Francis Ford

Francis Ford Biography

The removal of the Coppola strips the glamour from the name, but what remains is an useful cricketer in a family of cricketing brothers.

The youngest of seven brothers who represented Repton at cricket, Francis ‘Stork’ Ford stood at 6 feet two-and-a-half inches, batted left-handed with elegance and power, and bowled useful left-arm slows. The brothers were nephews of legendary target archer Horace A Ford.

He represented Cambridge with success, moved to Middlesex for whom he played for 13 years, and went with Drewy Stoddart’s team to Australia in 1894-95 where he took part in all 5 Tests of that thrilling series.
He did not achieve success in the Tests, but his 48 in the second innings of his Test debut at Sydney was an important contribution, as England followed on and went on to win the match.

Ford did not play for England again after that series, but headed the First-Class batting averages of 1897, playing two grand hands of 50 and 79 for Gentlemen against players at Lord’s.

A fearless batsman to fast bowling, Ford scored 7,923 runs at 27.21 before giving up cricket at the end of the 1899 season because of poor health. He also scalped 198 wickets at 22.

He was also a capable goalkeeper, and got his football blue at Cambridge.

Arunabha Sengupta