Charlesworth Crowther Image 3 Warwickshire 1920

Description

Swinton, Lancashire born all-rounder George Charlesworth was a right-hand batsman and right-arm fast-medium bowler who began his first class career in 1898 and played regularly for Warwickshire until 1921. Despite missing a number of seasons because of the First World War, he still played in 372 matches for the County

Described by Wisden as ‘A brilliant batsman specially strong in driving’, Charlesworth passed 1,000 runs in a season five times. His most productive season came in 1911 when he scored 1,376 runs at 38.22, including four centuries. Most importantly these runs assisted Warwickshire to their first County Championship title.

Charlesworth scored 15 first class centuries, two of which he converted into double hundreds. The first of these came in 1910 when he scored 216 against Derbyshire, the innings lasting three hours and forty minutes. The second came in 1914 when he struck 206 against a strong Yorkshire attack including George Hirst and Wilfred Rhodes. In his career he scored 14,289 runs at an average of 23.61, and in addition to his hundreds he passed fifty on another 69 occasions.

Charlesworth’s bowling garnered 295 wickets at 30.09 a piece, including seven five wicket hauls, the first two of these came in the same match when he took match figures of 10-135 in a 16 run victory over Surrey in 1901, his only 10 wicket match. Later that season he recorded the best innings figures of his career when taking 6-45 against Derbyshire.

In 1920 he was awarded a benefit match which generated £1,041, the figure was a Warwickshire record which remained unsurpassed until 1945. After his playing retirement Charlesworth was on the umpires list in 1925 and 1926, standing in 42 matches.