{{short description|English cricketer}} {{Use dmy dates|date=April 2017}} {{Use British English|date=April 2017}} {{Infobox cricketer | name = Joseph Comber | image = | country = | fullname = Joseph Thomas Henry Comber | birth_date = {{birth date|1911|2|26|df=yes}} | birth_place = | death_date = {{death date and age|1976|5|3|1911|2|26|df=yes}} | death_place = Chelsea, London | batting = Right-handed | bowling = | role = Wicket-keeper

| date = 18 April | year = 2017 | source = http://www.espncricinfo.com/ci/content/player/11267.html Cricinfo }} '''Joseph Thomas Henry Comber''' (26 February 1911 &ndash; 3 May 1976) was an English cricketer. He played 57 first-class matches between 1931 and 1948, including 35 for Cambridge University Cricket Club.<ref name=ci>{{Cite web|url=http://www.espncricinfo.com/ci/content/player/11267.html |title=Joseph Comber |accessdate=18 April 2017 |work=ESPNCricinfo}}</ref>

Comber was born in 1911, the adopted son of Henry Gordan Comber.<ref name=mc>Wall AH, Wall DE (eds) (1936) ''Marlborough College Register 1843–1933'', p. 685. London: Dean and Son. ([https://ukga.org/browse.php?action=ViewRec&DB=15&bookID=145&pagecount=720&submit=Go Available online]. Retrieved 12 July 2023.)</ref> His father was a teaching fellow at Pembroke College, Cambridge who was the treasurer of a number of Cambridge organisations and became the college bursar in 1933.<ref name=pc>[https://www.pem.cam.ac.uk/kit-smarts-blog/remembrance-part-pembroke Remembrance: a part of Pembroke], Pembroke College, Cambridge. Retrieved 12 July 2023.</ref><ref name=mchgc>Wall & Wall, ''op. cit.'', p. 314. ([https://ukga.org/browse.php?action=ViewRec&DB=15&bookID=145&pagecount=314&submit=Go Available online]. Retrieved 12 July 2023.)</ref> Like his father, Joseph was educated at Marlborough College, where he spent four years in the cricket XI, captaining the side in his final year, before going up to Pembroke in 1930. He played cricket at university, winning his first Blue as a Freshman in the 1931 University Match.<ref name=wis77>{{Cite web|url=http://www.espncricinfo.com/wisdenalmanack/content/story/228564.html|title=Obituaries in 1976|date=5 December 2005|website=Wisden}}</ref> He played as a wicket-keeper against Oxford in the 1932 and 1933 University Matches and made a total of 35 appearances for the Cambridge side.<ref name=wis77/><ref name=ca>[https://cricketarchive.com/Archive/Players/28/28670/statistics_lists.html Joseph Comber], CricketArchive. Retrieved 12 July 2023. {{subscription required}}</ref> Despite his skills as a tail-end batsman, Comber's non-linear playing style resulted in inconsistent run accumulation in first-class cricket.<ref name=wis77/> He was selected to play for the Gentlemen against the Players in 1932 and 1933.<ref name=ca/>

After leaving Cambridge, Comber worked as a chartered accountant, living in London before the Second World War.<ref name=mc/> He played cricket for the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) and Free Foresters each year between 1934 and 1937, making a total of 16 first-class appearances for the two sides during the period before the war.<ref name=ca/> He had been a member of the Officer Training Corps at school and in May 1939 was commissioned as a second Lieutenant n the Royal Artillery, serving throughout the war.

After the war Comber played a further four first-class appearances, three for MCC and one for a side organised by HDG Leveson-Gower against the touring Indian side in 1946.<ref name=ca/> He died at Chelsea in 1976 aged 65.<ref name=wis77/>

==References== {{reflist}}

==External links== * {{cricinfo|id=11267}}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Comber, Joseph}} Category:1911 births Category:1976 deaths Category:English cricketers Category:Cambridge University cricketers Category:Place of birth missing Category:Marylebone Cricket Club cricketers Category:Gentlemen cricketers Category:Free Foresters cricketers Category:Cambridgeshire cricketers Category:H. D. G. Leveson Gower's XI cricketers Category:20th-century English sportsmen Category:People educated at Marlborough College {{England-cricket-bio-1910s-stub}}