Arthur Pothecary

Arthur Ernest "Sam" Pothecary (1 March 1906 – 21 May 1991) was an English first-class cricketer who made 271 appearances in first-class cricket for Hampshire between 1927 and 1946, scoring over 9,000 runs. He later stood as an umpire in first-class cricket between 1949 and 1958.

Cricket career Playing career The son of the Southampton footballer Arthur Pothecary senior, he was born in Southampton in March 1906. Towards the end of the 1920s, Hampshire were looking to bring in replacements for the ageing Phil Mead, George Brown, Jack Newman and Alec Kennedy. with Pothecary being one such player bought into the Hampshire team. He made his debut in first-class cricket for Hampshire against Surrey at The Oval in the 1927 County Championship. He impressed on debut, scoring 24 runs batting at number eleven, while also taking four wickets in Surrey's second innings, including those of Jack Hobbs and Andy Sandham. He made just three first-class appearances in 1928, before making ten in 1929.

Beginning in 1932, his consistency with the bat began to improve. The following season he narrowly missed out on scoring a thousand runs in consecutive seasons, before seeing his average drop below 20 during the 1935 season. In 1937, he made his career-highest first-class score of 130 against the touring New Zealanders at Bournemouth. where he played services cricket in Egypt. In also in played exhibition matches for the London Counties cricket team during the war. Pothecary returned to play for Hampshire following the end of the war, making three appearances in the 1946 County Championship. With his part-time slow left-arm orthodox bowling, which had shown promise early in his career, He often fielded at cover-point, taking 46 catches during his career. He was appointed to the first-class umpires list ahead of the 1949 season, with Pothecary standing in his first match in the 1949 County Championship fixture between Middlesex and Northamptonshire at Lord's. He stood in 254 first-class matches until 1958, with Pothecary leaving the list in April 1959 in order to take up other employment.

Later life and death After stepping down from the first-class umpires list, Pothecary began an 18-year spell as head groundsman of the Royal Air Force Sports Ground in Uxbridge. He combined this with his coaching at the Chiswick Indoor Cricket School during the 1960s. In 1989, he had a leg amputated, with Pothecary later dying in May 1991 at a nursing home in Iver, Buckinghamshire. His uncle, Sidney Pothecary, was also a first-class cricketer.