Moon Leonard Image 4 Middlesex 1905

Description

Born in Kensington, London, Leonard Moon attended Westminster School and Pembroke College, Cambridge, where he scored 7 first class hundreds while playing for Cambridge University from 1897 to 1900, where he obtained his Blue and both in 1899 and 1900, and for Middlesex from 1899 to 1909. In his two matches against Oxford University he made 154 runs in four innings, and in 1900 (when his scores were 58 and 60) scored 101 for the first wicket in the second innings with J. Stanning (60).

He toured South Africa in 1905-06, playing in four of the five Test matches, averaging 20.75 with the bat. He made starts, reaching 28 or more in five of his eight innings, but failed to carry on, with a highest score of only 36, and was not selected again. He was an occasional wicket-keeper, taking the gloves in one of his four Tests.

In a sixteen year career at first class level, he scored 4,166 runs in 96 first class matches, including seven hundreds. He also took 72 catches and made 13 stumpings. For Middlesex against Gloucestershire at Lord’s in 1903, Moon made 122 and ‘Plum’ Warner 149, as they put on an opening partnership of 248; against Sussex five years later they repeated the feat, with Moon scoring 116 this time to Warner’s 94 in a partnership of 212. His highest first class score was 162.

As a footballer he obtained his Blue for Cambridge University and played for The Corinthians as a forward for several seasons. He went on The Corinthians’ tours to Hungary and Scandinavia in 1904 and scored 8 goals in an 11-0 win in a match against Stockholm on the latter tour, scoring 5 in another match against the same opponents.

In the First World War he joined the 10th Battalion, Devonshire Regiment, attaining the rank of Second Lieutenant. Moon died of his wounds on 23rd November 1916 near Karasouli, Salonica, Greece aged 38.

Moon was the younger brother of Corinthians and England goalkeeper Billy Moon, who also played cricket for Middlesex.