John Snow (cricketer)

John Snow

Personal information

Full name

John Augustine Snow

Born

13 October 1941 (age 75)
Peopleton, Worcestershire, England

Nickname

Snowey, The Abominable Snowman

Height

5 ft 11 in (1.80 m)

Batting style

Right-handed

Bowling style

Right-arm fast

Role

Bowler

International information

National side

England

Test debut (cap 428)

17 June 1965 v New Zealand

Last Test

27 July 1976 v West Indies

ODI debut (cap 11)

5 January 1971 v Australia

Last ODI

18 June 1975 v Australia

Domestic team information

Years

Team

1961–77

Sussex

1980

Warwickshire

Career statistics

Competition	Test	ODIs	FC	LA
Matches	49	9	346	182
Runs scored	772	9	4,832	1,209
Batting average	13.54	4.50	14.17	12.86
100s/50s	–/2	–/–	–/11	–/2
Top score	73	5*	73*	57
Balls bowled	12,021	538	60,995	8,882
Wickets	202	14	1,174	251
Bowling average	26.66	16.57	22.73	19.34
5 wickets in innings	6	n/a	56	2
10 wickets in match	1	n/a	9	n/a
Best bowling	7/40	4/11	8/87	5/15
Catches/stumpings	16/–	47/–	125/–	34/–

Source: CricketArchive, 15 July 2009

John Augustine Snow (born 13 October 1941) is a retired English cricketer. He played for Sussex and England in the 1960s and 1970s. Despite being the son of a country vicar and publishing two volumes of poetry, Snow was England's most formidable fast bowler between Fred Trueman and Bob Willis and played Test Matches with both of them at either end of his career. He is known for bowling England to victory against the West Indies in 1967–68 and Australia in 1970–71 and was a Wisden Cricketer of the Year in 1973.

Snow was involved in several on-field incidents stemming from his aggressive, short-pitched bowling. He was considered difficult to handle, had definite ideas on how and when he should bowl and was disciplined by both Sussex and England, but perfectly fitted the public image of a fiery fast bowler. His disdain for the cricketing authorities at Sussex and Lord's was aptly summed up in his autobiography Cricket Rebel as was his decision to play for Kerry Packer's World Series Cricket in 1977–79.

Snow was born in Peopleton, Worcestershire, the son of a Scottish vicar who soon after took up a living in the Diocese of Worcester at the village of Elmley Castle. When he was born his grandfather, a cricket coach, rang his father in Scotland to announce that "It's a young cricketer!" and he was given a cricket bat to chew when he was a baby. He learned how to play in the three-acre grounds of the vicarage with his father, mother, grandfather and three sisters and later in village matches. Snow's rural childhood was completely unaffected by the war or rationing and he used to chop down trees for firewood, excellent exercise for the muscles needed for fast bowling (Frank Tyson was once a tree-feller). First educated at Christ's Hospital, he moved to Chichester High School for Boys the year before his father became vicar at nearby Bognor Regis, where he was trained by the Warwickshire batsman Len Bates. Living in Sussex he joined the Bognor Colts, as had Peter May and David Sheppard before him, and had the great honour of being bowled by Frank Worrell when they played Antilles. He also began playing games for the Sussex Young Amateurs and Junior Marletts. As a teenager he had been a better batsman than a bowler, but as more boys wanted to bat than bowl he concentrated on the latter. After school he attended Culham Teachers Training College near Abingdon, but his studies suffered as he played more First Class Cricket. He played rugby throughout his teens, but gave up the game in 1961 as it interfered with his cricket career.

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