Geoffrey Collins (cricketer, born 1909)
![]() Collins in about 1933 | |||||||||||||||
Personal information | |||||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Full name | Geoffrey Albert Kirwan Collins | ||||||||||||||
Born | Hove, Sussex | 16 May 1909||||||||||||||
Died | 7 August 1968 Hove, Sussex | (aged 59)||||||||||||||
Batting | Right-handed | ||||||||||||||
Domestic team information | |||||||||||||||
Years | Team | ||||||||||||||
1928–1934 | Sussex | ||||||||||||||
FC debut | 21 July 1928 Sussex v Northants | ||||||||||||||
Last FC | 20 June 1934 Sussex v Oxford University | ||||||||||||||
Career statistics | |||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||
Source: [1], 25 March 2019 |
Geoffrey Albert Kirwan Collins (16 May 1909 – 7 August 1968) was an English cricketer active from 1928 to 1934 who played for Sussex County Cricket Club between 1928 and 1934.
Collins was born at Hove in Sussex[1] and educated at Lancing College where he played in the school cricket team. In his final year at school he made four centuries, including a score of 212, and went on to make his first-class cricket debut for Sussex later in the same season.[2] As a schoolboy, Collins was described as "making all the strokes" with his only major defect being "an occasional failure in patience".[3]
He appeared in 50 first-class matches between 1928 and 1934 as a right-handed batsman, scoring 1,140 runs with a highest score of 90 runs. As well as playing for Sussex he made one first-class appearance for MCC in 1931,[4] but after 1934 his business commitments restricted him to playing club cricket.[2] As well as playing cricket, Collins also played football for Lancing Old Boys and Corinthian Casuals F.C.[2]
During World War II Collins joined the Royal Artillery from the Honourable Artillery Company. He reached the rank of Lt. Col. with 90 Heavy Anti-Aircraft Regiment and served in the North-West Europe Campaign of 1944–45, including the Liberation of Antwerp and crossing the Rhine. He was awarded a Military Cross in 1946.[5] He died suddenly in August 1969 at Hove aged 59.[1][2]
References
[edit]- ^ a b Geoffrey Collins, CricInfo. Retrieved 2019-03-25.
- ^ a b c d Collins, Geoffrey Albert Kirwan, Obituaries in 1968, Wisden Cricketers' Almanack, 1969. Retrieved 2019-03-25.
- ^ Podmore A (1929) Public school cricket in 1928, Wisden Cricketers' Almanack, 1929, pp.290–291. (Available online. Retrieved 2019-03-25.)
- ^ Geoffrey Collins, CricketArchive. Retrieved 2019-03-25.
- ^ Recommendation for Award for Collins, Geoffrey Albert Kirwan Rank: Captain,..., The National Archives, ref:WO 373/56/568. Retrieved 2019-03-25.
External links
[edit]- 1909 births
- 1968 deaths
- English cricketers
- Sussex cricketers
- Marylebone Cricket Club cricketers
- Military personnel from East Sussex
- British Army personnel of World War II
- Honourable Artillery Company officers
- Royal Artillery officers
- Recipients of the Military Cross
- Sportspeople from Hove
- Cricketers from East Sussex
- English cricket biography, 1900s birth stubs