{{short description|English cricketer}} {{Use dmy dates|date=September 2014}} {{Use British English|date=September 2014}} {{Infobox cricketer | name = Stuart Boyes | country = England | fullname = George Stuart Boyes | birth_date = {{Birth date|1899|3|31|df=yes}} | birth_place = Southampton, Hampshire, England | death_date = {{Death date and age|1973|2|11|1899|3|31|df=yes}} | death_place = Southampton, Hampshire, England | batting = Right-handed | bowling = Slow left-arm orthodox | role = | family = | club1 = Hampshire | year1 = {{nowrap|1921–1939}} | club2 = Marylebone Cricket Club | year2 = 1926/27 | columns = 1 | column1 = First-class | matches1 = 504 | runs1 = 8,078 | bat avg1 = 14.95 | 100s/50s1 = 2/17 | top score1 = 104 | deliveries1 = 85,860 | wickets1 = 1,472 | bowl avg1 = 23.51 | fivefor1 = 74 | tenfor1 = 11 | best bowling1 = 9/57 | catches/stumpings1 = 495/– | date = 15 October | year = 2024 | source = https://www.espncricinfo.com/cricketers/stuart-boyes-9191 Cricinfo }}
'''George Stuart Boyes''' (31 March 1899 – 11 February 1973) was an English first-class cricketer, born in Southampton, who played for Hampshire County Cricket Club.
==Cricket== ===Early life and career=== George Stuart Boyes was born in Southampton on 31 March 1899. He was spotted as a slow left-arm orthodox bowler at the age of 14 by Hampshire cricketer Alex Bowell, who took him to the club's secretary, Francis Bacon,<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.utilitabowl.com/cricket/news/hampshire-cricket-remembers-on-armistice-centenary/|title=Hampshire Cricket Remembers On Armistice Centenary|publisher=Hampshire County Cricket Club|date=10 November 2018|access-date=30 May 2026}}</ref> who engaged him on the staff in 1913.<ref name="PRO">{{cite web|url=https://www.espncricinfo.com/cricketers/stuart-boyes-9191|title=Stuart Boyes|publisher=ESPNcricinfo|access-date=30 May 2026}}</ref> Boyes, who had been playing club cricket in Southampton,<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000101/19220528/141/0011|title=Hampshire's New Bowler|first=Phil|last=Mead|author-link=Phil Mead|work=Reynold's Newspaper|location=London|page=11|date=28 May 1922|access-date=30 May 2026|url-access=subscription|via=British Newspaper Archive}}</ref> made his first-class debut for Hampshire against Surrey at Bournemouth in the 1921 County Championship; he made five Championship appearances during his debut season,<ref name="FCM">{{cite web|url=https://cricketarchive.com/Archive/Players/6/6499/First-Class_Matches.html|title=First-Class Matches played by Stuart Boyes|publisher=CricketArchive|access-date=30 May 2026|url-access=subscription}}</ref> with Boyes playing as an amateur.<ref name="OBIT">{{cite web|url=https://www.espncricinfo.com/wisdenalmanack/content/story/228559.html|title=Obituaries in 1974|publisher=ESPNcricinfo|access-date=30 May 2026}}</ref> Prior to the 1922 season, he had been employed at the Ordnance Survey and was a serving member of the Royal Engineers.{{sfn|Altham|Arlott|Eagar|Webber|1957|page=107}} From the 1922 season, he played as a paid professional,<ref name="OBIT"/> with Hampshire having paid half of his discharge fee from the army.{{sfn|Altham|Arlott|Eagar|Webber|1957|page=107}} He established himself in the Hampshire team in 1922, making 28 appearances and taking 94 wickets at a bowling average of 18.82; he took five wickets in an innings on seven occasions, and ten-wickets in a match twice.<ref name="FCBOS">{{cite web|url=https://cricketarchive.com/Archive/Players/6/6499/f_Bowling_by_Season.html|title=First-Class Bowling in Each Season by Stuart Boyes|publisher=CricketArchive|access-date=30 May 2026|url-access=subscription}}</ref> His presence in the team gave support to fellow spinner Alec Kennedy, which was said to have promoted an improvement in Kennedy's bowling.{{sfn|Altham|Arlott|Eagar|Webber|1957|page=107}}
Boyes was a slow left-arm bowler with a high action, taking 1415 wickets for Hampshire. He took 100 wickets in a season three times, his best year being 111 at 26.75 in 1933. He twice took a hattrick, one of them when he took his career best figures of 9 for 57 against Somerset at Yeovil in 1938. With the bat he took 413 matches before making his maiden century, only three players in history have waited longer.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://cricketarchive.com/Archive/Records/Firstclass/Overall/Most_Matches_Before_Maiden_Century.html |title=Most Matches Before Maiden Century |access-date=26 October 2017 |archive-date=3 March 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303204102/http://www.cricketarchive.com/Archive/Records/Firstclass/Overall/Most_Matches_Before_Maiden_Century.html |url-status=dead }}</ref> He was an excellent close fielder and took 498 catches in first-class matches, many of them at short-leg.<ref>Philip Bailey, Philip Thorn and Peter Wynn-Thomas, 'Who's Who of Cricketers (London, 1984), p. 128</ref>
===Tour selection=== His major overseas tour was with the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) to India and Ceylon in 1926/7. He took 56 wickets at 18.69 including 7-52 against a Europeans in the East XI at Eden Gardens, Calcutta.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://cricketarchive.com/Archive/Players/6/6499/f_Bowling_by_Season.html|title=Stuart Boyes bowling Season by Season at Cricket Archive, retrieved July 2015}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://cricketarchive.com/Archive/Scorecards/12/12154.html|title=Europeans in the East vs. MCC at Cricket Archive, retrieved July 2015}}</ref>
==Coaching career== During the Second World War, Boyes supervised junior coaching sessions at the County Ground.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CYE0EAAAQBAJ|title=Cricket in the Second World War: The Grim Test|first=John|last=Broom|publisher=Pen and Sword Books|location=Barnsley|year=2021|page=44|isbn=9781526780188|language=en}}</ref> Following the end of the war in 1945, Boyes was employed as a cricket coach at Ampleforth College from 1946 to 1963.<ref name="WIS">{{cite web|url=https://www.espncricinfo.com/wisdenalmanack/content/story/228559.html|title=Wisden – Obituaries in 1974|date=5 December 2005 |publisher=ESPNcricinfo|access-date=15 October 2024}}</ref> He died in Southampton in February 1973.<ref name="WIS"/>
==Personal life and death== His brother, Ken, was a professional footballer with Southampton and Bristol Rovers, as well as a member of Hampshire's ground staff.<ref>{{cite book|title=The Alphabet of the Saints|last=Holley|first=Duncan|author2=Chalk, Gary|publisher=ACL & Polar Publishing|year=1992|isbn=0-9514862-3-3|page=42}}</ref>
==References== {{reflist}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Boyes, Stuart}} Category:1899 births Category:Cricketers from Southampton Category:1973 deaths Category:English cricketers Category:Hampshire cricketers Category:London Counties cricketers Category:Players cricketers Category:Marylebone Cricket Club cricketers Category:English cricketers of 1919 to 1945 Category:20th-century English sportsmen Category:Royal Engineers soldiers