Francis Moore, born 18 July 1837 in Nottingham, was a wicketkeeper, and occasional bowler who played just one First-Class game for Nottinghamshire. He deputised for the injured Sam Biddulph v Surrey at The Oval in June 1862, scoring 8no and 4no (so his First-Class average was infinte!), and took one stumping.
It was the first time that Moore had visited London and Richard Daft relates how worried Moore was by the experience. In the course of the match in question Moore left The Oval at the lunch interval for a meal and couldn’t be found when play resumed. Daft located him still eating his meal in a restaurant and saying he thought there was an hour’s interval.
In 1846, he was in the Players XI v Gentlemen at Trent Bridge when his bowling was singled out for praise, "Moore gave promise of future excellence, his delivery being remarkably fine" - comments not entirely borne out by his subsequent figures. Moore was the professional at Newark CC and in their annual Married v Single match of 1849 had the unusual distinction of batting and bowling for both sides. At other times he engagements with the Nottingham Bank and with the Mapperley Park Club.
His other matches included appearing in 1862 for HE Handley's XXII v the All England Eleven, scoring 5 in each innings and taking one catch. He also played for the Veterans of Nottinghamshire v Veterans of Leicestershire twice in 1879. In the first of these he took three wickets as a bowler, and two catches, and contributed just one run to Notts' total; in the second game, which petered out to a tame draw, he did not bat but took one stumping.
Perhaps the most interesting game he was involved with came when he had retired from playing and was acting as umpire. He was one of the officials for the 1886 match at Trent Bridge between the Gentlemen of Nottinghamshire and the touring Parsee cricket team - the first cricketing visitors to the UK from India.
During the winter months he acted as a general dogsbody to 'gentlemen footballers' on the Forest and Kings Meadow.
Francis Moore lived mainly in Sneinton and died in Nottingham on 14 January 1900.
July 2020
Nottinghamshire First-Class Number: 97