| Alfred Atfield | |
| Country: | England |
| Fullname: | Alfred John Atfield |
| Birth Date: | 1868 3, df=y |
| Birth Place: | Ightham, Kent, England |
| Death Place: | Caterham, Surrey, England |
| Batting: | Right-handed |
| Bowling: | Right-arm medium |
| Role: | Batsman, umpire, coach |
| Club1: | Gloucestershire |
| Year1: | 1893 |
| Club2: | London County |
| Year2: | 1900 |
| Club3: | Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) |
| Year3: | 1901 |
| Umpire: | true |
| Testsumpired: | 8 |
| Umptestdebutyr: | 1909/10 |
| Umptestlastyr: | 1913/14 |
| Type1: | First-class |
| Debutdate1: | 29 May |
| Debutyear1: | 1893 |
| Debutfor1: | Gloucestershire |
| Debutagainst1: | Middlesex |
| Lastdate1: | 28 March |
| Lastyear1: | 1907 |
| Lastfor1: | Transvaal |
| Lastagainst1: | Border |
| Columns: | 1 |
| Column1: | FC |
| Matches1: | 8 |
| Runs1: | 137 |
| Bat Avg1: | 12.45 |
| 100S/50S1: | 0/0 |
| Top Score1: | 45 |
| Deliveries1: | 168 |
| Wickets1: | 3 |
| Bowl Avg1: | 34.00 |
| Fivefor1: | 0 |
| Tenfor1: | 0 |
| Best Bowling1: | 3/102 |
| Catches/Stumpings1: | 5/– |
| Date: | 23 August |
| Year: | 2012 |
| Source: | https://cricketarchive.com/Archive/Players/2/2810/2810.html CricketArchive |
Alfred John Atfield (3 March 1868 – 1 January 1949) played first-class cricket in England and South Africa and was also a Test match umpire and an influential cricket coach.[1] He was born at Ightham, Kent, England and died at Caterham, Surrey.[2]
A right-handed lower-order batsman and a right-arm medium-pace bowler, Atfield played for Kent's second eleven before qualifying for Gloucestershire, for whom he played three first-class matches in 1893.[2] Those were the only competitive first-class games of his career and in the third of them, batting at No 10 in the match against Kent, Atfield scored 45, which was his highest first-class score.[3] He was then recruited to play as a professional by the mill-owning cricket patron W. H. Laverton, who ran his own country-house cricket team at Leighton House, Westbury in Wiltshire. Over the next few years, Atfield played in many non-first-class games alongside some of the leading amateur players of the time: Laverton himself was the father-in-law of Lionel Palairet, for example, who was often included in Laverton's teams.[2] While employed by Laverton, he also played regularly in Minor Counties cricket for Wiltshire in the early seasons of the Minor Counties Championship.[4]
From 1897 onwards, Atfield divided his time between playing, coaching and umpiring commitments in England and South Africa.[2] In the 1897–98 South African cricket season, he was a professional in Durban club cricket and played a single first-class match for Natal in that season.[5] By 1900, he was back in England playing for W. G. Grace's London County team and the following year he became a professional for the Marylebone Cricket Club at Lord's, appearing in a couple of first-class matches in the 1901 season.[2] In the second of these games, for MCC against London County, Atfield took his only first-class wickets; his first victim as a bowler was Grace.[6]
Atfield began umpiring first-class matches with MCC from 1902 and by 1905 he had graduated to umpiring in County Championship matches in the English first-class season, remaining on the first-class umpires list in England until 1924 and thereafter standing in occasional matches through to 1932.[7] He continued to spend his winters in South Africa, and in 1906–07, in a series of three matches between Transvaal and Border he umpired two games and played for Transvaal in the third: his final first-class appearance as a player.[8]
Most of Atfield's time in South Africa was spent as a coach and he was credited as an influence in the development of Bob Catterall at Jeppe High School for Boys in Johannesburg.[9] He umpired only occasional first-class matches in South Africa, but was called on as an umpire for four Tests on each of two successive tours of South Africa by England teams – the 1909–10 tour and the 1913–14 tour.[10] He acted as umpire in England in Gentlemen v Players matches and in a Test trial match in 1927, but was not picked to umpire any Tests in England.