Born in India and educated at
Cheltenham College in England, Cripps played just four
first-class cricket matches, all of them in South Africa. A middle-order right-handed batsman, his first
first-class appearance was in the South African Test side in March 1892 that lost to
Walter Read's
English touring team – which included the Australian players
Billy Murdoch and
John Ferris. Cripps was one of four South Africans who were making their first-class debuts in this Test match. A season later, Cripps played twice for
Western Province, scoring a century in the second match against
Griqualand West. His final first-class game was the 1893–94
Currie Cup final for Western Province against
Natal which his side won inside two days. In 1894, he was vice-captain of the
South African tour team to England, but no first-class matches were played on the tour. At the time he was working as a cashier for the
African Banking Corporation. Cripps was a cousin of the British
Cabinet minister Sir Stafford Cripps. He had been a
deputy sheriff in the
Cape Colony before going to Australia some 30 years before his death. At the time of his death in July 1943 he was living at Simpson Road in the Adelaide suburb of
Wattle Park. He had been a schoolmaster in Australia, initially in
Queensland and then at
St Peter's College, Adelaide, until 10 years before his death. ==References==