Norman Stevenson

Norman Lang Stevenson was a Scottish all-round amateur sportsman. In international terms his greatest sporting achievement was winning a bronze medal for hockey at the 1908 Summer Olympics as a member of the Scotland hockey team. However it was for cricket that he was best known, as a veteran cricket captain for a leading Scottish cricket club. Between 1902 and 1948 he was Captain of Edinburgh’s Carlton Cricket Club for a total of 29 seasons, retiring at the age of 73. At every stage of his long captaincy there were years when Carlton won over 80% of their matches. He was “one of the great characters of Scottish cricket” according to The Encyclopedia of Scottish Cricket. Carlton members dubbed him the ‘W.G. Grace’ of Scottish cricket in comparison with England’s famously long playing cricketer. Stevenson also wrote a substantial book about the Scottish cricket of his era which has remained in use as a reference book into the 21st century.