The Stoics C.C.

Andrew Stoddart
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Andrew Stoddart
England (Eng)

Batting style Right-handed batsman (RHB)
Bowling type Right-arm medium
Tests First-class
Matches 16 309
Runs scored 996 16738
Batting average 35.57 31.12
100s/50s 2/3 26/85
Top score 173 221
Balls bowled 162 14717
Wickets 2 278
Bowling average 47.00 23.63
5 wickets in innings 0 10
10 wickets in match 0 2
Best bowling 1/10 7/67
Catches/stumpings 6/0 257/0
Test debut: 10 February 1888
Last Test: 2 February 1898
Source: [1]


Andrew Ernest Stoddart (11 March 1863 – 4 April 1915) was an English cricketer and rugby union player. He was a Wisden Cricketer of the Year in 1893.

Born in South Shields, County Durham, he was the son of a wine merchant, who left for London in 1877. Stoddart made his reputation in club cricket and was playing for Middlesex by 1885. He played 16 Test matches captaining England in 8 games of which he won 3, lost 4 and drew 1. He was a flamboyant right-handed batsman and a medium fast bowler.

When he was 23, just a year after his first class debut, he was toying with the idea of giving up his amateur career in England to join his brother in Colorado. His plans changed when he took the record for the highest ever score in cricket at the time with an innings of 485 for Hampstead against Stoics on August 4 1886. No declarations were allowed in the game and the Stoics, living up to their name, fielded all day without a chance to bat. Stoddart was seventh out, having batted six hours and ten minutes and clubbed one eight, three fives, and 64 fours. The runs were scored at a rapid pace - the score was 370 for 3 at lunch after 150 minutes of play. He made 207 for Hampstead in the next match three days later and on August 9 was playing for Middlesex and made 98, a grand total of 790 runs in a week. Stoddart was a man with a great zest for life in his younger days. He had danced then played cards till dawn before the Stoics game, batted almost through Hampstead's innings of 813, then played tennis, went to the theatre and turned in at 3 a.m. His next innings was against Kent when he posted his maiden first class century in scoring 116.

A talented all round sportsman, like most men who have held the record for the highest individual score, he also played in 10 rugby union internationals for England. With fellow cricketers Alfred Shaw and Arthur Shrewsbury he helped organise what became recognised as the first British Lions rugby union tour of Australia 1888/89. The team played 55 matches, winning 27 of 35 rugby union games and 6 out of 18 matches played under Australian rules with Stoddart one of the outstanding players. He took over the captaincy early in the tour when the R. L. Seddon died tragically in a sculling accident.

Like many whole hearted sportsmen, including fellow England captain Arthur Shrewsbury with whom he had opened the batting in Australia in 1893, he found life difficult after leaving the arena. In failing health and burdened by debt he committed suicide, by firearm, in London in 1915. A street in South Shields is named after him.