Edward Sheffield

Edward James Sheffield (20 June 1908 – 28 April 1971) was an English cricketer who played first-class cricket for Surrey and Kent between 1930 and 1933.^[1] He was born at New Eltham in south-east London and died at Chobham in Surrey.^[2]

Sheffield was a professional right-arm in-swing fast-medium bowler and a useful right-handed lower-order batsman who had a briefly successful cricket career before he was forced to retire through back injury.^[3] He played for Surrey's second eleven in the Minor Counties competition from 1928 and made his first-class debut in 1930.^[1] He played regularly for Surrey in 1931 until injury ended his season early and topped the county's bowling averages with 64 wickets at 19.64 runs per wicket; the wickets included a return of seven for 123 against Somerset in his first match of the season which were the best innings figures of his career.^[4] He also showed occasional batting ability, including an unbeaten innings of 64 in the game against Essex.^[5]

Injury meant that Sheffield's cricket career did not develop from this promising beginning: he played a few games in 1932 but was not re-engaged by Surrey at the end of the season, and in five matches for Kent in 1933 he took only 10 wickets, and did not return for the 1934 season.^[1]