Sir (Dr) Arthur Conan Doyle and his immortal creation, Sherlock Holmes—both need no introduction. The venerated author was born on May 22, 1859 in Edinburgh, Scotland.
While Dr Conan Doyle’s literary fame is universal, his sporting adventures are far less known. Dr Conan Doyle played football as a goalkeeper, was an amateur boxer, a keen golfer, and also took part in the English amateur billiards championship. In 1901, he was one of the judges of the first major bodybuilding competition.
Sir Arthur's love for cricket
However, the sport that he loved most was cricket. Although nowhere near his talents with the pen, Dr Conan Doyle was a decent cricketer who made 10 first-class appearances for the Marylebone Cricket Club and once dismissed the formidable WG Grace.
Doyle was also part of an amateur cricket team started by JM Barrie (creator of Peter Pan), whose other members included famous writers like PG Wodehouse, Jerome K Jerome, and AA Milne (creator of Winnie the Pooh).
It's all in the name
It is believed that the inspiration for the name of Doyle’s iconic detective, Sherlock Holmes, itself came from his cricketing adventures. The first name of Sherlock Holmes is most likely a mishmash of the names of two Nottinghamshire cricketers of the 1880s: Mordecai SHERwin and Frank ShackLOCK.
Frank Shacklock later joined Derbyshire, where one of his teammates was William MYCROFT – a likely inspiration for the name of Sherlock Holmes’ eccentric older brother.
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