Brought to book

Richard White has just left a comment on my Geoff Lawson essay, in which I refer to Lawson's nickname of Henry, after the Australian poet, and suggest that this shows a certain classiness and cultural awareness by Lawson's team-mates. It wouldn't happen in England, I claimed, thinking of the various Bellys and Collys and Gilesys of recent vintage.

Richard suggests that maybe we just haven't had players who share their surnames with English literary greats. No Shakespeares, Byrons or Brownings ever played for England, he says, although I'm sure that if there were a Geoff Shakespeare plying his trade in England today his nickname would probably be Shakey or Shakers rather than "William" or "The Bard".

Actually, there was a William Shakespeare who played a few games of county cricket for Worcestershire in the 1920s. His middle name was Nelson, which suggests a certain ambition for the infant by his parents. Shame he didn't quite cut it. Don't know what his nickname was.

There have been quite a few fine writers who were decent cricketers. PG Wodehouse, Arthur Conan-Doyle and Samuel Beckett spring to mind (click the links to see matches they played in). But what about English cricketers who shared a surname with literary greats? There are a few, even if I can't find a Dickens, Keats or even a Rowling of good enough quality as a cricketer. Here is my Literary XI, let me know if you think of more. Wonder how many of them were given their literary nickname?

Syd "DH" (or even "TE") Lawrence
Jack "Thomas" Hobb(e)s
Ian "Jane" Austin (a mis-spelling, I know, but it works phonetically)
Dennis "Kingsley" Amiss (Ditto)
Geoff "Henry" (or "Arthur") Miller
Chris "Douglas" Adams
Chris "CS" Lewis
Ed "James" Joyce
Ali "Dan" Brown
Ed "Alexander McCall" Smith
Matthew "H Rider" Hoggard (stretching the point a bit here)

There are also a couple of international cricketers who had literary forebears. Matthew Fleming, former England one-day player, was the nephew of James Bond's creator, while Lionel Tennyson, who captained England in 1921, was the grandson of the poet. Lord Tennyson died when the future England captain was fairly young and Lionel later said his only childhood memory of his illustrious forebear was "a giant beard at the end of the bed".

Comments

[HP]

There are a few cricketers who share the names of characters from books. Snape, for instance!

[Kingsley Smith]

Arthur Milton?

[jeffrey bird]

don't forget george bernard shaw who played for glamorgan in the 1950s

[Angus]

JM Barry was a big cricketer. Remember that scene in Finding Neverland? Johnny Depp is a very fine actor, but even he couldn't play a convincing cover drive.

[DIck Brandlon]

But who knows whether there is a great Indian poet named Ganguly lurking in the jungles of Mumbai or some incredibly gifted writer going by the name of Gooch who is just waiting to be discovered?
DB

[DeloreanGray]

Some other alternative nicknames:

RWT 'The' Key 'The Secret'
RS 'Bill' Clinton
Paul 'Admril' Collingwood
GP 'Jeremy' Thorpe
Gavin Hamilton 'Academical'
DA 'Christopher' Reeve
SCJ 'Norfolk' Broad(s)
Ishant 'Simon' Sharma
Ryan 'Mercedes' Mcclaren
Matthew Walker 'Brothers'
ARC 'Roadside' Fraser