Johnny Briggs
Johnny Briggs (1862-1902)[1] was a famous English cricketer and amateur singer.
Contents
Biography
Born in Sutton-in-Ashfield, Nottinghamshire, on 3 October 1862, the son of a professional club cricketer. Like his father, he played both cricket and rugby. Playing for Lancashire County Cricket Club between 1879 and 1900, he remains the second-highest wicket-taker in the county's history and was the first bowler in Test cricket to take 100 wickets.
Sadly he suffered an epileptic seizure in 1899 and passed away on 11 January, 1902.
For more on his life and cricketing career, see the Wikipedia on him at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johnny_Briggs_(cricketer)
Contribution to SA theatre, film, media and/or performance
Briggs was a popular member of the first English cricket team to play in South Africa in 1888, a team led by C. Aubrey Smith, who would later become famous as a stage and film actor.
On 24 December of that year the members of the team attended and took part in a "smoking concert" held in their honour in the Exhibition Theatre, Cape Town. The concert had two parts, first a Christy Minstrel show, that included a comic ditty called "The Man that Struck O'Hara". The second half saw songs by local celebrities such as Tom Graham, a talk on public entertainers by Robert Baden-Powell, as well as other team members, such as the manager Major Warton and the popular Johnny Briggs. The critic and chronicler of theatre in the Cape, D.C. Boonzaier, was himself involved in the event, helping to blacken the faces of the performers in the Christy show.
Sources
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johnny_Briggs_(cricketer)
D.C. Boonzaier, 1923. "My playgoing days – 30 years in the history of the Cape Town stage", in SA Review, 9 March and 24 August 1923. (Reprinted in Bosman 1980: pp. 374-439.)
F.C.L. Bosman, 1928. Drama en Toneel in Suid-Afrika, Deel I: 1652-1855. Pretoria: J.H. de Bussy. [2]: pp.
F.C.L. Bosman. 1980. Drama en Toneel in Suid-Afrika, Deel II, 1856-1916. Pretoria: J.L. van Schaik: pp.
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