
stated that: "In the whole history of cricket, there has been nothing more sensational" and The Times
said that "A more exciting match can hardly ever have been played", continuing effusively, with a reference to the inaugural Ashes Test
at The Oval
in 1882, "to boys the bowling of Fowler was probably more formidable than Spofforth
's to England". Fowler ended the match having scored 21 and 64 runs, and taken 4-90 and 8-23. The Times described Fowlers contribution in the following terms: "in the whole history of public school cricket nothing better can have been seen than Fowler's play on the second day".
in 1911. He was commissioned in the 17th Lancers
.
Fowler served in the First World War as a captain
in the 17th Lancers. He was awarded the Military Cross
in the defence of Amiens in 1918.
He was also British Army rackets champion.
debut for the Marylebone Cricket Club
against Fowler's future club, Hampshire
. Fowler played two matches for the MCC in 1913, with his final appearance coming against Cambridge University
.
After the war, Fowler represented the British Army
in first-class matches, making his debut against the Royal Navy in 1919. Fowler represented the Army in fifteen first-class matches, making his final appearance for the Army in 1924 against the Royal Navy. In his fifteen matches for the Army, Fowler scored 636 runs at an average
of 35.30, with a high score of 92*
, one of four half centuries. With his tidy and accurate off breaks, Fowler took 49 wickets at a bowling average
of 17.85, with best figures of 7-22 which was one of Fowler's two five wicket hauls, both in 1924.
As well as representing the Army, Fowler also represented the Combined Services
in three first-class matches against the touring Australians in 1921, Essex
in 1922 and the touring South Africans in 1924.
In 1924 Fowler made his first-class debut for Hampshire
against Middlesex
at Lord's
, in the 1924 County Championship
. Fowler played two more matches for the club, all in the same season against the touring South Africans and Middlesex. Fowler scored 106 runs at an average of 17.66, with two half centuries and a high score of 51. Fowler was less successful with the ball for the club, taking only four wickets at an average of 51.50.
Fowler's final first-class match came for the Gentlemen in the Gentlemen v Players
fixture in Blackpool in 1924.
Outside of first-class cricket, he toured North America
with Incogniti
in 1920, where he scored 142 against All Philadelphia
, playing with Douglas Jardine
. The same year Fowler toured Germany
with the Free Foresters
and in 1923 Fowler toured Canada
with them. He played for the Army against Public Schools in 1922, 1923 and 1924, having plaued for Public Schools against the MCC in 1909 and 1910, and for Eton Ramblers. He is regarded as the best Irish cricketer not to have represented Ireland itself.
He was selected to tour New Zealand in 1922/3 in a team led by Archie MacLaren, but the Army refused him leave. He was appointed captain of a proposed MCC tour to West Indies in 1924/5, but the tour was postponed until the following year.
, County Meath
from leukemia
in June 1925. He was 34 years old.
Captain (British Army and Royal Marines)
Captain is a junior officer rank of the British Army and Royal Marines. It ranks above Lieutenant and below Major and has a NATO ranking code of OF-2. The rank is equivalent to a Lieutenant in the Royal Navy and to a Flight Lieutenant in the Royal Air Force...
Robert St Leger Fowler MC
Military Cross
The Military Cross is the third-level military decoration awarded to officers and other ranks of the British Armed Forces; and formerly also to officers of other Commonwealth countries....
(7 April 1891 – 13 June 1925) was an Irish
Irish people
The Irish people are an ethnic group who originate in Ireland, an island in northwestern Europe. Ireland has been populated for around 9,000 years , with the Irish people's earliest ancestors recorded having legends of being descended from groups such as the Nemedians, Fomorians, Fir Bolg, Tuatha...
cricketer
Cricketer
A cricketer is a person who plays the sport of cricket. Official and long-established cricket publications prefer the traditional word "cricketer" over the rarely used term "cricket player"....
, regarded as the best Irish cricketer not to have represented Ireland itself. Fowler was a right-handed batsman who bowled right-arm off break
Off break
Off break is a type of delivery in the sport of cricket. It is the attacking delivery of an off spin bowler. Off breaks are known as off spinners....
. He is perhaps best known for his outstanding all round performance as captain of Eton College
Eton College
Eton College, often referred to simply as Eton, is a British independent school for boys aged 13 to 18. It was founded in 1440 by King Henry VI as "The King's College of Our Lady of Eton besides Wyndsor"....
in the match against Harrow
Eton v Harrow
The Eton v Harrow cricket match is an annual cricket match between Eton College and Harrow School. It one of the longest-running annual cricket fixtures in the world. It is the last annual school cricket match played at Lord's Cricket Ground...
in 1910, with the match commonly referred to as Fowler's match
Fowler's match
Fowler's match is the name given to the two-day Eton v Harrow cricket match held at Lord's on Friday 8 and Saturday 9 July 1910. The match is named after the captain of Eton College, Robert St Leger Fowler, whose outstanding all round batting and bowling performance allowed Eton to win the match...
.
Family
Fowler was born at the his family home at Rahinstown, in EnfieldEnfield, County Meath
Enfield or Innfield is a town in south County Meath, Ireland, situated between Kilcock and Kinnegad and very close to the border with County Kildare...
, County Meath
County Meath
County Meath is a county in Ireland. It is part of the Mid-East Region and is also located in the province of Leinster. It is named after the ancient Kingdom of Mide . Meath County Council is the local authority for the county...
, Ireland. His father Robert Henry Fowler
Robert Henry Fowler
Robert Henry Fowler was an Irish soldier and first-class cricketer of English descent. He died seven weeks before his 100th birthday, making him the longest-lived person to have played international cricket for Ireland...
had attended RMC Sandhurst and joined the British Army
British Army
The British Army is the land warfare branch of Her Majesty's Armed Forces in the United Kingdom. It came into being with the unification of the Kingdom of England and Scotland into the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707. The new British Army incorporated Regiments that had already existed in England...
in 1878, becoming a captain in the King's Shropshire Light Infantry in 1886, and had played one first-class cricket match for Cambridge University
Cambridge University Cricket Club
Cambridge University Cricket Club is a first-class cricket team. It now plays all but one of its first-class cricket matches as part of the Cambridge University Centre of Cricketing Excellence , which includes Anglia Ruskin University...
against 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 1876. His great-great grandfather, also Robert, was Bishop of Ossory
Bishop of Ossory
The Bishop of Ossory is an episcopal title which takes its name after the ancient of Kingdom of Ossory in the Province of Leinster, Ireland. In the Roman Catholic Church it remains a separate title, but in the Church of Ireland it has been united with other bishoprics.-History:The diocese of Ossory...
and then Bishop of Ossory, Ferns and Leighlin
Bishop of Ossory, Ferns and Leighlin
The Bishop of Ossory, Ferns and Leighlin was the Ordinary of the Church of Ireland diocese of Ossory, Ferns and Leighlin in the Ecclesiastical Province of Dublin...
from 1817 until his death in 1841, and his great-great-great grandfather, Robert Fowler
Robert Fowler (archbishop)
Robert Fowler was an Anglo-Irish clergyman. He served as the Archbishop of Dublin in the Church of Ireland from 1779 until his death in 1801.-Life:...
was a Protestant clergyman who settled in Ireland in the 1760s and was Archbishop of Dublin
Archbishop of Dublin
The Archbishop of Dublin may refer to:* Archbishop of Dublin – an article which lists of pre- and post-Reformation archbishops.* Archbishop of Dublin – the title of the senior cleric who presides over the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Dublin....
from 1779 until his death in 1801.
Fowler attended Mr Hawtrey's prep school in Westgate-on-Sea
Westgate-on-Sea
Westgate-on-Sea is a seaside town in northeast Kent, England, with a population of 6,600. It is within the Thanet local government district and borders the larger seaside resort of Margate...
, and then Eton College
Eton College
Eton College, often referred to simply as Eton, is a British independent school for boys aged 13 to 18. It was founded in 1440 by King Henry VI as "The King's College of Our Lady of Eton besides Wyndsor"....
, where was influenced by his housemaster, Cyril Wells
Cyril Wells
Cyril Mowbray Wells was an English cricketer, rugby footballer and schoolmaster....
, an amateur cricketer who played for Middlesex
Middlesex County Cricket Club
Middlesex 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 Middlesex. It was announced in February 2009 that Middlesex changed their limited overs name from the Middlesex Crusaders, to the...
. Fowler played for Eton against Harrow School
Harrow School
Harrow School, commonly known simply as "Harrow", is an English independent school for boys situated in the town of Harrow, in north-west London.. The school is of worldwide renown. There is some evidence that there has been a school on the site since 1243 but the Harrow School we know today was...
in the 1908 and 1909 Eton v Harrow
Eton v Harrow
The Eton v Harrow cricket match is an annual cricket match between Eton College and Harrow School. It one of the longest-running annual cricket fixtures in the world. It is the last annual school cricket match played at Lord's Cricket Ground...
fixtures. Harrow won easily in 1908, and the 1909 fixture was drawn, although Fowler's 11 wickets for 79 runs gave Eton a fighting chance.
Fowler's match
In 1910, Fowler was 19 years old, and captainCaptain (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...
of cricket in his last year at Eton. His performance in the 1910 Eton v Harrow
Eton v Harrow
The Eton v Harrow cricket match is an annual cricket match between Eton College and Harrow School. It one of the longest-running annual cricket fixtures in the world. It is the last annual school cricket match played at Lord's Cricket Ground...
match has become a cricket legend, of such note that the 1910 match has been nicknamed Fowler's match
Fowler's match
Fowler's match is the name given to the two-day Eton v Harrow cricket match held at Lord's on Friday 8 and Saturday 9 July 1910. The match is named after the captain of Eton College, Robert St Leger Fowler, whose outstanding all round batting and bowling performance allowed Eton to win the match...
.
The two-day two-innings cricket match was held at Lord's on Friday 8 and Saturday 9 July 1910. He was one of only three survivors from Eton's 1909 team, but Harrow had seven veterans from the 1909 match and came to the match unbeaten. Before the match, The Times noted that Harrow's captain Guy Earle
Guy Earle
Guy Fife Earle, born at Newcastle upon Tyne on 24 August 1891 and died at Maperton, Wincanton, Somerset, on 30 December 1966, played first-class cricket for Surrey and Somerset for 20 years before and after the First World War...
"bowls extraordinarily fast for a boy" but that "is not deadly on on a good wicket, but can make every use of a difficult one". Also playing in the match was a schoolboy who would become a field-marshal (Alexander), another an air vice-marshal (Blount
Charles Hubert Boulby Blount
Air Vice-Marshal Charles Hubert Boulby Blount CB OBE MC was an English soldier, airman and first-class cricketer. His great-great nephew is singer James Blunt .-Family:...
), and a third an attorney-general (Monckton), together with various sons of nobility.
Harrow won the toss, and batted first, scoring 232. Despite some bad luck, Fowler took 4 wickets. Eton were dismissed early on the second day for 67, with Fowler top scorer on 21, the only Eton batsman to reach double figures. Eton followed on, and subsided to 65-5 shortly after lunch. But Fowler was still batting, and added 42 runs for the sixth wicket with Wigan and 57 runs for the seventh wicket with Boswell. Fowler was eventually out for 64 runs, the highest individual innings in the match, with 8 fours, a three, 10 twos and 9 singles, with Eton one run ahead. Heroic batting by the tenth wicket partnership of Manners and Lister-Kaye gave Eton a slender lead of 55 runs. Fowler's extraordinary bowling took 8 wickets, 5 bowled, to dismiss Harrow for 45, 10 runs short of the target.
Fowler's outstanding all round batting
Batting (cricket)
In the sport of cricket, batting is the act or skill of hitting the cricket ball with a cricket bat to score runs or prevent the loss of one's wicket. A player who is currently batting is denoted as a batsman, while the act of hitting the ball is called a shot or stroke...
and bowling
Bowling (cricket)
In the sport of cricket, bowling is the action of propelling the ball toward the wicket defended by a batsman. A player skilled at bowling is called a bowler; a bowler who is also a competent batsman is known as an all-rounder...
performance allowed Eton to win a match that appeared all but lost after Harrow School
Harrow School
Harrow School, commonly known simply as "Harrow", is an English independent school for boys situated in the town of Harrow, in north-west London.. The school is of worldwide renown. There is some evidence that there has been a school on the site since 1243 but the Harrow School we know today was...
asked Eton to follow on 165 runs in arrears. Wisden
Wisden
The Wisden Group was a group of companies formed by John Wisden & Co Ltd, publishers of Wisden Cricketers' Almanack. As well as John Wisden & Co, the group included the The Wisden Cricketer magazine, Cricinfo – the world's highest traffic cricket website – and the Hawk-Eye computerised...
stated that: "In the whole history of cricket, there has been nothing more sensational" and The Times
The Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
said that "A more exciting match can hardly ever have been played", continuing effusively, with a reference to the inaugural Ashes Test
The Ashes
The Ashes is a Test cricket series played between England and Australia. It is one of the most celebrated rivalries in international cricket and dates back to 1882. It is currently played biennially, alternately in the United Kingdom and Australia. Cricket being a summer sport, and the venues...
at The Oval
The Oval
The Kia Oval, still commonly referred to by its original name of The Oval, is an international cricket ground in Kennington, in the London Borough of Lambeth. In the past it was also sometimes called the Kennington Oval...
in 1882, "to boys the bowling of Fowler was probably more formidable than Spofforth
Fred Spofforth
Frederick Robert "Fred" Spofforth , also known as "The Demon Bowler", was arguably the Australian cricket team's finest pace bowler of the nineteenth century and was the first bowler to take 50 Test wickets, and the first to take a test hat-trick in 1879...
's to England". Fowler ended the match having scored 21 and 64 runs, and taken 4-90 and 8-23. The Times described Fowlers contribution in the following terms: "in the whole history of public school cricket nothing better can have been seen than Fowler's play on the second day".
Army career
Fowler enrolled at Sandhurst in 1910, where he won the Sword of HonourSword of Honour
The Sword of Honour trilogy by Evelyn Waugh is his look at the Second World War. It consists of three novels, Men at Arms , Officers and Gentlemen and Unconditional Surrender , which loosely parallel his wartime experiences...
in 1911. He was commissioned in the 17th Lancers
17th Lancers
The 17th Lancers was a cavalry regiment of the British Army, notable for its participation in the Charge of the Light Brigade in the Crimean War...
.
Fowler served in the First World War as a captain
Captain (British Army and Royal Marines)
Captain is a junior officer rank of the British Army and Royal Marines. It ranks above Lieutenant and below Major and has a NATO ranking code of OF-2. The rank is equivalent to a Lieutenant in the Royal Navy and to a Flight Lieutenant in the Royal Air Force...
in the 17th Lancers. He was awarded the Military Cross
Military Cross
The Military Cross is the third-level military decoration awarded to officers and other ranks of the British Armed Forces; and formerly also to officers of other Commonwealth countries....
in the defence of Amiens in 1918.
He was also British Army rackets champion.
Cricket
Fowler made his first-classFirst-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...
debut for 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...
against Fowler's future club, Hampshire
Hampshire County Cricket Club
Hampshire County Cricket Club represents the historic county of Hampshire in cricket's County Championship. The club was founded in 1863 as a successor to the Hampshire county cricket teams and has played at the Antelope Ground from then until 1885, before moving to the County Ground where it...
. Fowler played two matches for the MCC in 1913, with his final appearance coming against Cambridge University
Cambridge University Cricket Club
Cambridge University Cricket Club is a first-class cricket team. It now plays all but one of its first-class cricket matches as part of the Cambridge University Centre of Cricketing Excellence , which includes Anglia Ruskin University...
.
After the war, Fowler represented the British Army
British Army cricket team
The Army cricket team is a cricket side representing the British Army. The team played a number of first-class matches between 1912 and 1939, although a combined "Army and Navy" side had played two games against a combined Oxford and Cambridge team in 1910 and 1911...
in first-class matches, making his debut against the Royal Navy in 1919. Fowler represented the Army in fifteen first-class matches, making his final appearance for the Army in 1924 against the Royal Navy. In his fifteen matches for the Army, Fowler scored 636 runs at an average
Batting average
Batting average is a statistic in both cricket and baseball that measures the performance of cricket batsmen and baseball hitters. The two statistics are related in that baseball averages are directly descended from the concept of cricket averages.- Cricket :...
of 35.30, with a high score of 92*
Not out
In cricket, a batsman will be not out if he comes out to bat in an innings and has not been dismissed by the end of the innings. One may similarly describe a batsman as not out while the innings is still in progress...
, one of four half centuries. With his tidy and accurate off breaks, Fowler took 49 wickets at a bowling average
Bowling average
Bowling average is a statistic measuring the performance of bowlers in the sport of cricket.A bowler's bowling average is defined as the total number of runs conceded by the bowlers divided by the number of wickets taken by the bowler, so the lower the average the better. It is similar to earned...
of 17.85, with best figures of 7-22 which was one of Fowler's two five wicket hauls, both in 1924.
As well as representing the Army, Fowler also represented the Combined Services
Combined Services cricket team
The Combined Services cricket team represents the British armed forces. The team played at first-class level in England for more than forty years in the mid-twentieth century. Their first first-class match was against Gentlemen of England at Lord's in 1920, while their last was against Oxford...
in three first-class matches against the touring Australians in 1921, Essex
Essex County Cricket Club
Essex 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 Essex. Its limited overs team is called the Essex Eagles, their team colours this season are blue.The club plays most of its home games...
in 1922 and the touring South Africans in 1924.
In 1924 Fowler made his first-class debut for Hampshire
Hampshire County Cricket Club
Hampshire County Cricket Club represents the historic county of Hampshire in cricket's County Championship. The club was founded in 1863 as a successor to the Hampshire county cricket teams and has played at the Antelope Ground from then until 1885, before moving to the County Ground where it...
against Middlesex
Middlesex County Cricket Club
Middlesex 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 Middlesex. It was announced in February 2009 that Middlesex changed their limited overs name from the Middlesex Crusaders, to the...
at Lord's
Lord's Cricket Ground
Lord's Cricket Ground is a cricket venue in St John's Wood, London. Named after its founder, Thomas Lord, it is owned by Marylebone Cricket Club and is the home of Middlesex County Cricket Club, the England and Wales Cricket Board , the European Cricket Council and, until August 2005, the...
, in the 1924 County Championship
County Championship
The County Championship is the domestic first-class cricket competition in England and Wales...
. Fowler played two more matches for the club, all in the same season against the touring South Africans and Middlesex. Fowler scored 106 runs at an average of 17.66, with two half centuries and a high score of 51. Fowler was less successful with the ball for the club, taking only four wickets at an average of 51.50.
Fowler's final first-class match came for the Gentlemen in the Gentlemen v Players
Gentlemen v Players
The Gentlemen v Players game was a first-class cricket match that was generally played on an annual basis between one team consisting of amateurs and one of professionals . The first two games took place in 1806 but the fixture was not revived until 1819. It was more or less annual thereafter...
fixture in Blackpool in 1924.
Outside of first-class cricket, he toured North America
North America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
with Incogniti
Incogniti
The Incogniti cricket club was founded in 1861, claims to be the third oldest "wandering" cricket club – a nomadic cricket club without its own home ground – after I Zingari and Free Foresters ....
in 1920, where he scored 142 against All 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...
, playing with Douglas Jardine
Douglas Jardine
Douglas Robert Jardine was an English cricketer and captain of the England cricket team from 1931 to 1933–34.When describing cricket seasons, the convention used is that a single year represents an English cricket season, while two years represent a southern hemisphere cricket season because it...
. The same year Fowler toured Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
with the Free Foresters
Free Foresters Cricket Club
Free Foresters Cricket Club is an English amateur cricket club, established in 1856 for players from the Midland counties of England. It is a 'wandering' club, having no home ground....
and in 1923 Fowler toured Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
with them. He played for the Army against Public Schools in 1922, 1923 and 1924, having plaued for Public Schools against the MCC in 1909 and 1910, and for Eton Ramblers. He is regarded as the best Irish cricketer not to have represented Ireland itself.
He was selected to tour New Zealand in 1922/3 in a team led by Archie MacLaren, but the Army refused him leave. He was appointed captain of a proposed MCC tour to West Indies in 1924/5, but the tour was postponed until the following year.
Early death
Fowler died at Rahinstown, EnfieldEnfield, County Meath
Enfield or Innfield is a town in south County Meath, Ireland, situated between Kilcock and Kinnegad and very close to the border with County Kildare...
, County Meath
County Meath
County Meath is a county in Ireland. It is part of the Mid-East Region and is also located in the province of Leinster. It is named after the ancient Kingdom of Mide . Meath County Council is the local authority for the county...
from leukemia
Leukemia
Leukemia or leukaemia is a type of cancer of the blood or bone marrow characterized by an abnormal increase of immature white blood cells called "blasts". Leukemia is a broad term covering a spectrum of diseases...
in June 1925. He was 34 years old.
External links
- Robert Fowler at CricinfoCricinfoESPNcricinfo is believed to be the largest cricket-related website on the World Wide Web. Content includes news,articles, live scorecards,live text commentary and a comprehensive and searchable database called 'StatsGuru', of historical matches and players from the 18th century to the present...
- Robert Fowler at CricketArchiveCricketArchiveCricketArchive 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...
- Matches and detailed statistics for Robert Fowler
- Profile of Robert Fowler
- Wisden obituary, 1926