Enos Knibbs

{{Short description|West Indian cricket umpire (1886–1953)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=January 2024}} {{Infobox cricketer | name = Enos Knibbs | image = Enos Knibbs.jpg | country = West Indies | fullname = Enos Silvester Knibbs | birth_date = {{Birth date|1886|7|29|df=yes}} | birth_place = Kingston, Jamaica | death_date = {{Death date and age|1953|11|2|1886|7|29|df=yes}} | death_place = Jamaica | batting = | role = | umpire = true | testsumpired = 2 | umptestdebutyr = 1930 | umptestlastyr = 1935 | odisumpired = | umpodidebutyr = | umpodilastyr = | twenty20sumpired = | umptwenty20debutyr = | umptwenty20lastyr = | date = 28 April | year = 2020 | source = http://www.espncricinfo.com/westindies/content/player/52326.html Cricinfo }} '''Enos Silvester Knibbs''' (29 July 1886 – 2 November 1953) was a West Indian cricket umpire from Jamaica. He stood in two Test matches, in 1930 and 1935.<ref name="Cricinfo">{{Cite web|url=http://www.espncricinfo.com/westindies/content/player/52326.html |title= Enos Knibbs |accessdate=2013-07-10 |publisher=ESPNcricinfo}}</ref>

Knibbs was born in Kingston and began his involvement in cricket as a groundsman at the Melbourne Park ground. He apparently devoted himself to cricket – playing, coaching, repairing bats, umpiring and preparing pitches.<ref name=RW>{{cite web |title=Enos 'Major' KNIBBS 1886-1953 |url=http://freepages.rootsweb.com/~knibbetc/genealogy/page3c3.htm |website=Rootsweb |accessdate=28 April 2020}}</ref> The Kingston ''Daily Gleaner'' said of his umpiring in 1932 that he was "conscientious, painstaking, intelligent and thoroughly honest in his convictions ... and when he gives a decision, it comes from a cool, calculated and well-balanced mind".<ref name=RW/>

Knibbs umpired most of the first-class matches in Jamaica from 1927 to 1938, including the first two Test matches played in Jamaica.<ref>{{cite web |title=Enos Knibbs as Umpire in First-Class Matches |url=https://cricketarchive.com/Archive/Players/43/43884/Umpire_in_First-Class_Matches.html |publisher=CricketArchive |accessdate=28 April 2020}}</ref> The English Test player Errol Holmes said of him, "Enos Nibbs [''sic''] was as impartial an umpire as I have ever seen."<ref name=EH/> Knibbs used to smoke a cigarette while standing at square leg, extinguish it before officiating at the bowler's end, then re-light it when he returned to square leg.<ref name=EH>Errol Holmes, ''Flannelled Foolishness'', Hollis & Carter, London, 1957, pp. 84–85.</ref>

==See also== * List of Test cricket umpires

==References== {{reflist}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Knibbs, Enos}} Category:1886 births Category:1953 deaths Category:Sportspeople from Kingston, Jamaica Category:West Indian Test cricket umpires