Cris Tinley
{{Short description|English cricketer (1830–1900)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2025}}
{{Use British English|date=March 2016}}
{{Infobox cricketer
| name = Cris Tinley
| image = Robert Tinley - The Illustrated Sporting News.jpg
| caption = Tinley in The Illustrated Sporting News, 1864
| country = England
| fullname = Robert Crispin Tinley
| nickname = The Spider{{cite news|last=Daft|first=Richard|authorlink=Richard Daft|date=6 August 1892|title=Kings of Cricket - Reminiscences and Anecdotes, with Hints on the Game|url=https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/208520056|work=The Express and Telegraph|location=Adelaide|access-date=11 March 2025}}
| birth_date = {{Birth date|1830|10|25|df=yes}}
| birth_place = Southwell, Nottinghamshire, England
| death_date = {{Death date and age|1900|12|11|1830|10|25|df=yes}}
| death_place = Burton-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England
| family = Francis Tinley (brother)
Vincent Tinley (brother)
| batting = Right-handed
| bowling = Right-arm underarm
| club1 = Nottinghamshire
| year1 = {{nowrap|1847–1869}}
| club2 = All-England Eleven
| year2 = 1851–1874
| club3 = South of England
| year3 = 1851–1865
|columns = 1
|column1 = First-class
|matches1 = 117
|runs1 = 2,004
|bat avg1 = 11.38
|100s/50s1 = 0/3
|top score1 = 56
|deliveries1 = 9,132+{{efn|Some of Tinley's earliest matches did not keep track of the number of deliveries a player bowled.{{cite web|url-access=subscription|title=Nottinghamshire v England in 1847|url=https://cricketarchive.com/Archive/Scorecards/0/810.html|website=CricketArchive|access-date=11 March 2025}}}}
|wickets1 = 309
|bowl avg1 = 14.46
|fivefor1 = 22
|tenfor1 = 5
|best bowling1 = 8/12
|catches/stumpings1 = 143/2
| date = 11 March
| year = 2025
| source = https://cricketarchive.com/Archive/Players/33/33341/33341.html CricketArchive
}}
Robert Crispin Tinley (25 October 1830 – 11 December 1900) was an English cricket professional who played during the middle of the 19th century. In a career that spanned from 1847 to 1874, he was a noted underarm bowler who represented the Nottinghamshire County Cricket Club, debuting with the club aged 16. Tinley also had a long association with William Clarke's All-England Eleven (AEE) and the North of England cricket team in the regular North v South fixture, while also participating in the second English tour of Australia in 1864.
Early life and career
Tinley was born in Southwell, Nottinghamshire, on 25 October 1830.{{cite web|url-access=subscription|title=Cris Tinley|url=https://cricketarchive.com/Archive/Players/33/33341/33341.html|website=CricketArchive|access-date=11 March 2025}} Part of a cricketing family, he had two older brothers, Francis and Vincent,{{cite web|title=Cris Tinley|url=https://www.trentbridge.co.uk/trentbridge/history/players/cris-tinley.html|publisher=Nottinghamshire County Cricket Club|access-date=11 March 2025}} that also played first-class cricket.{{cite web|url-access=subscription|title=Francis Tinley|url=https://cricketarchive.com/Archive/Players/33/33340/33340.html|website=CricketArchive|access-date=11 March 2025}}{{cite web|url-access=subscription|title=Vincent Tinley|url=https://cricketarchive.com/Archive/Players/33/33342/33342.html|website=CricketArchive|access-date=11 March 2025}}
He debuted with Nottinghamshire on 9 August 1847 in a match against an England representative side that was played as a benefit for Thomas Barker.{{cite news|url-access=subscription|last=Ashley-Cooper|first=F. S.|authorlink=F. S. Ashley-Cooper|date=20 December 1900|title=Obituary - Robert Crispin Tinley|url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0002945/19001220/008/0003|work=Cricket: A Weekly Record of the Game|location=London|access-date=11 March 2025}} Aged 16 and 288 days at the time, he was the youngest player to represent Nottinghamshire at the time, a distinction he held for 177 years until Farhan Ahmed debuted at an age three months younger in 2024.{{cite web|title=Burns 161 lays Surrey platform as 16-year-old Farhan Ahmed shines for Notts|url=https://www.espncricinfo.com/series/county-championship-division-one-2024-1410191/nottinghamshire-vs-surrey-53rd-match-1410245/match-report-1|date=29 August 2024|website=ESPNcricinfo|publisher=ESPN Inc.|access-date=11 March 2025}} In Tinley's debut match, he took six total wickets, three in both innings, while scoring 14 total runs as a batter.
Over the next five years, Tinley made sporadic appearances in first-class cricket due to commitments to a minor cricket club in Burton-on-Trent. These appearances included a pair of matches for Nottinghamshire against Sussex in 1848 and matches for three different clubs in 1851,{{cite web|url-access=subscription|title=First-Class Matches played by Cris Tinley|url=https://cricketarchive.com/Archive/Players/33/33341/First-Class_Matches.html|website=CricketArchive|access-date=11 March 2025}} including his first appearance with the North of England side in the regular North v South match.{{cite web|url-access=subscription|title=South v North in 1851|url=https://cricketarchive.com/Archive/Scorecards/0/915.html|website=CricketArchive|access-date=11 March 2025}} After the 1853 season, Tinley's tenure in Burton-on-Trent ended, and he would spend much of the next two decades playing most prominently with Nottinghamshire and with William Clarke's All-England Eleven.
With Nottinghamshire and the North of England
File:Nottinghamshire Cricket Team in 1862.jpg, James Grundy, George Parr, G Anderson (umpire), John Jackson, Charles Brampton, Augustus Bateman, J Johnson (Hon Secretary), George Wootton and Alfred Clarke. Seated on ground: Robert Tinley, Charles Daft, and Sam Biddulph.]]
In first-class matches, Tinley represented Nottinghamshire 54 times between his 1847 debut and his final county match in 1869.{{cite web|url-access=subscription|title=First-Class Batting and Fielding For Each Team by Cris Tinley|url=https://cricketarchive.com/Archive/Players/33/33341/f_Batting_by_Team.html|website=CricketArchive|access-date=11 March 2025}} He recorded his first five-wicket haul for the side in 1859,{{cite web|url-access=subscription|title=Surrey v Nottinghamshire in 1859|url=https://cricketarchive.com/Archive/Scorecards/1/1152.html|website=CricketArchive|access-date=11 March 2025}} one of eleven Tinley would have with them.{{cite web|url-access=subscription|title=First-Class Bowling For Each Team by Cris Tinley|url=https://cricketarchive.com/Archive/Players/33/33341/f_Bowling_by_Team.html|website=CricketArchive|access-date=11 March 2025}} Tinley had a ten-wicket haul in three of his matches with the club. His best numbers for an innings and a match came in the same contest; against Cambridgeshire in 1862, Tinley took eight wickets for only twelve runs in the first innings, then added seven more in the second innings for a total of fifteen overall.{{cite web|url-access=subscription|title=Nottinghamshire v Cambridgeshire in 1862|url=https://cricketarchive.com/Archive/Scorecards/1/1252.html|website=CricketArchive|access-date=11 March 2025}} Over his entire career with Nottinghamshire, he took 138 wickets with a 14.99 bowling average.
Between 1851 and 1865, Tinley also appeared in 25 matches for the North of England and had some of his earliest cricket successes with the side. As a bowler, he took his first five-wicket haul for the North versus Surrey in 1857, two years prior to his first for Nottinghamshire;{{cite web|url-access=subscription|title=Surrey v North in 1857|url=https://cricketarchive.com/Archive/Scorecards/1/1085.html|website=CricketArchive|access-date=11 March 2025}} at the crease, Tinley recorded his two best batting totals: 53 runs in a 1858 match versus the South of England and 56 runs in a 1862 match against Surrey.{{cite web|url-access=subscription|title=South v North in 1858|url=https://cricketarchive.com/Archive/Scorecards/1/1119.html|website=CricketArchive|access-date=11 March 2025}}{{cite web|url-access=subscription|title=Surrey v North in 1862|url=https://cricketarchive.com/Archive/Scorecards/1/1264.html|website=CricketArchive|access-date=11 March 2025}} As with his Nottinghamshire tenure, he recorded his best innings as a bowler in the same match; taking on Surrey in 1860, he took twelve total wickets through a pair of six-wicket hauls,{{cite web|url-access=subscription|title=Surrey v North in 1860|url=https://cricketarchive.com/Archive/Scorecards/1/1187.html|website=CricketArchive|access-date=11 March 2025}} yielding 30 runs in the first innings for his innings-best performance with the side. Overall, he took 82 wickets as a member of the North team.
With the All-England Eleven
Tinley played frequently with the All-England Eleven between 1854 and 1874, including in 21 first-class matches. Compared to his time with his other major teams, he was used less often as a bowler in their matches,{{efn|Tinley bowled half the amount of deliveries with the AEE as he did with the North, despite only playing in four additional matches with the latter.}} with 42 wickets in 21 appearances, but he still produced a bowling average of 14.52, lower than his averages with Nottinghamshire and the North.
He appeared in many more odds matches played by the AEE that were not granted first-class status.{{cite web|url-access=subscription|title=Miscellaneous Matches played by Cris Tinley|url=https://cricketarchive.com/Archive/Players/33/33341/Miscellaneous_Matches.html|website=CricketArchive|access-date=11 March 2025}} In these matches, Tinley's bowling was even more successful and resulted in two seasons, 1860 and 1862, where he took over 300 wickets in a season for the AEE. His best performances with the club featured Tinley recording normally impossible stat lines; these included 10 matches where he took 15 or more wickets in a single innings, with a 19-wicket haul (out of 21 wickets on offer) being his highest total.{{cite web|title=All Best Bowling in an Innings|url=https://stats.acscricket.com/Records/All/Overall/Bowling/Best_Bowling_in_an_Innings.html|website=The Association of Cricket Statisticians and Historians|access-date=11 March 2025}} In a match against an eighteen-man team representing Hallam at Hyde Park, Tinley took all seventeen wickets available in the second innings, while a match against Birmingham at Small Heath saw Tinley make twelve catches in a match.
Touring Australia
File:English_Cricketers_in_Australia_1863-4.jpg, George Anderson, next row, Edward Mills Grace, George Parr , Thomas Lockyer, next row, William Caffyn, Thomas Hayward, John Jackson, bottom row, Alfred Clarke, George Tarrant and Julius Caesar.]]
George Parr, at that time the captain of the Nottinghamshire side, selected Tinley as part of a twelve-man tour of Australia and New Zealand that started on the first day of 1864.{{cite web|url-access=subscription|title=G Parr's XI in Australia and New Zealand 1863/64|url=https://cricketarchive.com/Archive/Events/0/G_Parrs_XI_in_Australia_and_New_Zealand_1863-64.html|website=CricketArchive|access-date=12 March 2025}} The tour mostly featured odds matches against local, 22-man sides against selected English elevens,{{cite news|date=30 April 1864|title=The Old England Eleven in Australia|url=https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/199055200|work=Bell's Life in Victoria|location=Melbourne|access-date=11 March 2025}} with the lone first-class match on the tour taking place on 5 March 1864. In the match, Tinley, representing Parr's chosen eleven took seven wickets in the first innings against a George Anderson-chosen side.{{efn|Both Parr and Anderson, also part of Parr's touring party, chose sides that featured six English players and five Australians for this match.{{cite web|url-access=subscription|title=G Anderson's XI v G Parr's XI in 1863/64|url=https://cricketarchive.com/Archive/Scorecards/1/1312.html|website=CricketArchive|access-date=11 March 2025}}}} The seven wickets were a match high, but it ultimately came in a losing effort to Anderson's team. On the tour, he led all of the touring players with over 250 wickets taken overall.
With other clubs
Compared to 25 selections for the North, Tinley only had three selections to the Gentlemen v Players as a member of the Players side.{{cite web|title=Robert Tinley|url=https://www.espncricinfo.com/wisdenalmanack/content/story/155756.html|year=1901|work=Wisden Cricketers' Almanack|access-date=12 March 2025}} Tinley did not bowl in the last of these three matches, but took five combined wickets in the other two.
He played for various other first-class sides as well, including nine matches with an England representative side. Until his 15-wicket match for Nottinghamshire, Tinley's best match performance was with a one-off club in 1860, billed as "Another England Eleven", that was facing the side that toured North America the previous season.{{Efn|Eleven of the 12 members of the touring party played in this match, with the 12th, John Wisden, serving as an umpire.{{cite web|url-access=subscription|title=England Eleven to North America v Another England Eleven in 1860|url=https://cricketarchive.com/Archive/Scorecards/1/1172.html|website=CricketArchive|access-date=12 March 2025}}}} In a victory against the past season's touring team, Tinley took 14 wickets in the match, including an eight-wicket haul in the second innings.
Playing style
In his early career, Tinley was a right-armed fast bowler in the roundarm style but he later switched to bowling underarm lobs with greater success. Nottinghamshire's website attributes some of his success to teammate John Jackson, one of the top roundarm fast bowlers of his day, often bowling at the opposite end from Tinley.
As a batter, he was regarded as one who hit the ball hard, but not so hard as to be considered a slogger. Tinley recorded three half-centuries in first-class matches with a high of 56 in an innings. Despite his long tenure with Nottinghamshire, he never recorded a half-century with them.
Tinley was an adept fielder, averaging over a catch per match. When in the field, he predominantly played the point position, though he was capable enough to be used as a wicket-keeper at times, taking a pair of stumpings in first-class matches.
Later life, honours, and death
Tinley umpired 27 first-class matches in his career, including several matches umpired while still active as a player.{{cite web|url-access=subscription|title=Cris Tinley as Umpire in First-Class Matches|url=https://cricketarchive.com/Archive/Players/33/33341/Umpire_in_First-Class_Matches.html|website=CricketArchive|access-date=11 March 2025}} His final first-class match as an umpire took place in 1877, though he would make a final appearance as an umpire in 1880 to umpire a match in Burton-on-Trent featuring the United South of England Eleven.{{cite web|url-access=subscription|title=Cris Tinley as Umpire in Miscellaneous Matches|url=https://cricketarchive.com/Archive/Players/33/33341/Umpire_in_Miscellaneous_Matches.html|website=CricketArchive|access-date=11 March 2025}}
Tinley was the recipient of two benefit matches, one in 1861 in an AEE match versus his former Burton-on-Trent side (which Tinley rejoined to play against the AEE on that occasion) and another in a North v South match in 1875, taking place a year after his playing career ended. A testimonial in Tinley's honour was also granted to him in 1891 by Burton-on-Trent.
He was married to Mary Jane and had a son, Fred.{{cite news|url-access=subscription|title=Births, Marriages, and Deaths|url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000327/19210826/062/0002|date=26 August 1921|work=Derby Daily Telegraph|location=Nottingham|access-date=11 March 2025}} In retirement, he ran Burton-on-Trent's Royal Oak Inn. After being ill for several years, Tinley died on 11 December 1900.
Notes
{{Notelist}}
References
{{Reflist}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tinley, Cris}}
Category:All-England Eleven cricketers
Category:English cricketers of 1826 to 1863
Category:English cricketers of 1864 to 1889
Category:Nottinghamshire cricketers
Category:North v South cricketers
Category:Sportspeople from Southwell, Nottinghamshire
Category:Cricketers from Nottinghamshire