Brocklesby Park Cricket Club

Born: 27th July 1843, Boroughbridge, Yorkshire

Died: 18th November 1895, aged 52

Batting: Right-hand batsman

Bowling: Right-arm seam

Other Cricket: Cricket Archive

First Class: (1865-80) 44 matches, 918 runs at 13.70, high score - 53. 288 wickets at 9.84, best bowling - 8/11. 20 catches.

Occupation: Licensed Auctioneer, Stocksales Man And Valuer. Former Professional cricketer

Lived: Sowerby Grange

Biography:

Described by WG Grace in 1891 in his book "Cricket" as "the finest fast bowler I ever played against: not, perhaps, the fastest; but his bowling came quickly off the pitch, and the spin he got on it troubled me more than any bowler I can remember. His delivery was easy, and he could keep it up for a very long time; and when the ball hit you, you felt as if you had been cut with a knife or a piece of the skin had been snipped off. The first time I met him was in the South v. North match at Sheffield in 1869, when I had just completed my twenty-first year, and was batting in my best form. In the first innings I made 122 out of a total of 169, and Freeman was the only bowler who gave me trouble; in the second innings he beat me with a shooter, and after the ball hit the wicket it kept spinning for a few seconds between the stumps, and then lay perfectly dead at the bottom of them.

As a bat he was a fine hitter, and scored largely at times, as witness his 123 for Malton v. All-England Eleven in 1868, against Tarrant, Tinley, J. C. Shaw and Alfred Shaw. Owing to pressure of business, he played very little first-class cricket after 1872. I sometimes think if a bowler of the quality of Freeman were to appear to-day, he would astonish the majority of good batsmen who think it a first-rate performance to keep up their wickets against medium-pace bowlers because they can break a little both ways. Freeman was a good fieldsman as well, and a real good fellow also."

Wikipedia: George Freeman (cricketer)

Wisden Obituary: Wisden Almanack 1896