John Lester
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| Batting style | Right-handed batsman | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Bowling style | Right-arm slow | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Source: Cricket Archive | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
John Ashby Lester (August 1, 1871 – September 3, 1969) was an American cricketer, active in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Lester was one of the Philadelphian cricketers who played from the end of the 19th century until the outbreak of World War I. His obituary in Wisden Cricketers' Almanack, described him as "one of the great figures in American cricket." During his career, he played in 53 matches for the Philadelphians, 47 of which are considered first class. From 1897 until his retirement in 1908, Lester led the batting averages in Philadelphia and captained all the international home matches.
Lester was born in Penrith, Cumberland, England in 1871. He began playing cricket at a very young age. He was playing a game in Yorkshire in 1892 when he met Dr. Isaac Sharpless. Sharpless was the president of Haverford College, and invited him to the United States to attend the school. In his early days as a student in Cumberland's Ackworth School, he had been described as a "very indifferent batsman". It was only after entering Haverford that he developed his batting style. As a student at Haverford, Lester excelled as an athlete and a scholar and played football, track, tennis, and soccer. During his freshman year, he averaged 100.5 runs per innings. Lester also won the Cope Bat every year during his time at Haverford. In his final season with the school in 1896, he scored 1,185 total runs and took 40 wickets for averages of 79 and 23.2, respectively. He also captained Haverford on their first overseas tour, scoring 105 against the MCC on his first appearance at Lord's. On this tour, he created a great impression with an average of over 84 and prepared himself for the Philadelphian's tour of England the following year.
The tour undertaken by the Philadelphian cricketers was very ambitious. Though the results might have been less satisfactory than hoped for by its promoters, the tour was arranged mainly for educational purposes and few of those on the American side expected to win many matches. Previous tours had tended to involve amateur English sides as opponents, with a low level of competition. In 1897 a schedule was prepared including all of the top county cricket teams, the Oxford and Cambridge University teams, the Marylebone Cricket Club, and two other sides, though only a few of the counties thought it worthwhile to put their best elevens onto the field. Starting on June 7 at Oxford, the tour lasted for two months and ended in late July at The Oval. While it initially aroused some curiosity, many English fans lost interest until John Lester and the Philadelphians met the full Sussex team at Brighton on June 17. Behind a dominant bowling performance by Bart King, Lester helped to seal the victory with his batting. In the first innings, Lester and King were partners in a fourth-wicket stand of 107, with Lester top-scoring with 92. He continued in the second innings with 34 not out.
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