Edward Stocks

Edward William Stocks (27 May 1856 – 26 October 1876) was an English cricketer and athlete who played in four first-class cricket matches for Cambridge University, two each in the seasons of 1875 and 1876.[1] He was born and died at Norwich, Norfolk.

The son of the vice-master of the King's College Grammar School at Norwich, Stocks was educated after the death of his father at the Clergy Orphans' School, Canterbury and at St Catharine's College, Cambridge.[2] As a cricketer, he was a right-handed lower-order batsman and a right-arm medium-pace bowler in the roundarm style.[1] He had little success in his matches for Cambridge University, scoring just 18 runs in five innings and failing to take a wicket in eight overs, and he was not picked for the University Match against Oxford University in either of his two first-class seasons.[1] He did, however, win a Blue in athletics in both 1875 and 1876, competing in the long jump.[2]

Stocks' final cricket match of minor status was for Norfolk against Suffolk in August 1876, when he opened both the batting and the bowling.[3] He died two months after this game, at the age of just 20.