George Collins (cricketer, born 1889)

George Christopher Collins (21 September 1889 – 23 January 1949) was an English cricketer, who played first-class cricket for Kent County Cricket Club and Marylebone Cricket Club.[1]

Born in Gravesend, Kent, Collins played at both Gravesend and at Cobham, where his father Christopher had played under the captaincy of Ivo Bligh, 8th Earl of Darnley.[2] His father was subsequently groundsman at the Bat and Ball Ground, Gravesend and later ran a sports outfitters in the town, so it was natural that son should follow father into cricket.[3] He played for junior Kent sides from the age of 16,[3] and made his first-class debut during the 1911 season, in a match against Gloucestershire played in Gravesend.[4]

Described in his Wisden obituary as "a splendid right-arm fast bowler and a useful left-handed batsman",[2] Collins appeared in 218 first-class matches, taking 379 wickets and scoring 6,280 runs.[5] He also occasionally kept wicket, claiming a stumping off the bowling of Tich Freeman in a 1922 fixture against Yorkshire.[6]

His best bowling performance was in 1922, when after taking six wickets in Nottinghamshire's first innings in a match at Dover's Crabble Athletic Ground, he took all ten wickets in their second innings to bowl Kent to an innings victory.[2][7] His match figures of 16 for 83 were the second-best match figures for Kent at the time, and remain to this day the sixth-best in the county's history.[8]

Outside cricket Collins was a bellringer at Milton-next-Gravesend and an article in The Ringing World published on 2 May 1913 described him as "hold[ing] the distinction of being, perhaps, the only first-class cricketer who is a bellringer in this country", a photograph was included with the article. A note on a later page of the same issue stated that former Australian captain, Monty Noble, was also a ringer, and had visited a number of towers in England during his tours.[3]