Sydney Smith (cricketer, born 1881)

Sydney Gordon Smith (15 January 1881 – 25 October 1963) was a cricketer who had three distinct careers, playing for Trinidad in the West Indies, for Northamptonshire in England and for Auckland in New Zealand.

In all matches he performed the "double", scoring 1107 runs and taking 116 wickets, leading the averages in both categories.

When he started playing regularly in 1909 he was an instant success, scoring more than 1000 runs and taking 115 wickets, his first full county season.

Financial problems and the ill-health of a member of his family led Smith to move in late 1915 to New Zealand, where he settled in Auckland.

"He used his height to the full to bowl a leg-break with a dropping ball and gave some fine exhibitions with the bat, though already in his mid-thirties".

His uncles Frederick and Augustus Smith played for Barbados in early inter-colonial cricket.

A biography, Cricket's Mystery Man: The Story of Sydney Gordon Smith: West Indies, MCC, New Zealand, by Bill Francis, was published in Australia in 2014.