View source for Sam Cosstick

{{Use dmy dates|date=May 2015}}
{{Use Australian English|date=May 2015}}
{{Infobox cricketer
|                name = Sam Cosstick
|               image = Sam Cosstick.png
|             country = 
|            fullname = 
|          birth_date = {{birth date|1836|1|1|df=yes}}
|         birth_place = [[Croydon]], England
|          death_date = {{death date and age|1896|4|8|1836|1|1|df=yes}}
|         death_place = [[Maitland, New South Wales|West Maitland]], Australia
|            nickname = 
|             batting = 
|             bowling = 
|                role =

|               club1 = Victoria
|               year1 = 1860/61 – 1875/76
|         clubnumber1 = 
|               club2 = 
|               year2 = 
|         clubnumber2 =

|                date = 3 May
|                year = 2015
|              source = http://www.espncricinfo.com/australia/content/player/4630.html Cricinfo
}}
'''Samuel Cosstick ''' (1 January 1836 &ndash; 8 April 1896) was an important figure in developing cricket in [[Victoria, Australia|Victoria]] in its formative years. He is well known for umpiring in the second ever Test match, played between [[Australian cricket team|Australia]] and [[English cricket team|England]] in Melbourne, 1877.

==Biography==
Cosstick was born at [[Croydon]], [[Surrey]], England.  He was attracted to Victoria by the gold fever of the early 1850s and joined the [[Melbourne Cricket Club]] on arrival.  There he was employed as a ground bowler, bowling in the nets to the members for hours at a time for a salary of £150 a year.

Cosstick was a right-hand batsman and right-arm medium-fast roundarm bowler.  He played 18 [[First-class cricket|matches]] for [[Victorian Bushrangers|Victoria]] from 1860 to 1876.  As a batsman he scored 315 runs at an average of 9.84 with a highest score of 36.  He took 106 wickets at an average of 9.41, with best figures of 9 for 61.  He took [[five wickets in an innings]] 11 times, and [[ten wickets in a match]] on 5 occasions.  He also took 14 catches.  In 1869 Cosstick took 6 wickets for 1 run against Tasmania, which is still the cheapest 6-wicket analysis in first-class cricket history.<ref name="Frindall">{{cite book|last1=Frindall|first1=Bill|title=The Wisden Book of Cricket Records|date=1998|publisher=Headline Book Publishing|location=London|isbn=0747222037|pages=257|edition=Fourth}}</ref>

In the match between Eighteen of Victoria and the [[All-England Eleven]] led by [[Heathfield Stephenson|H. H. Stephenson]] played at [[Melbourne]] in January 1862 – the first international match played in Australia – Cosstick made 8 and 11, and took 1 wicket for 31 runs for a team that was decisively beaten by an innings in spite of its advantage in numbers.

[[W. G. Grace]] brought out an English team in the 1873-74 season, and Cosstick’s bowling, along with the batting of [[Bransby Cooper]] and [[John Conway (cricketer)|John Conway]] and the bowling of [[Frank Allan]] and [[Harry Boyle (cricketer)|Harry Boyle]] were responsible for the visitors’ defeat by an innings by Eighteen of Victoria.  Impressive though the result was, a newspaper correspondent wrote "any numbskulls who talk about Eleven Victorian natives playing this Eleven of England are prattling about what they don’t understand."

In Sydney, playing for a Combined Fifteen of Victoria and New South Wales, the crowd urged Cosstick to return to the crease after he was given out.  He did so, claiming that the wrong umpire had given him out.  With three batsmen at the wicket, Grace led his team from the field until Cosstick abandoned his protest.

At the age of 41, Cosstick umpired in the second ever Test match, played between [[Australian cricket team|Australia]] and [[English cricket team|England]] in Melbourne on 31 March to 4 April 1877. His colleague was [[Ben Terry]], who was also an English professional at Melbourne Cricket Club.

In 1883 Samuel was offered a position as the Grounds Keeper of the Albion Cricket Ground and Showgrounds in Maitland New South Wales. This area is now known as the Maitland Showgrounds. 

Cosstick died in West Maitland, New South Wales in 1896 at the age of 60.

==See also==
* [[History of Test cricket (to 1883)]]
* [[Australian Test Cricket Umpires]]
* [[List of Test cricket umpires]]
* [[List of Victoria first-class cricketers]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}
{{More footnotes|date=April 2009}}
* [[Jack Pollard|Pollard, Jack]], ‘’Australian Cricket: 1803-1893, The Formative Years’’. Sydney, The Book Company, 1995. ({{ISBN|0-207-15490-2}})

==External links==
* {{ESPNcricinfo|id=4630}}

{{Australian first-class cricket season leading run-scorers (1850–51 to 1899–00)}}
{{Australian first-class cricket season leading wicket-takers (1850–51 to 1899–00)}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cosstick, Sam}}
[[Category:1836 births]]
[[Category:1896 deaths]]
[[Category:Sportsmen from Victoria (state)]]
[[Category:Australian cricketers]]
[[Category:Victoria cricketers]]
[[Category:Australian Test cricket umpires]]
[[Category:Melbourne Cricket Club cricketers]]
[[Category:New South Wales cricketers]]
[[Category:Cricketers from the London Borough of Croydon]]
[[Category:People from Croydon]]
[[Category:English emigrants to colonial Australia]]
[[Category:Melbourne Football Club (pre-VFA) players]]
[[Category:British emigrants to the Colony of Victoria]]
[[Category:19th-century Australian sportsmen]]