Frank Smailes

Thomas Francis Smailes (27 March 1910 – 1 December 1970)^[1] was an English cricketer, who played first-class cricket for Yorkshire County Cricket Club, and one Test match for England. He was one of Yorkshire's main players in the club's outstanding years, when they won eight County Championships out of ten.

Though Smailes was never a player of the class of Sutcliffe, Hutton, Bowes, Verity or Leyland, he was extremely valuable to Yorkshire because of his versatility. He could bowl either swingers as a new ball partner to Bowes, or later off-breaks when pitches were affected by rain.^[2] He was also a dangerous left-handed batsman who scored over a thousand runs in 1938, with centuries against Glamorgan and Surrey.

He lost his best potential cricketing years to the cessation of competitive cricket during World War II.^[1]

Life and career

Born Thomas Francis Smailes in

1939, despite an amazing performance of 14 for 58 against Derbyshire, including ten wickets for 47 after he helped dismiss that county for 20 in the first innings, was wiped out by a major injury that allowed Smailes almost no cricket in the second half of the season. His ten wicket haul made him only the third Yorkshireman to take all ten wickets in a first-class innings, the others being Alonzo Drake and Hedley Verity (twice).^[2] At the start of hostilities, Smailes joined the 124th Battery Light Anti Aircraft Royal Artillery, as acting sergeant major. By 1942, he was promoted to captain, and served in North Africa fighting Rommel's Afrika Korps, and later in the invasions of Sicily and Italy. It was there that he learned of the death of his friend, Hedley Verity. He went to the cemetery in Caserta were Verity was buried and, along with another Yorkshire-born county cricketer, Phil King, erected a simple cross on Verity's grave. The conflict aggravated Smaile's varicose vein condition, and every day thereafter he had to have his legs bandaged.^[2]

Nevertheless, with the War having decimated England's ranks, Smailes, after just six first-class matches and an appearance in the Test Trial, finally received selection for a Test match against India at Lord's in 1946. Despite not faring badly in scoring 25 batting at number 8, and taking 3 for 44 in India's second innings, he was not retained. He was part, though, of another Yorkshire Championship winning campaign.^[2]

During the first few post-war years, despite occasionally captaining the side when

Frank Smailes died in Harrogate, Yorkshire in December 1970, after a long and painful illness, at the age of 60.^[2]

References

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