Dudley Pontifex

Dudley David Pontifex (12 February 1855 – 27 September 1934) was an English cricketer who played first-class cricket for Surrey, Somerset and the Marylebone Cricket Club, plus other amateur sides, between 1878 and 1896.^[1] He was born at Weston, Bath, Somerset, and died at West Dulwich, London.

Pontifex was a right-handed middle-order or opening batsman. Educated in Bath, he appeared in a freshmen's trial match at Cambridge University but failed to make the first team; he did, however, win a Blue for billiards.^[2]

Appearing in minor cricket for amateur sides in Somerset and for Somerset County Cricket Club in non-first-class matches from 1877, Pontifex made his first-class cricket debut in 1878 against Oxford University for a Gentlemen of England side, and was successful neither in that nor in the South v North match that followed.^[3] After university, Pontifex moved to London to qualify as a lawyer and in 1881 he appeared fairly regularly in first-class matches for Surrey. In the match against Nottinghamshire at The Oval, he opened the batting and scored 89; this was his only score of more than 50 in first-class cricket.^[4] This was his only season of regular cricket. In 1882, he made a single first-class appearance in Somerset's debut season as a first-class team. He then played for MCC irregularly, and only very occasionally in first-class matches, over the next 14 seasons until his final first-class match in 1896.

His obituary in The Times in 1934 stated that after the age of 45 he took up golf and "became a scratch player"; he was also known as a real tennis and billiards player.^[5]

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