William Henry Game (2 October 1853 – 11 August 1932) was a cricketer for Sherborne School, Oxford University and Surrey.
Game was a dangerous hard-hitting batsman who had a major weakness in lacking defensive skill – something critical against the shooters prevalent on unrolled pitches when he began playing.
[2] With three other centuries for Sherbourne,[1] Game stepped into an extremely weak Surrey eleven at the end of the season in the hope of reducing their reliance on Jupp and Pooley for runs, but scored only 33 runs in four innings and looked uncomfortable against the speed of Hill and Emmett.
In 1872, Game left Sherborne but was available for only three of Surrey's fifteen first-class matches, and when available he again failed to live up to the promise of his school record, scoring only 58 runs in six innings, but in 1873 he went up to Oriel College, Oxford, and scored 54 against Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC)[3] and 48 at Lord's against Cambridge;[4] however with only 123 runs in seventeen other first-class innings Game clearly had not established himself as a top-class batsman, a fact confirmed during 1874 when he failed to pass thirty in any of his thirteen first-class innings.
However, in 1882, Game showed with innings of 62 against Kent and especially 84 not out against Alfred Shaw and Flowers at their best[8] that he remained a very dangerous hitter.