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{{Short description|South African cricketer (1911–1994)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=May 2018}}
{{Infobox cricketer
| name = Bob Crisp
| image = Bob Crisp 1935.jpg
| caption = Crisp in 1935
| country = South Africa
| fullname = Robert James Crisp
| birth_date = {{Birth date|1911|5|28|df=yes}}
| birth_place = [[Calcutta]], [[Bengal]], [[British India]]
| death_date = {{Death date and age|1994|3|3|1911|5|28|df=yes}}
| death_place = [[Colchester]], [[Essex]], England
| nickname =
| heightft =
| heightinch =
| heightm =
| batting = Right-handed
| bowling = Right-arm fast
| role = Bowler
| family =
| international = true
| testdebutdate = 15 June
| testdebutyear = 1935
| testdebutagainst = England
| testcap =
| lasttestdate = 28 February
| lasttestyear = 1936
| lasttestagainst = Australia
| club1 = [[Rhodesia cricket team|Rhodesia]]
| year1 = 1929–1931
| clubnumber1 =
| club2 = [[Western Province cricket team (South Africa)|Western Province]]
| year2 = 1931–1936
| clubnumber2 =
| club3 = [[Worcestershire County Cricket Club|Worcestershire]]
| year3 = 1938
| clubnumber3 =
| columns = 2
| column1 = [[Test cricket|Test]]
| matches1 = 9
| runs1 = 123
| bat avg1 = 10.25
| 100s/50s1 = 0/0
| top score1 = 35
| deliveries1 = 1,429
| wickets1 = 20
| bowl avg1 = 37.35
| fivefor1 = 1
| tenfor1 = 0
| best bowling1 = 5/99
| catches/stumpings1 = 3/–
| column2 = [[First-class cricket|FC]]
| matches2 = 62
| runs2 = 888
| bat avg2 = 13.05
| 100s/50s2 = 0/0
| top score2 = 45
| deliveries2 = 10,968
| wickets2 = 276
| bowl avg2 = 19.88
| fivefor2 = 21
| tenfor2 = 4
| best bowling2 = 9/64
| catches/stumpings2 = 27/–
| date = 21 December
| year = 2009
| source = https://cricketarchive.com/Archive/Players/0/656/656.html Cricket Archive
}}

'''Robert James Crisp''' {{post-nominals|sep=,|DSO|MC}} (28 May 1911 – 3 March 1994) was a South African [[cricket]]er who played in nine [[Test cricket|Test matches]] between 1935 and 1936. He appeared for [[Rhodesia cricket team|Rhodesia]], [[Western Province cricket team (South Africa)|Western Province]], [[Worcestershire County Cricket Club|Worcestershire]] and [[South Africa cricket team|South Africa]]. Though his Test [[bowling average]] lay over 37.00, Crisp had a successful [[first-class cricket]] career, with 276 wickets at 19.88.<ref>{{cite web |url-access=subscription |url=https://cricketarchive.com/Archive/Players/0/656/656.html|title=Player Profile: Bob Crisp|publisher=Cricket Archive|access-date=19 December 2009}}</ref> He is the only bowler in first-class cricket to have taken four wickets in four balls more than once.<ref name="survival of the fastest">{{cite journal|last=Firth|first=David|date=December 2009|title=Survival of the fastest|journal=Wisden Cricketer|publisher=Wisden|volume=7|issue=4|pages=14}}</ref><ref name="Four">{{Cite web|url=http://www.espncricinfo.com/magazine/content/story/149134.html |title=Vijay Cricket's darkest day |access-date=6 March 2017 |work=ESPN Cricinfo}}</ref>

He went on to a career in [[journalism]] and writing, publishing several accounts of his career in [[World War II]] and earning a reputation as an adventurer.

==Cricket career==

===Domestic debut===
Crisp was born in [[Calcutta]], [[Bengal]] in [[British India]]. He made sporadic appearances for Rhodesia between 1929 and 1931, taking only seven wickets before moving to Western Province for the 1931–32 season.<ref name="First-class Bowling in Each Season by Bob Crisp">{{cite web |url-access=subscription |url=https://cricketarchive.com/Archive/Players/0/656/f_Bowling_by_Season.html|title=First-class Bowling in Each Season by Bob Crisp|publisher=Cricket Archive|access-date=20 December 2009}}</ref> He took 33 wickets that season at 14.93, including an eight-wicket haul against Griqualand West.<ref name="First-class Bowling in Each Season by Bob Crisp" /><ref name="survival of the fastest" /> He took three more five-wicket hauls in his 26 wicket-haul during the 1932–33 season, and scalped 27 more batsman in the 1933–34 season, including a career best 9/64 for Western Province.<ref name="survival of the fastest" /><ref name="First-class Bowling in Each Season by Bob Crisp" />

===England tour===
Crisp toured England in 1935, taking 107 wickets in all at 19.58. He took 5/99 at [[Old Trafford cricket ground|Old Trafford]] for South Africa, to help earn his team their first victory in England.<ref name="survival of the fastest" /> This was one of eight five-wicket hauls on the tour.<ref name="First-class Bowling in Each Season by Bob Crisp" /> Thirteen of those wickets came in his five Test matches, at 34.15.<ref name="Test Bowling in Each Season by Bob Crisp">{{cite web |url-access=subscription |url=https://cricketarchive.com/Archive/Players/0/656/t_Bowling_by_Season.html|title=Test Bowling in Each Season by Bob Crisp|publisher=Cricket Archive|access-date=20 December 2009}}</ref> He returned to South Africa to take nine expensive wickets at 45.33 – seven of these in four Test matches against [[Australia cricket team|Australia]] before returning to England once more and taking a four-wicket haul in a first-class match that summer.<ref name="First-class Bowling in Each Season by Bob Crisp" /><ref name="Test Bowling in Each Season by Bob Crisp" /> He toured [[Sri Lanka|Ceylon]] and [[British Malaya|Malaya]] with Sir [[Julien Cahn]]'s XI in the 1936–37 season, taking six wickets in the first-class match against Ceylon, before returning to England once more in 1938 to take 44 wickets for Worcestershire including a spell of 5/0.<ref name="survival of the fastest" /><ref name="First-class Bowling in Each Season by Bob Crisp" />

==World War II and later life==
Crisp served during World War II in the [[3rd Royal Tank Regiment]], later writing two books documenting his experiences: ''The Gods Were Neutral'' and ''Brazen Chariots'', the latter of which is considered one of the classic memoirs of tank warfare. These books covered his combat during the early part of the war. ''The Gods Were Neutral'' describes the British [[Battle of Greece|retreat in Greece in the spring of 1941]]. ''Brazen Chariots'' covers the period from the summer of 1941 through Crisp's participation in [[Operation Crusader]], up to his wounding. He was decorated for his bravery during the [[North African campaign]] and after being wounded there, nearly died several times from shrapnel in his skull as well as subsequent infection.<ref name="survival of the fastest" /> [[Bernard Montgomery]], commanding, intervened to restrict Crisp's decorations given the latter's disrespect for authority.{{cn|date=September 2021}} Crisp ended the war with a [[Military Cross]], [[Distinguished Service Order]], and four "Mentioned in Dispatches".<ref name="cricpro">{{cite web|url=http://www.cricinfo.com/ci/content/player/44481.html|title=Player Profile: Bob Crisp|publisher=CricInfo|access-date=20 December 2009}}</ref>

Crisp was also noted for his womanising, "crooning in the nightclubs" of [[Alexandria]] and his wide-ranging travel – including climbing [[Mount Kilimanjaro]] (he is the only Test cricketer to have climbed it twice) and swimming [[Loch Lomond]].<ref name="Beard">{{cite book |title=Ask Bearders |last=Frindall |first=Bill |author-link=Bill Frindall |year=2009 |publisher=[[BBC Books]]|isbn=978-1-84607-880-4 |page=135}}</ref> He went on to a career as a [[journalism|journalist]], writing for ''[[Wisden Cricketers' Almanack|Wisden]]'' and several newspapers.<ref name="survival of the fastest" /> He helped found ''[[Drum (South African magazine)|Drum]]'' for black South Africans, sailed [[Greece]], farmed [[mink]]s in England and wrote for the ''[[East Anglian Daily Times]]''.<ref name="cricpro" />

During the 1970s, Crisp was diagnosed with [[cancer]] and responded by walking around [[Crete]] for a year, supporting himself by selling his account to the ''[[Sunday Express]]''.<ref name="cricpro" /> He remained outspoken on [[apartheid]], advocating "a federation of semi-autonomous states, black and white" and arguing that "nothing else is feasible". The end of segregation "startled" him. He lived to see South Africa reintegrated into the international Test scene before dying in 1994.<ref name="survival of the fastest" />

==Books==
Crisp wrote a number of books, including:
* ''The Gods Were Neutral: A British Tank Officer's Very Personal Account of the Ill-Fated Greek Campaign in WWII'', 1959 {{OCLC|5926883}}
* ''Brazen Chariots: An Account of Tank Warfare in the Western Desert, November–December 1941'', 1959, {{ISBN|978-0-393-32712-0}}
* ''The Outlanders: The Men Who Made Johannesburg'', 1964, {{OCLC|829366181}}
* ''Zen and the Art of Donkey Maintenance'', 2015, Bloomsbury {{ISBN|978-1-4482-1523-2}} compiled from his travel journalism serialised in the ''Daily Express'' in the 1960s and 1970s.

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
*{{Commons category-inline|Bob Crisp}}
* {{cricinfo|ref=ci/content/player/44481.html}}
* [https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2013/mar/05/the-spin-bob-crisp-amazing-life "The life of the most extraordinary man to play Test cricket" by Andy Bull]

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Crisp, Bob}}
[[Category:1911 births]]
[[Category:1994 deaths]]
[[Category:Anglo-Indian people]]
[[Category:White South African people]]
[[Category:South Africa Test cricketers]]
[[Category:Rhodesia cricketers]]
[[Category:Western Province cricketers]]
[[Category:Worcestershire cricketers]]
[[Category:British Army personnel of World War II]]
[[Category:South African people of Anglo-Indian descent]]
[[Category:Royal Tank Regiment officers]]
[[Category:Military personnel of British India]]

Bob Crisp - Revision history

Bot at 20:36, 17 May 2022