Claude Rock

Claude William Rock (9 June 1863 – 27 July 1950) was an Australian schoolmaster and a cricketer who played first-class cricket for Cambridge University, Tasmania and other amateur teams between 1884 and 1893. He was born in Deloraine, Tasmania and died at Longford, Tasmania.

Rock was educated at Launceston Grammar School and at Clare College, Cambridge. A right-handed batsman and a right-arm medium-pace bowler who used the round-arm bowling style, Rock played very successfully in Tasmanian cricket's most important fixture, the North v South match, before he was 16 years old. But with limited fixtures in Tasmania, he did not appear in first-class cricket until his arrival at Cambridge University in 1884, when he was quickly successful, taking five Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) wickets for just six runs in his second match. He retained his place in the Cambridge side through to the University Match against Oxford University when, with four wickets and the top-score for the match, an innings of 56, he did well in a comprehensive defeat for his side.

Rock maintained his place in the Cambridge sides of both the 1885 and 1886 seasons, appearing in the University Match in both years. In 1885, his university cricket captain was Lord Hawke and in August he played for an amateur team put together by Hawke which took on a full Yorkshire team and beat them, largely due to second innings bowling figures of eight wickets for 36 runs from Rock, the best of his first-class career.