Personal information | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Full name | Henry Knollys Foster | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Born |
Malvern, Worcestershire, England |
30 October 1873||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Died | 23 June 1950 Kingsthorne, Herefordshire, England |
(aged 76)||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Batting style | Right-handed | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Bowling style | Right-arm fast-medium | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Domestic team information | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Years | Team | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
1894–1896 | Oxford University | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
1897–1909 | Marylebone Cricket Club | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
1899–1925 | Worcestershire | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
First-class debut | 21 May 1894 Oxford University v AJ Webbe's XI | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Last First-class | 19 August 1925 Worcestershire v Middlesex | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Career statistics | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Source: CricketArchive, 14 October 2012 |
Henry Knollys "Harry" Foster MBE, (30 October 1873 at Malvern, Worcestershire – 23 June 1950 at Kingsthorne, Herefordshire), was a cricketer who played for Oxford University and Worcestershire. He first played for Worcestershire in 1888 at the age of only 14 years old.
The oldest of seven brothers who played cricket for Worcestershire, Harry Foster was a forceful right-handed middle-order batsman who acted as captain at Worcestershire for 11 of the first 12 season in which the county competed in the County Championship. He was also for many of those seasons second only to his brother R.E. "Tip" Foster as the county's leading batsman.
Educated at Malvern College, Foster matriculated at Trinity College, Oxford in 1892, and first played first-class cricket at Oxford. Not picked for any matches at all in 1893, he won a Blue against Cambridge in each of the next three seasons. In the Varsity match of 1895, he scored 121 in two hours as Oxford, set a target of 331 to win, reached just 196 all out.
Foster captained Worcestershire in the county's very first Championship match in 1899 and led the side every season until 1910, except for 1901. He scored 1,000 runs in a season eight times, and five times averaged more than 40 runs per innings. Among his 29 first-class centuries, he hit 216 against Somerset in 1903 — the first double hundred for Worcestershire in first-class cricket —and 215 against Warwickshire in 1908, both at Worcester.
Unlike his brother R.E. "Tip" Foster, Harry Foster did not play Test cricket, but he led the amateur side in both Gentlemen v Players matches in 1910, and was named as a Wisden Cricketer of the Year in 1911. He stood down as Worcestershire captain after 1910, but returned for the 1913 season. He then played intermittently until 1925, when he finally retired. In 1907, 1912 and again after the First World War, he acted as an England selector.