Charles Mills (South African cricketer)

For the cricketer born 1816, see Charles Mills (English cricketer).

Charles Mills
Personal information
Full name
Charles Mills
Born(1866-11-26)26 November 1866
Camberwell, England
Died26 July 1948(1948-07-26) (aged 81)
Southwark, England
BattingRight-handed
BowlingRight-arm medium
International information
National side
Only Test (cap 20)19 March 1892 v England
Career statistics
Competition Tests First-class
Matches 1 8
Runs scored 25 160
Batting average 12.50 12.30
100s/50s 0/0 0/0
Top score 21 31
Balls bowled 140 1178
Wickets 2 29
Bowling average 41.50 15.55
5 wickets in innings 0 3
10 wickets in match 0 0
Best bowling 2/83 5/36
Catches/stumpings 2/– 11/–
Source: Cricinfo

Charles Mills (26 November 1866 – 26 July 1948) was a cricketer who played in one Test for South Africa in 1892.[1]

Life and career

Born in London, to Charles Mills a writing engraver and Sarah Jane Wilkinson, Charles Mills was educated at Dulwich College in London. After leaving school he briefly studied art before deciding to become a professional cricketer.[2] A medium-pace bowler and a steady batsman, he played for Surrey from 1885 to 1896, mostly for the club's secondary teams, but including two first-class matches in 1888.[3]

With his Surrey colleague Bill Brockwell, Mills went to South Africa for the 1889–90 season in the hope of finding a coaching position, which they both did in Kimberley.[2] In Mills's first match for the Kimberley Club he scored 297, which was at the time a record score in South Africa.[2] He played a first-class match for Kimberley later that season, when Brockwell took 10 wickets in an innings victory over Natal.[4]

In 1890-91 Mills took up a coaching position in Cape Town, where he stayed for four years, playing in the Western Province team that won the Currie Cup in 1893–94.[5] In March 1892 he played for South Africa in the Test against England, scoring 4 and 21 in a match in which the highest score by a South African batsman was 24.[6]

Mills toured England with the South African team in 1894, in which no first-class matches were played, scoring 452 runs at an average of 14.58, and taking 28 wickets at 23.71.[7] He took his best bowling figures in his last first-class match, for Western Province in the final of the 1894–95 Currie Cup against Transvaal: 5 for 36 in the second innings.[8]

He returned to England in the mid-1890s. He coached in Philadelphia and Scotland and at the English public schools Haileybury, Bradfield and Mill Hill.[2] He umpired Minor Counties matches, mostly involving Norfolk, from 1904 to 1906.[9]

References

  1. ^ "Charles Mills". cricketarchive.com. Retrieved 4 April 2012.
  2. ^ a b c d W. A. Bettesworth, "Chats on the Cricket Field: C. Mills", Cricket, 1 June 1905, pp. 161-62.
  3. ^ "Miscellaneous matches played by Charles Mills". CricketArchive. Retrieved 20 February 2020.
  4. ^ "Kimberley v Natal 1889-90". CricketArchive. Retrieved 20 February 2020.
  5. ^ "Western Province v Natal 1893-94". CricketArchive. Retrieved 20 February 2020.
  6. ^ "Only Test, England tour of South Africa at Cape Town, Mar 19-22 1892". Cricinfo. Retrieved 20 February 2020.
  7. ^ Cricket, 23 August 1894, p. 350.
  8. ^ "Transvaal v Western Province 1894-95". CricketArchive. Retrieved 5 December 2022.
  9. ^ "Charles Mills as Umpire in Minor Counties Championship Matches". CricketArchive. Retrieved 20 February 2020.