Global InformationAlbert Cordingley information
| Personal information | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Full name | Albert Cordingley | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Born | 13 May 1871 Greengates, Bradford, Yorkshire, England | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Died | 27 April 1945 (aged 73) West Green, Crawley, Sussex, England | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Batting | Left-handed | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Bowling | Slow left-arm | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Role | Bowler | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Domestic team information | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Years | Team | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 1901–1905 | Sussex | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Career statistics | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Source: [1], 9 January 2011 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Albert Cordingley (13 May 1871 – 27 April 1945) was an English professional cricketer from Yorkshire who played first-class cricket for Sussex in the early years of the 20th century.
Cordingley turned professional at age 22, becoming a club pro at Lytham in Lancashire and compiling four seasons of increasingly impressive performances which brought him to the attention of Yorkshire, who hired him at the end of 1897 as a potential replacement for left-arm spin bowler Bobby Peel, who had been dismissed. He played for the Yorkshire 2nd XI the following year, as well as in one non first-class match with the first XI against Worcestershire, but then rejected the offer of a place in the Yorkshire first team squad as backup to Wilfred Rhodes and returned to club cricket, this time at Wiseton in Nottinghamshire. Again he was spotted by a first-class county, and after a successful private trial he was offered a contract by Sussex and accepted despite the fact that he would have to wait two years before officially qualifying to play for his new county.
He moved south and determinedly worked his way back up from club cricket to make his first-class debut in 1901 at the age of 30 for Sussex. His two best performances for the county both occurred early in the following season; he took a five-wicket haul against Nottinghamshire at Trent Bridge, and shared a record 115-run 9th-wicket partnership with test-player "Ranji" (K. S. Ranjitsinhji) against Surrey at The Oval, going on to appear in 10 matches for the Sussex first XI that season. He was sparingly used though, bowling just over 100 overs, and was dropped from the first team for the following two seasons but stayed contracted to Sussex and was recalled in 1905 to play four final matches for them.
Following his relatively short first-class career, he returned to full-time club cricket in 1906 and played until 1911 for East Grinstead, serving as the club pro from 1907. He remained involved in cricket for the rest of his life, devoting over 25 years to the village club at Pease Pottage, near Crawley, Sussex, as a player, coach, groundsman, and umpire after joining it in 1912, as well as making guest appearances for several other Sussex clubs. Having honed his groundskeeping skills earlier in his career at Lytham and Wiseton, and on the ground staff at Hove, he prepared a pitch at Pease Pottage that was considered to be of county cricket standard, seeing some of the highest batting totals in Sussex scored on it. Tragically, the cricket ground was ploughed up in 1940 after the advent of World War II to serve as allotments for the war effort, never to see cricket played on it again, and the club disbanded after many of its players had left to join the British armed forces.
Among the most notable wickets he took at different stages of his career as a bowler were those of John Tunnicliffe, Arthur Shrewsbury, and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. He was also a substitute fielder for Yorkshire in a match against M.C.C. at Lord's in 1898 and took to the pitch while W. G. Grace, one of the greatest cricketers of all time, was batting.