Vivian Crawford

Vivian Frank Shergold Crawford (11 April 1879 – 21 August 1922) was an English cricketer who played as a right-handed batsman and an occasional right-arm fast bowler in first-class cricket for Surrey and Leicestershire between 1896 and 1910. He also played for many amateur teams. He was born in Leicester and died at Merton, Surrey. He was the brother of the England Test cricketer Jack Crawford and of the Leicestershire first-class cricketer Reginald Crawford.

During his lifetime, he was generally referred to as "Frank Crawford".

Early cricket and Surrey Though born in Leicester, Crawford was brought up in Surrey where his father had become chaplain at the Cane Hill mental hospital at Coulsdon. He was an outstanding schoolboy cricketer at Whitgift School, and played for Surrey in 1896 as a 17-year-old while still at school. The following year, according to the same source, he hit 218 before lunch in a match for Surrey's Young Amateurs team against the Young Professionals: "the sort of innings many of us would tramp long, weary miles to see," Jephson wrote. In 1898 and 1899, he appeared in around half of Surrey's first-class games and in the 1899 match against Somerset in which Surrey amassed a total of 811, he scored his first century with an innings of 129, although his effort was somewhat overshadowed by Bobby Abel's 357 not out, where the diminutive opening batsman carried his bat.

Crawford played regularly for Surrey in only three seasons, from 1900 to 1902, while the team was captained by Jephson. Batting largely in the lower middle order, he was renowned for fast scoring, but Jephson wrote that "he was essentially a scientific hitter not a slogger". His highest innings for Surrey was also in 1901: he scored 159 against Worcestershire at The Oval. Jephson's reminiscence in the 1923 Wisden recalled another innings in that season, in which Crawford hit flagstaffs on the two towers of the football pavilion at the Park Avenue ground, Bradford with straight drives for six.

After the 1901 English cricket season, Crawford joined other amateurs on a tour to North America captained by Bernard Bosanquet; two of the matches against the Philadelphian cricket team were designated as first-class games.

In 1902, Crawford had his nearest brush with Test selection: he was picked for "An England XI" to play the Australian touring team in a game at Eastbourne, but he did not then win further selection for the Tests that summer. Towards the end of the season, Jephson was injured and Crawford captained Surrey in eight matches; his final match for the team was against Leicestershire where the opposition included his brother Reginald.

Leicestershire and later cricket In March 1903, Crawford was appointed as secretary of Leicestershire County Cricket Club. This was often a ploy used by the poorer county clubs to recruit talented cricketers of limited means: the secretarial duties were often light and mainly done by volunteers, but employment as secretary meant that a player could maintain amateur status. In Crawford's case, there were other considerations, as he had been born in Leicester and his younger brother was already a member of the team. Amateur status meant that he was available to captain the team in the absence of the regular captain, Charles de Trafford, and he did so several times in his first season with the county, 1903, and more than 30 times until his career ended in 1910. He remained as secretary to the club until the end of the 1907 season. In 1909, he improved on that again with an innings of 172 not out against Surrey in which he made his runs out of 226 put on while he was at the wicket in just over three hours. He was less successful in 1910 and left first-class cricket at the end of the season.

While at Leicestershire, Crawford also played in several other first-class matches for amateur teams, including another appearance for an "England XI" against the Australian touring team at Blackpool in which he appeared alongside his younger brother, Jack, for the only time in his career. He appeared for a second time in a Gentlemen v Players game, this time at The Oval, in his final season of 1910.

After cricket At the end of the 1910 season, Crawford left England for Ceylon. He played non-first-class cricket for the Europeans team both in Sri Lanka and on tour in Burma (Myanmar), and played for the Ceylon team in matches against the MCC team on its way to Australia in 1911–12 and the Australian team on its way to England for the 1912 series.

In the First World War he served with the East Surrey Regiment; he is recorded in the London Gazette as having relinquished his commission as a temporary lieutenant on 18 January 1919 "on account of ill-health contracted on active service". His obituary in The Times noted that he had died of pneumonia after many years of illness brought about through his war service.