Description
Weybridge, Surrey born all-rounder Edward Dowson was a right-hand batsman and slow left-arm orthodox spin bowler for Cambridge University and Surrey. During a first class cricket career which spanned from 1900 until 1913, he played 113 matches, scoring 5,047 runs including eight centuries. A demonstration of his durability is that he converted every half century in first class cricket into a three figure score.
A successful all-rounder, Dowson scored over a thousand runs and 99 wickets in the 1901 season; a thousand runs and 76 wickets the following year, and another thousand runs and 42 wickets in 1903. He also took 80 wickets during a single tour of the West Indies in the winter of 1901-02. He also played for the Marylebone Cricket Club (M.C.C.), and toured overseas with various representative teams including Lord Hawke’s tour of Australia and New Zealand in 1902-03. With his bowling he took 357 wickets at 23.94 a piece he three times took ten wickets in a match, and took five wickets in an innings on 23 occasions, with a best performance of 8-21.
His first class career ended in 1903 with the final match of the 1903 County Championship, however Dowson was invited back by the Marylebone Cricket Club in 1913 to play his final first class game when the M.C.C. played Cambridge University at Lord’s.
His father, also named Edward Dowson, also played for Surrey from the 1850’s until 1870, and his great-grandson Ed Carpenter played briefly for Durham MCC University, playing in 3 first class matches in 2004.