Redgate, a very fast round-arm bowler from Nottinghamshire, was among the leading players of the 1830s. He first won renown in 1835 for dismissing the leading batsman of the time, Fuller Pilch, for ducks in each innings in the annual match between the Players and the Gentlemen. The following year, in the return match between the North and the South at Leicester, his express deliveries hit Alfred Mynn's leg so often and so hard during his enormous innings of 125 not out that amputation was considered. But Redgate's form declined after a sensational match between England and Kent in 1839, when he took three wickets in one four-ball over - but Kent went on to win by two runs. Redgate cultivated the habit of downing a brandy after each wicket he took, and he died a victim of the bottle while he was still young enough, at 40, to have been playing had he been more careful.
Debashish Biswas