Nicholas Felix

{{short description|English cricketer}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=February 2024|cs1-dates=ly formats}}

{{Use British English|date=March 2016}}

{{Infobox cricketer

| name = Nicholas Felix

| image = Nicholas Felix.jpg

| image_size =

| caption =

| country = England

| fullname = Nicholas Wanostrocht

| birth_date = {{Birth date|1804|10|5|df=yes}}

| birth_place = Camberwell, London, England

| death_date = {{Death date and age|1876|9|3|1804|10|5|df=yes}}

| death_place = Wimborne Minster, Dorset, England

| batting = Left-handed

| bowling = Slow left arm orthodox

| role = Batsman

| family =

| club1 = Kent

| year1 = {{nowrap|1834–1852}}

| club2 = Surrey

| year2 = 1846–1852

| columns = 1

| column1 = First-class

| matches1 = 149

| runs1 = 4,556

| bat avg1 = 18.15

| 100s/50s1 = 2/15

| top score1 = 113

| deliveries1 = 124+

| wickets1 = 9

| bowl avg1 =

| fivefor1 =

| tenfor1 =

| best bowling1 = 3/?

| catches/stumpings1 = 112/–

| date = 3 July

| year = 2020

| source = http://www.cricketarchive.co.uk/Archive/Players/29/29365/29365.html CricketArchive

}}

File:Watts – Felix on the Bat.jpg |alt=Cricketer riding a giant bat]]

Nicholas Wanostrocht (5 October 1804 – 3 September 1876), known as Nicholas Felix, was an English amateur "gentleman" cricketer. He was one of the few players who – at his request – was routinely known by his pseudonym, Felix. When his father died in 1824 he had inherited the running of his school, aged only nineteen, and he was afraid that the parents of pupils might think that cricket was too frivolous a pastime for a schoolmaster.

Felix was a specialist left-handed batsman, although he did occasionally bowl underarm slow left-arm orthodox. He was a mainstay of the great Kent team of the mid-19th century alongside such players as Alfred Mynn, Fuller Pilch, William Hillyer and Ned Wenman. In the words of the famous elegy, best loved of Bernard Darwin,

:And with five such mighty cricketers 'twas but natural to win

:As Felix, Wenman, Hillyer, Fuller Pilch and Alfred Mynn.

Felix played for Kent from 1830 until 1852. He also appeared for MCC sides and was a member of William Clarke's All-England Eleven.

In his overall first-class career, Felix played in 149 matches and scored 4,556 runs with a highest score of 113. He played at a time when prevailing conditions greatly favoured bowlers and was rated very highly as a batsman by his contemporaries.Carlaw D (2020) Kent County Cricketers A to Z. Part One: 1806–1914 (revised edition), pp. 164–168. ([https://archive.acscricket.com/books/Kent_Cricketers_A_to_Z_Part_One_Revised_Expanded.pdf Available online] at the Association of Cricket Statisticians and Historians. Retrieved 2020-12-21.)

He was the author of a famous instruction book: Felix on the Bat published in 1845. He also invented the catapulta (a bowling machine) as well as India-rubber batting gloves. A man of many talents, he was also a classical scholar, musician, linguist, inventor, writer and artist.

Felix died at Wimborne Minster in Dorset and is buried in Wimborne cemetery.