Freddie Knott

Frederick Hammett Knott (30 October 1891 – 10 February 1972), known as Freddie Knott, was an English amateur cricketer. Knott played for Oxford University Cricket Club and Kent County Cricket Club in the years before the First World War. He played occasionally after the war, including once for Sussex in 1926.

Knott was considered one of cricket's brightest schoolboy talents at Tonbridge School but had a more disappointing time at Oxford. He also played varsity rugby union and was a fine all-round sportsman, later becoming a scratch golfer. He served in the British Army in both World Wars and won the Military Cross after being wounded in Macedonia in 1917.

Early life Knott was born in Tunbridge Wells, the eldest child of the Reverend Frederick George Knott and his wife Alice. His father was the first Headmaster at Skinners' School in the town. Knott attended Tonbridge School between 1905 and 1910 where he played cricket, captaining the school team in his final year, as well as rugby union and racquets and represented the school in gymnastics. He was a number of school exhibition scholarships and went up to Brasenose College, Oxford in 1910. He was considered a considerable talent with Charles Toppin writing that "seldom, if ever, have the doings of a school boy caused so much interest in the cricket world". His "watchfulness and strength of his back play" were considered his greatest strengths as a batsman at school, although Toppin considered that he had "most of the known strokes at his command". Kent had a very strong batting lineup and won the County Championship in 1910. In his "trial" Knott played well and The Times wrote that he "more than fulfilled expectation", including scoring a century in his first home match against Worcestershire at Dover and he was awarded his county cap in his first season. In its review of the season the paper said that although he "must be a fine player" but suggested some ways that his technique could be improved; at the end of August the same paper had commented that "his style is not altogether convincing" despite the number of runs he had scored. He played in six of Kent's matches during the season.

Knott went up to Oxford later in 1910 and at the start of the 1911 season he was considered one of the players around whom "interest naturally centred", going up with a "great reputation" and as the "most promising freshman who had gone up to either university in a long time". Plum Warner picked him out as one of the young players who could "keep up the reputation of English cricket in the near future" in that season's edition of Wisden, but Knott failed to live up to his potential in 1911. He made his first-class debut for the university team against Kent but was disappointing in his first season, doing "hardly anything" and failing to win a blue.

After his disappointing 1911 season, Knott "redeemed to some extent his reputation" He never fulfilled his potential as a schoolboy and was considered "that sad disappointment at Oxford" by Sydney Pardon in his editor's notes in Wisden in 1920.

In all Knott made 40 appearances in first-class matches before the outbreak of the First World War, 29 for the university.

Military service Knott was the last member of his Brasenose common room to enrol in the military, joining the Wiltshire Regiment in December 1914. He was commissioned as a temporary second lieutenant, joining the 7th (Service) Battalion of the regiment which had formed at Devizes, near to where he was teaching at Marlborough. He was awarded the Military Cross (MC) in the 1918 New Year Honours and was mentioned in dispatches for his services in the war. although he played amateur matches for teams such as the Yellowhammers, which he had been a founder member of at Tonbridge School with Leonard Marzetti, and made a further four first-class appearances, three for teams raised by H. D. G. Leveson Gower and once for Sussex County Cricket Club in 1926 and played one match for Kent's Second XI in 1921.

Knott died after a short illness in February 1972 at Woking aged 80. His brother, John Knott, also played for Oxford and Kent in the inter-war years.