James Bray

James Bray (18 January 1853 – 30 August 1898) was an English professional cricketer. He played 22 first-class matches for Kent County Cricket Club between 1879 and 1882.

Early life Bray was almost certainly born at Limehouse in London in 1853. Some sources give his birthplace as Sandwich in Kent, (Bray's birth place is given as Sandwich in Scores and Biographies, the 1907 History of Kent Cricket and in the 1880–81 edition of Lillywhite's Cricketer's Annual, all of which are contemporary sources.) To have played for Kent he was required at the time to have either been born in the county or be qualified after a period of two years residence, and Derek Carlaw speculates that Bray gave his birth place as Sandwich to be able to play for Kent. He repeated the feat in both of his next two matches, taking 5/62 against Lancashire and 5/24 against Sussex, and was Kent's leading wicket-taker of the season, with 49 wickets in 1879 at a bowling average of 15.18 runs per wicket in the 11 first-class matches he played. (Kent played 13 first-class matches in 1879.) Bray did not play in the first two mathches and was then ever-present. and as "the shortest man I have ever seen on a cricket field" by Charles Igglesden, Bray bowled right-arm medium pace deliveries using a roundarm bowling style. He was described as "capable of turning the ball both ways" and was an accurate bowler. After playing in 11 of Kent's first-class matches in 1879 his career quickly declined. He played seven times in 1880, (Kent played 12 first-class matches in 1880.) Bray had fallen out of the team by the middle of August. when he took ten-wickets in a match in against Sussex in 1882―his only ten-wicket haul― He played only once more for Kent and his first-class career ended with a total of 87 wickets taken in his 22 matches. From 1884 he was the professional at Beckton Cricket Club. He qualified to play for Essex County Cricket Club, and in 1887 appeared twice for their team before it was granted first-class status, although he took only four wickets for them.

Later life Bray was listed as working as a general labourer in the 1891 census. He died at St Pancras in London in 1898 aged 45.