Frederic Bonhôte Wilson (21 September 1881 – 19 January 1932), known as Fred or Freddy, was a sporting journalist and, in his youth, a cricketer who played in first-class cricket matches for Cambridge University and amateur teams between 1902 and 1906.
[1][5] He captained the Cambridge side in 1904 and was criticised for delaying the second innings declaration so that Frederick Marsh could break the University Match record for the highest individual score, the match ending in a draw.
[6][5] Wisden Cricketers' Almanack wrote that the delay "was clearly a mistake" and that "the chance of winning the match should have outweighed all considerations of personal distinction", though it added that rain and missed catches also contributed to Cambridge's failure to win.
[7] Wilson was an all-round sportsman at Cambridge, winning blues for lawn tennis and rackets, and the obituary for him in The Times in 1932 stated that he had seen rackets as his principal sport, though he was unable to continue as a player because of indifferent health.
[1] Wilson became a schoolmaster at Rossall School in Lancashire, but did not take to the profession and became instead a sporting journalist, reporting on cricket, rackets and tennis principally, before the First World War, for the Daily Mirror, where he developed a distinctive "light" conversational style of reportage which was very popular.