November 19, 1935. Hon Frederick Somerset Gough Calthorpe, the man who captained England in their first Test in the West Indies, passed away at the young age of 43. Arunabha Sengupta looks back at the life and career of this useful amateur all-rounder.
In cricket he had halted a march towards eternity and boarded a ship for home. And merely six years later, destiny called a halt on his time in the world and he boarded the boat of Charon across Styx and Acheron.
The Hon Freddie Calthorpe hailed from the Gough-Calthorpe family — ancient landowners around Birmingham, at one point of time the Lords of the Manor of Edgbaston. It was not surprising that after a dismal pre-War stint with Sussex, this scion of the noble line threw in his lot with Warwickshire and became the captain of the county.
Born on May 27, 1892, Calthorpe was an outstanding schoolboy cricketer at Repton. In 1911, he was described as the backbone of the side’s bowling.
With maturity he also became a batsman of style and fluency with forcing strokes on the off-side. Moving forward and back with equal ease, he could use his feet to cream when the ball was pitched in his zone, and move back to cut if shorter. He backed it up with some effective medium pace bowling. His run-up was complicated — it was often described as corkscrew — but he generated enough movement with the new ball to harry the best of batsmen.
After school, Calthorpe attended the Jesus College, Cambridge and got his Blue as a freshman. During the next two years, he represented the university and hovered on the fringes of captaincy. Against Oxford in 1914, he picked up five for 43 in the second innings. Away from Fenner’s, he made his debut for Sussex, but the results were not too encouraging.
At this time the Great War intervened and Calthorpe served in the Royal Air Force. When the atrocities ended, he rejoined Cambridge and would have captained the side but for an erring postal service that misplaced the invitation letter.
From 1919, Calthorpe represented Warwickshire and became the captain of the county side the following year. He remained the skipper for the next nine years.
The mantle of leadership sat well with him, as he proceeded to capture exactly 100 wickets that season. He also scored 1025 with the bat to complete the double.
For the next few years, he remained a very useful all-rounder. In 1922, he captured four for four as he and Harry Howell skittled Hampshire for just 15 at Edgbaston. That winter he went to Australia and New Zealand with the MCC side led by Archie MacLaren.
Calthorpe’s best year was perhaps 1925 when he scored 1,546 runs at just over 30 and captured 57 wickets at 33.82. The performances of that summer saw him being selected for the Gentlemen in their traditional showdown against the Players at Lord’s. He opened the innings against Maurice Tate and Harry Howell and scored 63 while also taking three second innings wickets.
That winter, Calthorpe took the MCC team to West Indies and led with panache and enthusiasm, punctuating his captaincy with some useful performances.
Calling halt on Timelessness
By 1929 Calthorpe was past his best, but once again led an MCC side to West Indies — for the first ever Test series to be played in the islands. As a result he became one of the few men to lead his country on debut. England made history by fielding sides in two Test matches simultaneously — Harold Gilligan led another team against the New Zealanders.
Calthorpe did nothing special with either bat or ball. His 129 runs at 18.42 and one solitary wicket for 91 runs read very ordinary and also stand as the output of his entire Test career. However, he attained immortality in cricketing folklore because of the last Test at Kingston.
It was a timeless Test and weather diluted the affair by bloating the match into an eight day encounter. Even then the result seemed far, far away. England had scored 849 in the first innings, and West Indies 286, but Calthorpe had not enforced follow on. Set a farcical 836 to win, the hosts were 408 for five at the end of the sixth day. The seventh and eighth were washed away by rain. At this stage, the match was abandoned as England had to catch the boat home.
Later EW Swanton described Calthorpe’s decision as ‘extraordinary’.
Calthorpe continued to enjoy the game, even though by the 1930s he was no longer making runs or bowling. He also became a scratch golfer with the Worplesdon Club and was the founder of the Cricketer’s Golf Society. He was also instrumental in establishing the Folkestone Cricket Festival.
He played his last match in September 1935, leading MCC against Kent. Just about a month after this game, Calthorpe fell ill and never recovered. He died on November 19, 1935, aged just 43.
His 12,596 runs at 24.03 with 13 hundreds and 782 wickets at 29.91 mark him out as an efficient, if not spectacular, all-rounder. Besides, the energy with which he led a rather ordinary Warwickshire outfit went a long way in shaping the future of the county.
Son of Lord Frederick Gough-Calthorpe, the 8th Baron Calthorpe, he was heir to the title. However, he did not live long enough for that.
Some of the infectious enthusiasm Calthorpe brought to the game can be estimated from the jovial broadcasts of his nephew Henry Blofeld.