{{Short description|English cricketer (1846–1889)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=January 2026}} {{Use British English|date=March 2016}} {{Infobox cricketer | name = Charlie Absolom | country = England | fullname = Charles Alfred Absolom | nickname = Cambridge Navvy | birth_date = {{Birth date|1846|6|7|df=yes}} | birth_place = Blackheath, Kent | death_date = {{Death date and age|1889|7|30|1846|6|7|df=yes}} | death_place = Port-of-Spain, Trinidad | heightft = | heightinch = | heightm = | batting = Right-handed | bowling = Right-arm medium | role = | international = true | onetest = true | testdebutdate = 2 January | testdebutyear = 1879 | testdebutagainst = Australia | testcap = 12 | club1 = Cambridge University | year1 = 1866–1869 | club2 = Kent | year2 = 1868–1879 | columns = 2 | column1 = Test | matches1 = 1 | runs1 = 58 | bat avg1 = 29.00 | 100s/50s1 = 0/1 | top score1 = 52 | deliveries1 = 0 | wickets1 = – | bowl avg1 = – | fivefor1 = – | tenfor1 = – | best bowling1 = – | catches/stumpings1 = 0/– | column2 = First-class | matches2 = 99 | runs2 = 2,515 | bat avg2 = 15.05 | 100s/50s2 = 0/4 | top score2 = 94 | deliveries2 = 13,036 | wickets2 = 282 | bowl avg2 = 19.47 | fivefor2 = 19 | tenfor2 = 3 | best bowling2 = 7/45 | catches/stumpings2 = 127/– | date = 19 March | year = 2017 | source = http://www.espncricinfo.com/ci/content/player/8483.html CricInfo }} '''Charles Alfred Absolom''' (7 June 1846 – 30 July 1889) was an English amateur cricketer who played for Cambridge University, Kent County Cricket Club and England in the period from 1866 to 1879.
==Early life== Absolom was born at Blackheath, Kent, the son of Edward Absolom, a tea merchant, and his wife Elizabeth.<ref name=carlaw>Carlaw, pp. 19–23. (Retrieved 21 December 2020.)</ref> The family later moved to Snaresbrook in Essex and Absolom was educated at a school in Calne in Wiltshire and at Trinity College, Cambridge. He won Blues in cricket and athletics at Cambridge before graduating in 1870.<ref name=ac4>Venn JA (ed) (1940) Absolom, Charles Alfred in ''Alumni Cantabrigienses'', p.4. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ([https://archive.org/details/p2alumnicantabri01univuoft/page/4 Available online]. Retrieved 22 December 2019.)</ref> He was known to friends as "Bos" and nicknamed "The Cambridge Navvy", possibly in reference to his size and strength.<ref name=carlaw/><ref name=chi>[http://www.espncricinfo.com/ci/content/player/8483.html Charlie Absolom], CricInfo. Retrieved 17 November 2017.</ref><ref name=ci80>Green B (1980) [http://www.espncricinfo.com/cricketer/content/story/278137.html The Curious Affair of Charlie Absolom], ''The Cricketer'', 1980. Retrieved from CricInfo, 17 November 2017.</ref> In 18 matches for the university he took over 100 wickets and played in the Varsity Match in each year between 1866 and 1869.<ref name=cc11may16>Mukherjee A (2016) [https://www.cricketcountry.com/articles/charlie-absolom-becomes-first-to-get-out-obstructing-the-field-in-first-class-cricket-444644 Charlie Absolom becomes first to get out obstructing the field in First-Class cricket], Cricket Country, 11 May 2016. Retrieved 17 November 2017.</ref> He played in several games for the Gentlemen against the Players and in 1868 started playing for Kent.<ref name=ca>[https://cricketarchive.com/Archive/Players/0/26/26.html Charlie Absolom], CricketArchive. Retrieved 17 November 2017. {{subscription required}}</ref> After Cambridge he enrolled at Inner Temple but did not complete his law studies.<ref name=ac4/>
==Cricket career== Absolom toured Australia with Lord Harris's team in 1878/79 and played in the only Test match of the tour. He was selected by Harris, his county captain, for the tour, although at 32 both his batting and his bowling ability were declining.<ref name=ci80 /> After Australia's Fred Spofforth had taken a hat-trick and helped reduce England to 26 for 7, Absolom came in and made 52 runs from ninth in the batting order, adding 63 runs with Harris for the eighth wicket.<ref name=cc11may16 /><ref name=liverman>Liverman D (2017) [https://cricketarchive.com/Archive/Articles/0/1.html A profile of Charlie Absolom], CricketArchive. Retrieved 17 November 2017. {{subscription required}}</ref>
He did not play another Test match and had completed his career with Kent by the end of the 1879 season. He had played in 57 matches for the county and taken 87 wickets.<ref name=ca /> In 1868, whilst playing for Cambridge, Absolom became the first batsman in first-class cricket to be given out obstructing the field when a ball being returned to the wicket came into contact with his bat whilst he was attempting to complete a seventh run.<ref name=cc11may16 />
==Later life== After leaving the legal profession, it is unclear how Absolom made his living through much of the 1870s.<ref name=carlaw/> He was a regular guest at the Canonbury home of the young M.V. Hughes, who recalled playing cricket with him and that he 'was so constantly staying with us that I looked on him as a kind of uncle.'<ref>{{Cite book |last=Hughes |first=M. V. |title=A London Child of the 1870s |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=1977 |isbn=0-19-281216-5 |location=Oxford |publication-date=1977 |pages=14}}</ref> He left England in late 1879, travelling to the United States, initially at Charlottesville and then in the New York area as well as spending time living with the Spokane people along the Columbia River in Washington Territory.<ref name=carlaw/> He worked as a ship's purser on the SS ''Orinoco'' and the SS ''Muriel''<ref name=ac4/><ref name=ci80/> and played cricket for Staten Island Cricket Club.<ref name=carlaw/> He died in 1889 aged 43 in an accident whilst cargo was being loaded onto ''Muriel'' at Port of Spain in Trinidad.<ref name=ci80/><ref name=liverman/>
==References== {{reflist}}
==Bibliography== * {{cite book |last=Carlaw |first=Derek |title=Kent County Cricketers, A to Z: Part One (1806–1914) |publisher=ACS |location=Cardiff |year=2020 |url=https://archive.acscricket.com/books/Kent_Cricketers_A_to_Z_Part_One_Revised_Expanded.pdf}}
==External links== * {{cricinfo|id=8483}} * [https://magazine.cricketarchive.com/Magazine/1989/vol_70_no_8/24/index.html Cricketer magazine article – C.A. Absolom: A Victorian Drama]
{{DEFAULTSORT:Absolom, Charlie}} Category:1846 births Category:1889 deaths Category:Alumni of Trinity College, Cambridge Category:People from Blackheath, London Category:Cricketers from the Royal Borough of Greenwich Category:Cricketers from the London Borough of Lewisham Category:Cambridge University cricketers Category:English cricketers Category:England Test cricketers Category:Kent cricketers Category:Gentlemen cricketers Category:Accidental deaths in Trinidad and Tobago Category:Gentlemen of the South cricketers Category:Southgate cricketers Category:Gentlemen of Kent cricketers Category:Oxford and Cambridge Universities cricketers