William Scotton

William Henry Scotton (15 January 1856 – 9 July 1893) was a cricketer who played for Nottinghamshire County Cricket Club and England. Scotton played his first match at Lord's for Sixteen Colts of England against the Marylebone Cricket Club on 11 and 12 May 1874, scoring on that occasion 19 and 0. He was engaged as a groundsman by the MCC in that year and in 1875, and after an engagement at Kennington Oval returned to the service of the MCC, of whose ground staff he was a member at the time of his death. His powers were rather slow to ripen, and he had been playing for several years before he obtained anything like a first-rate position. At one period of his career, however, and more particularly during the seasons of 1884 and 1886, he was among the best professional left-handed batsmen in England.

Scotton committed suicide on 9 July 1893 by slitting his own throat with a razor. Scotton's slow scoring, particularly when compared with Grace and Read prompted London magazine Punch to print the following parody of Alfred, Lord Tennyson's poem "Break, Break, Break":

Block, block, block At the foot of thy wicket, O Scotton! And I would that my tongue would utter My boredom. You won't put the pot on

Oh, nice for the bowler, my boy, That each ball like a barndoor you play! Oh, nice for yourself, I suppose, That you stick at the wicket all day!

And the clock's slow hands go on, And you still keep up your sticks; But oh! for the lift of a smiting hand, And the sound of a swipe for six!

Block, block, block, At the foot of thy wicket, ah do! But one hour of Grace or Walter Read Were worth a week of you!

Scotton paid three visits to Australia, going out with Alfred Shaw's and Arthur Shrewsbury's teams in 1881, 1884 and 1886. In the three tours he averaged respectively in the eleven a-side matches, 20.8, 17.3, and 10.13. Scotton last played first-class cricket in 1891. He then played minor cricket and umpired. Scotton committed suicide on 9 July 1893 by slitting his throat with a razor.