[2] Born in Westoe, South Shields, County Durham, England,[1] he was the youngest son of a wine merchant, who moved the whole family to Marylebone, London, in 1877.

[1] When he was 23, just a year after his first-class debut, he was toying with the idea of giving up his amateur career in England to join his brother in Colorado.

His plans changed when he took the record for the highest ever score in cricket at the time with an innings of 485 for Hampstead against Stoics on 4 August 1886.

[3] No declarations were allowed in the game and the Stoics, living up to their name, fielded all day without a chance to bat.

Then wrote the queen of England Whose hand is blessed by God I must do something handsome For my dear victorious Stod.

Seventy years later, David Frith used My Dear Victorious Stod as the title of his acclaimed biography of Stoddart.

In 1888, with fellow cricketers Alfred Shaw and Arthur Shrewsbury he helped organise what became recognised as the first British Lions rugby union tour of Australia and New Zealand in 1888.

[6] On 27 December that year, Stoddart was given the captaincy of the very first Barbarian team, in a game against Hartlepool Rovers.

[2] But like many wholehearted sportsmen, including fellow England captain, Arthur Shrewsbury, with whom he had opened the batting in Australia in 1893, he found life difficult after leaving the arena.

[9] A portrait painted by Henry Weigall Jr, of Stoddart batting and Gregor MacGregor keeping wicket, was given to the MCC in 1927 by W.H.

Note 9: Michael Owen captained the Lions in the first tour game, the test vs. Argentina in Cardiff.