Kingsmill Key

{{Infobox cricketer

| name = Sir Kingsmill James Key, 4th Bt.

| image = Ranji 1897 page 287 K. J. Key cutting.jpg

| caption =

| batting = Right-handed

| bowling = Right arm off-break

| columns = 1

| column1 = First-class

| matches1 = 368

| runs1 = 13,008

| bat avg1 = 26.22

| 100s/50s1 = 13/60

| top score1 = 281

| deliveries1 = 641

| wickets1 = 12

| bowl avg1 = 28.08

| fivefor1 = 0

| tenfor1 = 0

| best bowling1 = 2/32

| catches/stumpings1= 113/0

| source = http://cricketarchive.co.uk/Archive/Players/30/30753/30753.html CricketArchive

| date =

| year =

}}

Sir Kingsmill James Key, 4th Baronet (11 October 1864 – 9 August 1932) was an English cricketer.

Life and career

Key was born in Streatham Common, London. He was educated at Clifton College"Clifton College Register" Muirhead, J.A.O. p53: Bristol; J.W Arrowsmith for Old Cliftonian Society; April 1948 and Oriel College, Oxford.[http://www.ukwhoswho.com/view/article/oupww/whowaswho/U212303 KEY, Sir Kingsmill James], Who Was Who, A & C Black, 1920–2016 (online edition, Oxford University Press, 2014) In the course of a long career he played for, among others, Surrey County Cricket Club (whom he captained for several years in the 1890s), Oxford University, Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) and the Gentlemen. His highest score of 281, for Oxford against Middlesex at Chiswick Park in 1887, remained the highest first-class score for the university until 2013.{{cite web | url=http://cricketarchive.co.uk/Archive/Records/England/Firstclass/OxfordUniversity/Batting_Records/Highest_Innings_For.html | title=Most Runs in an Innings for Oxford University | accessdate=4 May 2021 | publisher=CricketArchive}}

Key married Helen Abercrombie in Baguley, Cheshire, in 1888.{{cite web |title=Manchester, England, Church of England Marriages and Banns, 1754-1930 |url=https://www.ancestry.com.au/imageviewer/collections/2962/images/40365_294438-00866 |website=Ancestry.com.au |access-date=5 May 2021}} They lived in London, where Key was a stockbroker, a member of the London Stock Exchange.{{cite web |title=1911 England Census: Kensington South |url=https://www.ancestry.com.au/imageviewer/collections/2352/images/rg14_00114_0361_03 |website=Ancestry.com.au |access-date=5 May 2021}} He died at the age of 67 in Wittersham, Kent, having contracted blood poisoning after an insect bite.[http://www.espncricinfo.com/wisdenalmanack/content/story/228177.html Obituary]. Wisden Cricketers' Almanack, 1933 His cousin, Leslie Gay, played one Test match for England. Leslie's sister, Charlotte Evelyn Gay, was an English social and temperance reformer affiliated with the Church Army.{{cite book |last1=Cherrington |first1=Ernest Hurst |author-link1=Ernest Cherrington |title=Standard Encyclopedia of the Alcohol Problem |year=1925 |publisher=American Issue Publishing House |location=Westerville, Ohio |volume=3 |via=Internet Archive |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/standardencyclop02cher/page/1075 |page=1075 |chapter=GAY, CHARLOTTE EVELYN |access-date=1 January 2023 |language=en}} {{Source-attribution}}