Greville Stevens

Greville Thomas Scott Stevens (7 January 1901 – 19 September 1970) was an English amateur cricketer who played for Middlesex, the University of Oxford and England.

A leg-spin and googly bowler and attacking batsman, he captained England in one Test match, in South Africa in 1927.

After he left Oxford in 1923, his cricket appearances became increasingly intermittent, and in 1932, at the age of 31, he gave up the first-class game altogether, although he played in occasional minor matches until 1947.

Stevens was born and grew up in Hampstead, North London, where he attended University College School.

[5] This feat attracted the attention of Middlesex County Cricket Club, who drafted him into their side to play Hampshire at Lord's on 9–10 June 1919.

[7] Stevens held his place in the Middlesex XI for the remainder of the season, and was chosen to play for the Gentleman in the prestigious Gentlemen v. Players fixture at Lord's – an almost unprecedented honour for a schoolboy cricketer.

[1] In all, Stevens played 40 matches for Oxford University, scoring 2,484 runs with two centuries, for a batting average of 38.81.

The selectors broke with the amateur captain tradition and chose Jack Hobbs, who accepted but only after first offering to defer to Stevens.

[20][21] The match was drawn, as had been the previous three; Stevens kept his place for the decider at The Oval, which England won and thus regained the Ashes.

[24][26] For the fifth Test of the series Stanyforth was unfit, and Stevens assumed the England captaincy for this one match, which was lost.

[1] After his first-class cricket career was over, Stevens played in occasional minor matches, including several for The Forty Club in 1938–39.

[31] After the Second World War in which he served as a Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve officer,[32] he toured The Netherlands with the Free Foresters side, in August and September 1947 when he was 46 years old.

[1][33] However, like other prominent amateurs of his era such as Gubby Allen and Douglas Jardine, he had to arrange his cricket around the demands of his working life.