Johnny Briggs (cricketer)
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| Batting style | Right-handed batsman | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Bowling style | Slow left-arm orthodox | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Johnny Briggs (3 October 1862 – 11 January 1902) was an English left arm spin bowler who played for Lancashire County Cricket Club between 1879 and 1900 and remains the second-highest wicket-taker in the county's history after Brian Statham. In the early days of Test cricket, Briggs was one of the most successful bowlers, proving deadly whenever wickets were affected by rain, whilst both for his county and country his batting – though at times too careless – was very useful. He was the first bowler in Test cricket to take 100 wickets, and held the record of most wickets in Test cricket on two occasions, the first in 1895 and again from 1898 until 1904, when he was succeeded by Hugh Trumble. He toured Australia a record six times, a feat only equalled by Colin Cowdrey.
Briggs was a notably short man at about five feet five or 165 centimetres. Briggs's skill lay in his ability to vary the flight and pace of the ball as well as in achieving prodigious spin on the primitive pitches of the nineteenth century. As a batsman, Briggs was capable of hitting very effectively, but as time went by an eagerness to punish every ball set in and led to a decline.
Briggs was born in Sutton-in-Ashfield, Nottinghamshire, the son of a professional club cricketer and he first played as a sub pro at the age of 13 (at Hornsea in Yorkshire). His father James played cricket and rugby for various teams and took his wife and five children around the north of England until he settled down as a pub landlord near Widnes. The 1881 census suggests James kept the Cross Keys at Appleton village.
Rugby was an amateur game at this time. James and later Johnny played rugby for Widnes but supported themselves through professional cricket. James became cricket professional at Widnes in 1877.
Johnny remained with Hornsea until the end of the 1877 season, when he was not retained, and migrated to Lancashire. His next professional appointment was at the Northern Cricket Club in 1878. He was retained by Northern for the 1879 season, during which he was called up by Lancashire to make his county debut against Nottinghamshire in late May.
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