deliveries death_date columns catches/stumpings year birth_date bowling tenfor country death_place club fivefor batting name fullname birth_place column source date runs wickets s/s matches article_title
balls 15,323 20 may 1982 1 60/0 1928/29 ; 1939 1947 2008 & ndash ; 1930/31 1930/31 1934 & ndash 1 august 1907 right arm fast-medium 2 england mare hill , pulborough , sussex , england europeans madras essex worcestershire 16 right-handed john stephenson john william arthur stephenson hong kong fc http://cricketarchive.com/archive/players/5/5310/5310.html cricketarchive 1907 8 1 yes 2,582 312 2/8 103 john stephenson -lrb- cricketer , born 1907 -rrb-

john stephenson -lrb- cricketer , born 1907 -rrb-

lieutenant-colonel john william arthur stephenson dso -lrb- 1 august 1907 -- 20 may 1982 -rrb- was a hong-kong-born english cricketer who played first-class cricket in both india and england from the late 1920s until shortly after the second world war .
his `` wisden '' obituarist opined that `` there would always have been fewer empty grounds '' had more players been like him .
he was also a british army officer , who saw service in the second world war .
stephenson was educated at clayesmore school .
on 2 february 1928 , after having played some games for buckinghamshire in the 1927 minor counties championship while training at the royal military college , sandhurst , he was commissioned as a second lieutenant into the middlesex regiment .
posted to india , he made his first-class cricket debut for the europeans against the muslims at bombay gymkhana in the 1928/29 bombay quadrangular tournament , scoring 17 and 42 runs as well as taking 2 for 24 in the second innings .
in his next match , against parsees , he scored his maiden century , hitting 135 in the first innings .
he played one more game for europeans that season , then two more the following year , without much success .
in 1930/31 he played for madras against the maharajkumar of vizianagram 's xi , then returned to the europeans side and produced a good all-round display against indians , making 117 -lrb- he never made another first-class century -rrb- and taking six wickets in an innings victory .
stephenson was promoted to lieutenant on 2 february 1931 , and returned to england later that year .
he again turned out for buckinghamshire , but in august made his english first-class debut for the army against mcc at lord 's .
in a low-scoring match , his 20 not out in the second innings helped guide the army to a four-wicket win .
over the next couple of seasons , he mixed further appearances for the army -lrb- although not achieving any particular success -rrb- with continued appearances for buckinghamshire .
he began 1934 with a game for free foresters against cambridge university at fenner 's in early june , and took 4-99 in the first innings ; at that stage his best innings return .
a few days later , stephenson commenced the essex career which he would continue until the outbreak of war .
his most successful season was 1936 , in which he recorded his highest aggregates of both runs -lrb- 521 at 18.60 -rrb- and wickets -lrb- 84 at 22.19 -rrb- .
that summer also saw him record his best bowling figures , when he claimed 9-46 for the gentlemen against the players at lord 's , which remains the best innings return ever recorded for the gentlemen .
following this performance , there was talk that stephenson might be preferred to bill copson for the ashes tour that winter , but it was not to be .
stephenson was promoted to captain on 12 april 1937 , and for the 1937 and 1938 cricket seasons his army duties precluded his playing a full season of cricket , but he continued to turn out for essex when he could , and managed about 50 wickets in each season .
in 1939 he played much more , and acted as captain on a number of occasions , one of three players so employed by essex that year .
stephenson retired from the army on 1 july 1939 , but the outbreak of war soon saw him recalled .
during the war he continued to serve with the middlesex regiment , rising to the war substantive rank of major , and as a temporary lieutenant-colonel he commanded the 1/7th battalion of the regiment in north africa .
for his leadership of the battalion -lrb- which formed the machine gun battalion of the 51st -lrb- highland -rrb- infantry division -rrb- at the second battle of alamein and during the subsequent advance on tripoli -- and particularly for his actions at corradini and during the attack on the mareth line -- the divisional commander , major-general douglas wimberley , recommended him for an immediate award of the distinguished service order -lrb- dso -rrb- .
the recommendation for the award describes how he personally ensured that the battalion supported the infantry , sometimes leading individual companies under heavy fire , and his carrying out of reconnaissance under fire .
the commander of eighth army -lrb- the desert rats -rrb- , general bernard montgomery , endorsed the recommendation with the words , `` i very strongly recommend this award '' .
the award of the dso was gazetted on 17 june 1943 .
stephenson was also subsequently mentioned in despatches on 13 january 1944 .
he did not continue in active service after the war , he was promoted to substantive major in the reserve of officers on 1 january 1949 , and granted honorary rank as a lieutenant-colonel at the same time .
he remained in the reserve until he reached the age limit for service on 6 november 1957 .
the second world war also effectively ended his cricket career , although he did play three first-class matches afterwards .
the first of these , for england against the australian services in may 1945 , was in fact the first first-class game to have been played in england since 1939 , and stephenson took 5-116 in the first innings .
he also played a single match for worcestershire against leicestershire in may 1947 , and finally one game for south v glamorgan at the end of 1948 , though he did nothing remarkable in either match .
