James Dean

An unlikely looking cricketer

James Dean, or Jemmy Dean as he is normally known, was a most unlikely looking cricketer, weighing 12 stone with a height of just 5ft 7in. He was rather portly and rustic looking and as he bowled seemed to roll from side to side yet he was skilful with both ball and bat. He played for Sussex for twenty five years, taking 473 wickets with his fast round arm bowling. He also enjoyed playing for the Players, particularly at Lord’s, and was for a couple of years a member of Clark’s All England Eleven. He helped, with his Sussex team-mate John Wisden, to found a rival to Clark’s team, the United England Eleven.

James Dean

Born and died in Duncton

He was born and died in Duncton, West Sussex, where both William and James Broadbridge were born. Dean was coached by the Broadbridge brothers and would have been inspired by the round-arm bowling of James Broadbridge and would have been aware of the success of the Sussex XI against All-England teams in the 1820s.

Dean may not have looked like everyone’s idea of  what a cricketer should look like, but he was known for the accuracy of his bowling and was able to make the ball rise quickly off the pitch. In 305 first-class matches he took 473 wickets. As a batsman he was no stylist but was cautious and safe. He scored 5,115 runs with a top score of 99 although it must be remembered that the rough pitches on which cricket was played did not make it easy to make  high scores. When fielding Dean was more often than not to be found at long stop where few balls got past him. In some games, when the regular wicket-keeper was absent he would deputise, and in these games he would alternate bowling with being wicket-keeper.

Dean made his debut for Sussex at Lord’s against MCC in June 1835. A County Cricket Club was established in 1839 and Dean became a regular player for the team, playing at the Hanover Ground until it disappeared when the ground was needed for a housing development in 1847. Thereafter Sussex played their home games at the Brunswick ground on Hove seafront. In the twenty five years he played for the county he played in 112 matches, taking 469 wickets. His best performances included taking 14 wickets against MCC at Horsham in 1855 and 12 wickets in a match against Kent at Tunbridge Wells in 1851. On one occasion he bowled unchanged with William Lillywhite against MCC at Lord’s in 1842. Standing behind the wickets in many of Dean’s matches was Tom Box, who concentrated on taking the offside balls leaving a long-stop to field balls on the on-side. As Box played for the Players team on 19 occasions and Dean was also a regular player for the team, the two Sussex players helped to make a good team. Another teammate of Dean was John Wisden, the ‘Little Wonder’ who was  just five feet four inches tall yet was one of the fastest bowlers of his era. He played regularly for Sussex from 1845 until 1863 and was a bowling partner of Dean in many of his 82 matches.

 

 

Tom Box

He played for the All England Eleven

As well as playing for Sussex, Dean enjoyed playing for the Players (against the Gentlemen), MCC and various England teams. In one game in 1843, when he was playing for MCC, he took three wickets in the first innings and nine in the second. Altogether he played eighteen times for the Players team between 1843 and 1857 and he was one of the original members of William Clarke’s All England Eleven when it was founded in 1846 and played for the side for seven years. Clarke was a Nottinghamshire professional who earnt his money in various ways.

The All-England and United England Eleven

Clarketook five wickets in an innings on 33 occasions was a practice bowler earning money from the amateurs who paid him to bowl at them but he also earnt money from running the Trent Bridge ground as well as laying out new grounds. He had the idea of getting together a team of the best professionals in the country and taking them on tour around England to take on all-comers.

With professionals earning a paltry 30-40 shillings a week as practice bowlers it would not be difficult to attract players and Dean was one of the first to sign up. The players were smartly dressed in white shirts decorated with small red spots or stripes, white trousers, boots, neckerchiefs and fashionable tall hats although Dean wore his favourite yachting cap. Dean and his Sussex colleague, Lillywhite, played in the three inaugural matches in 1846 against twenty-two of Sheffield, eighteen of Manchester and eighteen of Yorkshire. The players earned £4-£6 per game but Clarke took an initial £70 from the hosts and a further share of the gate. The following year the All England Eleven played ten games all over the country from Southampton to Newcastle and Dean was joined by two more Sussex players in these games: John Wisden and Tom Box. By 1850 the XI had a fixture list of thirty four games, and it continued to play at least twenty games a season until 1870.

James Dean found Clarke a difficult man to get on with and played on just a few occasions after 1848. He was one of many who fell out with Clarke over their treatment by him and the poor money they received. At the end of the 1852 season a group of the players including the Sussex players, declared that they would not play for or against Clarke’s teams, except for county matches. John Wisden and James Dean then led a breakaway group, which they called the United XI of England, to play on a rival tour.  Dean was a founder member of this team and played regularly for them until 1857.

Dean continued playing cricket for Sussex until 1860 by which time he was putting on weight and his bowling was beginning to slow down. Throughout his career he had also worked for MCC as a practice bowler. After his retirement he became an umpire. How successful he was as an umpire it is difficult to tell for on one occasion whilst playing in London, he was pursued out of the ground by an angry crowd after he had given an unpopular decision, and he had to take refuge in the Tavern at Lord’s. Many years after he had retired from regular first-class cricket Dean took part in a single wicket competition against an amateur player called Pagden, who at eighteen stone, was much bigger than Dean who was fifteen stone. The match was played at the Brunswick Ground, Hove on August 17, 1871 in what must have been one of the last games of cricket played on the ground as the following season Sussex moved to their current ground in Eaton Rd.  Dean batted first and scored 72 and when Pagden was dismissed for zero and then five, Dean was declared the clear winner.

Dean died in his home village of Duncton on Christmas Day 1881. He was sixty five years old, having been born in Duncton on 4 January 1816. One of the last persons to see him was his old friend John Wisden.

Sussex record

Played 112 matches, 206 innings, scored  1940 runs, highest score of 69. He took 469 wickets. He took five wickets in an innings on 33 occasions and took ten wickets on seven occasions. He made 79 catches.

 

The Brunswick Ground , 200 yards from the Hove seafront