Joseph Miller (cricketer)
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Joseph Miller (born ?; died October 1784 at Bridge in Kent) was a noted English cricketer who is generally considered to have been one of the greatest batsmen of the 18th century.
Little is known about Miller personally except that he seems to have been a gamekeeper employed by the Duke of Dorset at Knole House near Sevenoaks and that his burial took place at Bridge in Kent on 31 October 1784.
Miller's name may be subject to question for he has been referred to as Richard Miller [1], though that would seem to be due to confusion with the Richard Miller (possibly his brother) who played in one match for Surrey in the 1774 season [2]. The majority of sources call him Joseph [3] [4] [2] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9].
Joseph Miller is first recorded in the 1768 season and he is known to have made 55 first-class appearances from 1772 to 1783. He was unquestionably an outstanding batsman and probably second only to John Small in the 18th century. He made numerous good scores as the match details consistently show [5].
His best known performance was for Kent v Hampshire at Sevenoaks Vine in August 1774 when he made 95 out of 240 and enabled Kent to win by an innings and 35 runs [2]. This score was briefly the highest individual score recorded in first-class cricket (i.e., since the statistical record began in 1772), beating the 88 scored by William Yalden in 1773. Miller’s "world record" lasted only a year until John Small beat it with the earliest known first-class century [5].
[edit] References
- ^ John Major, More Than A Game, HarperCollins, 2007
- ^ a b c Arthur Haygarth, Scores & Biographies, Volume 1 (1744-1826), Lillywhite, 1862
- ^ Timothy J McCann, Sussex Cricket in the Eighteenth Century, Sussex Record Society, 2004
- ^ David Underdown, Start of Play, Allen Lane, 2000
- ^ a b c From Lads to Lord's; The History of Cricket: 1300 – 1787
- ^ G B Buckley, Fresh Light on 18th Century Cricket, Cotterell, 1935
- ^ H T Waghorn, The Dawn of Cricket, Electric Press, 1906
- ^ Ashley Mote, The Glory Days of Cricket, Robson, 1997
- ^ Ashley Mote, John Nyren's "The Cricketers of my Time", Robson, 1998
