George Patterson

George Stuart Patterson (October 10, 1868 – May 7, 1943) was an American cricketer, active in the late 19th century. Patterson played most notably for the Philadelphians, which flourished from the end of the 19th century until the outbreak of World War I. His obituary in Wisden Cricketers' Almanack described him as "one of the best all-round cricketers ever produced by America." He had a successful career with both Haverford College and the University of Pennsylvania and began playing first-class cricket when he was only 16 years old.

Cricketing career Patterson first played club cricket in Philadelphia for the Germantown Cricket Club. He stood over six feet tall and was of slim build, batted in good style and bowled right-arm medium-pace. They then proceeded to beat Scotland by ten wickets and the Gentlemen of Hampshire by two runs.

Tour of England in 1897

In 1897 Patterson captained his next tour of England. The tour undertaken by the Philadelphian cricketers was very ambitious. Though the results may have been less satisfactory than hoped for by promoters, the tour was arranged mainly for educational purposes and few of those on the American side expected to win many matches. Previous tours had tended to involve amateur English sides with a low level of competition. In 1897 a schedule was made including all of the top county cricket teams, the Oxford and Cambridge University teams, the Marylebone Cricket Club, and two other sides, though only a few of the counties thought it worth while to put their best elevens onto the field.

Despite the excitement surrounding King's performance, the Americans did not fare well overall on the tour. Fifteen matches were played, but only two were won while the team lost nine and earned a draw on four. The other win of the tour came against Warwickshire, though Patterson also performed poorly in this match. Patterson was second in his team's averages with 33, his best innings was 162 at Trent Bridge against Nottinghamshire. This is still the record first-class score for a player from a non-Test nation. Four times he exceeded a thousand runs in a season, and in 1891, besides making 1,402 (average 50), he took 112 wickets at 7.97 each. With F. H. Bohlen, who died in December 1942, Patterson made 200 for the first wicket against Frank Mitchell's University team that visited Philadelphia in 1895. Patterson died in Philadelphia in 1943 at the age of 74.