Edward Rutter

While a free right-handed batsman, he will be better remembered as a slow round-armed bowler with much break. At Rugby, where he was coached by Alfred Diver, he was in the Eleven in 1859 and two following years, among his contemporaries being C. Booth, B. B, Cooper, and G. P. Robertson. In the one match against Marlborough during his time--that of 1860-- Rutter took six wickets in the first innings and three in the second. He appeared for Middlesex from 1862 until 1876, and against Kent at Gravesend in 1868 had an analysis of eleven for 123. It was for the county that he also obtained his highest score in a match of note--64 v. Oxford University at Prince's in 1872. One incident in his career that he was fond of recalling was that, when playing for the Veterans against M.C.C. in one of the Centenary games at Lord's in 1887, he clean bowled W. G. Grace for 24 with the first ball he sent down. He was for very many years a most prominent member of the Free Foresters as well as their Honorary Secretary, and for that Club did many noteworthy things. Against Southgate on the latter's ground in July, 1868, he took as many as seventeen wickets for 161 runs, although one man was run out; in the match with Gentlemen of Notts, at Beeston in August, 1871, he obtained all ten wickets for 99; and when, aged nearly 52, he carried out his bat for 41 against Mr. C. T. Hoare's XI at Bignell, in July, 1894, he and the Rev. J. H. Savory (125) put on 165 for the tenth wicket. For Hillingdon v. I Zingari in August, 1869, he took seven wickets in the first innings and ten in the second, the game being twelve a side and one batsman being run out. For over fifty years he had been a member of the M. C. C. and the Middlesex County C.C., and had served on the Committee of both Clubs. He was the author of Cricket Memories. Although known mainly in connection with cricket, Mr. Rutter was leader of football at Rugby in 1861. Late in the sixties he played for Richmond and rendered especially useful service by his skill in dropping goals with the left foot. He was a member of the first Committee of the Rugby Union to whom was entrusted the drafting of the laws of the game.
Wisden Cricketers Almanack