Victor Norbury

Duncan Victor Norbury (3 August 1887 – 23 October 1972) was an English sportsman who played football and first-class cricket. In football, Norbury most notably played in the Southern Football League for Southampton. His first-class cricket career had a greater longevity, with Norbury playing eitherside of the First World War for Hampshire and Lancashire. He had a prominent career as a professional cricketer in the North West of England playing in the Lancashire League, mostly with East Lancashire Cricket Club.

Norbury was born in August 1887 at Bartley, Hampshire. A product of Bartley Cricket Club, where he batted with success,^[1] Norbury made his debut in first-class cricket for Hampshire against Worcestershire at Worcester in the 1905 County Championship, with him making a further eight appearances that season. He followed these up with two appearances in the 1906 County Championship against Yorkshire and Leicestershire.^[2] In his eleven matches for Hampshire, he scored 179 runs at an average of 10.52, with a highest score of 35.^[3] With his slow bowling, he took 7 wickets with best figures of 2 for 48.^[4]

Concurrent to his first-class cricket with Hampshire, Norbury played football for Southampton as a full-back in the 1905–06 Southern Football League.^[5] Prior to playing for Southampton, he had played in the New Forest for Bartley and later Brockenhurst.^[6] Norbury spent most of his football career in the reserves, but made his debut for the first team as a replacement at left-back for Horace Glover away to Brentford on 29 September 1906. Norbury retained his place for the next match, in a 5–1 victory at home to Millwall. This was Southampton's first win of the season (having managed only two draws in their first five matches); despite this, Norbury lost his place back to Glover and made only one further first-team appearance, taking over from Jack Eastham at right-back at home to Clapton Orient on 16 February 1907.^[7] In the summer of 1907, he turned out for his local village team, Bartley Cross, but broke his leg, thus preventing him from playing cricket that summer.^[6]

A professional cricketer, Norbury moved north in 1908 to play for as the professional for Backworth Cricket Club near Newcastle-upon-Tyne, where he was also their groundsman.^[8] In November 1908, he signed to play football for North Shields, having already played a trial match for Newcastle during that season.^[9] From 1910 to 1913, he was the professional for Northumberland in minor counties cricket, making 24 appearances in the Minor Counties Championship.^[10] Norbury left Backworth at the end of the 1911 season to join East Lancashire Cricket Club in the Lancashire League for the 1912 season,^[11] who he played for until the beginning of the First World War. Norbury served in the war, being commissioned into the East Lancashire Regiment as a second lieutenant in October 1915,^[12] with promotion to lieutenant following in July 1917.^[13] He was wounded in action on the Western Front in late 1917, when he fell victim to a German gas attack.^[14] He resigned his commission in December 1920, following the end of the war.^[15]

After the war, he resumed playing for East Lancashire Cricket Club in the Lancashire League. Following the resumption of first-class cricket, Norbury made his debut for Lancashire against Derbyshire at Old Trafford in the 1919 County Championship.^[2] Having passed a medical to play, he scored a half century and took five wickets across the match.^[16] Following his next match against Middlesex, Norbury found himself absent from the Lancashire side until late June following an attack of rheumatism.^[17] At the end of June, he made what would be his only first-class century, when he scored exactly 100 against Surrey.^[18] Having made eight County Championship appearances in 1919, Norbury would not play against for Lancashire until the 1922 County Championship, when he made a further six appearances.^[2] In total, he made fourteen first-class appearances for Lancashire, scoring 594 runs at an average of 25.82;^[3] with the ball, he took 23 wickets at a bowling average of 19.47, with best figures of 4 for 28.^[4]

He continued to play for East Lancashire until 1924, when he asked, to the surprise of many, for the East Lancashire committee to release him from his contract.^[19] He subsequently joined the Yorkshire-based Keighley Cricket Club for the 1925 season,^[20] though his engagement there lasted just one season, with Norbury signing for Church Cricket Club back in the Lancashire League for the 1926 season.^[21] He left Church at the end of the 1927 season, to play as an amateur for Blackpool Cricket Club for the 1928 season.^[22] Three years later, he signed as a professional in the Bolton League for Westhoughton,^[23] before rejoining East Lancashire halfway through 1932 as their professional for the season; whom he had previously scored over 7,000 runs and taken over 1,000 wickets.^[24] At the end of the 1932 season, he joined Lancashire League club Crompton,^[25] before being re-engaged by Blackpool midway through the 1934 season as their professional.^[26] The following year, he made a final appearance in first-class cricket, when he played for Sir Lindsay Parkinson XI's against Leicestershire at Blackpool in 1935.^[2]

Norbury later returned south, where he was employed by 1960 as the manager of a wallpaper company in South Norwood.^[27] He died at Sutton in October 1972.^[5] His brother-in-law, Henry Smoker, also played cricket for Hampshire and football for Southampton.^[28]

• Victor Norbury at ESPNcricinfo