RE Foster:
Image credit: The Mirror.co.uk
Reginald Erskine Foster is the only man to captain England at football and cricket. RE Foster was commonly named as Tip Foster in media. Tip Foster, certainly made his mark with comfortably the highest score by a Test debutant, a mighty 287 at Sydney in 1903-04. It remains the highest score by an English batsman in Australia. He played only one full season of county cricket in 1901 when he made 2128 runs at 50.66.
Tip Foster’s seven brothers played for Worcestershire in the years before World War 1. Foster also played a match between Gentlemen and players, Later Foster declined to lead England in Australia that winter because of b
Seven Foster brothers played for Worcestershire in the years before World War 1, but RE (Tip) was the finest cricketer. The only man to captain England at football and cricket, Tip Foster played only eight Tests, but he certainly made his mark with comfortably the highest score by a Test debutant, a mighty 287 at Sydney in 1903-04. It also remains the highest score by an Englishman in Australia. He played only one full season of county cricket, in 1901, when he made 2128 runs at 50.66. The previous year he had set the record for the highest score in the Varsity match (171) and scored a hundred in each inning in the Gentlemen v Players clash. Foster was a refined middle-order batsman with a touch of the Dexters, who graduated to the captaincy against South Africa in 1907 – he had to decline the offer to lead England in Australia in 1907 winter because of business commitments.
He won six football caps, and he and all six of his brothers played for Worcestershire. He suffered from diabetes and was just 36 when he died in 1914.