Frederic Wilson

Frederic Bonhôte Wilson (21 September 1881 – 19 January 1932), known as Fred or Freddy, was a sporting journalist and, in his youth, a cricketer who played in first-class cricket matches for Cambridge University and amateur teams between 1902 and 1906. He was born and died in London.

Wilson was educated at Harrow School and at Trinity College, Cambridge. He was a successful schoolboy cricketer, playing in the Eton v Harrow match at Lord's in both 1899 and 1900, and in the second of these matches he scored 79 and 24 as a middle-order right-handed batsman and took four Etonian wickets with his right-arm slow bowling. At Cambridge, he bowled very little and won a Blue by playing as a reliable batsman in the University Match against Oxford University for three seasons from 1902 to 1904, having failed even to have a trial match in 1901. He captained the Cambridge side in 1904 and was criticised for delaying the second innings declaration so that Frederick Marsh could break the University Match record for the highest individual score, the match ending in a draw.

Wilson was an all-round sportsman at Cambridge, winning blues for lawn tennis and rackets, and the obituary for him in The Times in 1932 stated that he had seen rackets as his principal sport, though he was unable to continue as a player because of indifferent health.