 Collins in about 1933 | |||||||||||||||
| Personal information | |||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Geoffrey Albert Kirwan Collins | ||||||||||||||
| Born | 16 May 1909 Hove, Sussex | ||||||||||||||
| Died | 7 August 1968 (aged 59) Hove, Sussex | ||||||||||||||
| Batting | Right-handed | ||||||||||||||
| Domestic team information | |||||||||||||||
| Years | Team | ||||||||||||||
| 1928–1934 | Sussex | ||||||||||||||
| FC debut | 21 July 1928 Sussex v Northants | ||||||||||||||
| Last FC | 20 June 1934 Sussex v Oxford University | ||||||||||||||
| Career statistics | |||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||
Geoffrey Albert Kirwan Collins (16 May 1909 – 7 August 1968) was an English cricketer active from 1928 to 1934 who played for Sussex County Cricket Club between 1928 and 1934.
Collins was born at Hove in Sussex[1] and educated at Lancing College where he played in the school cricket team. In his final year at school he made four centuries, including a score of 212, and went on to make his first-class cricket debut for Sussex later in the same season.[2] As a schoolboy, Collins was described as "making all the strokes" with his only major defect being "an occasional failure in patience".[3]
He appeared in 50 first-class matches between 1928 and 1934 as a right-handed batsman, scoring 1,140 runs with a highest score of 90 runs. As well as playing for Sussex he made one first-class appearance for MCC in 1931,[4] but after 1934 his business commitments restricted him to playing club cricket.[2] As well as playing cricket, Collins also played football for Lancing Old Boys and Corinthian Casuals F.C.[2]
During World War II Collins joined the Royal Artillery from the Honourable Artillery Company. He reached the rank of Lt. Col. with 90 Heavy Anti-Aircraft Regiment and served in the North-West Europe Campaign of 1944–45, including the Liberation of Antwerp and crossing the Rhine. He was awarded a Military Cross in 1946.[5] He died suddenly in August 1969 at Hove aged 59.[1][2]
References
- 1 2 Geoffrey Collins, CricInfo. Retrieved 2019-03-25.
- 1 2 3 4 Collins, Geoffrey Albert Kirwan, Obituaries in 1968, Wisden Cricketers' Almanack, 1969. Retrieved 2019-03-25.
- ↑ Podmore A (1929) Public school cricket in 1928, Wisden Cricketers' Almanack, 1929, pp.290–291. (Available online. Retrieved 2019-03-25.)
- ↑ Geoffrey Collins, CricketArchive. Retrieved 2019-03-25.
- ↑ Recommendation for Award for Collins, Geoffrey Albert Kirwan Rank: Captain,..., The National Archives, ref:WO 373/56/568. Retrieved 2019-03-25.