William Collins, who guested once for the South Wales Cricket Club, was the son of Rev. William Lucas Collins, a Church of England priest and essayist who had been born at Oxwich on the Gower Peninsula. William also became a journalist and author after a decent career as an amateur cricketer during which he made a single appearance for the Club, against the MCC at Lord’s in 1875, top-scoring with 68 and 0.
He was a right-handed batter and left-arm fast-medium bowler who first impressed at Radley where he was captain of cricket in 1866 and 1867, before going up to Jesus College, Oxford. He failed to win a Blue but established a reputation as a hard-hitting batter and decidedly sharp bowler. Even at the age of 42 he could generate decent pace, as he showed in 1888 when taking 6/35 against the Australians for an Oxford Past and Present XI.
Two years before he had also displayed his talents with the bat as, batting at number eleven, he struck an unbeaten 56 against the Australians for Lord Londesborough’s XI at the Scarborough Festival. However, his most fabled innings had come in August 1874 whilst playing a match at Freshwater on the Isle of Wight during which he scored an unbeaten 338 in around four hours in a game where there were no boundaries.
His games against the Australians were two of seven first-class appearances which William made, with others taking place for the Gentlemen of England between 1884 and 1887, as well as the South in the latter year. William also played county cricket for Northamptonshire between 1867 and 1878 as well as both Breconshire and Hertfordshire during 1875. He also played for the MCC, the Butterflies, Oxford Harlequins and the Free Foresters, whilst his club cricket was for, amongst others, Northampton, Banbury and Mote Park.
William wrote regularly for Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, whilst he was also the author of two works of fiction, each set in Oxford – “The Don and the Undergraduate” (published in 1899) and “A Scholar of his College” (published in 1900).
COLLINS, William Edmund Wood
Born – Cheriton, Glamorgan, 16 June 1848.
Died – Heacham, Norfolk, 7 January 1932.