Gerald Smithson

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Gerald Smithson
Personal information
Full name
Gerald Arthur Smithson
Born(1926-11-01)1 November 1926
Abingdon, Oxfordshire
, England
BattingLeft-handed
BowlingRight-arm medium
International information
National side
Test debut21 January 1948 v West Indies
Last Test11 February 1948 v West Indies
Career statistics
Competition Test First-class
Matches 2 200
Runs scored 70 6,940
Batting average 23.33 22.67
100s/50s 0/0 8/31
Top score 35 169
Balls bowled – 94
Wickets – 1
Bowling average – 117.00
5 wickets in innings – 0
10 wickets in match – 0
Best bowling – 1/26
Catches/stumpings 0/– 131/–
Source: CricInfo, 9 September 2022

Gerald Arthur Smithson (1 November 1926 – 6 September 1970) was an English

Abingdon, Oxfordshire
.

Life and career

Smithson was a left-handed middle-order batsman, a medium pace bowler and a highly agile and effective fielder of the ball. He graduated from the

Minor Counties cricket between 1957 and 1962.[2]

Smithson's 98 for Yorkshire in the Roses Match of 1947 against Lancashire when he was aged 20 has been described in the writings of broadcaster and journalist Michael Parkinson (Parkinson's Lore, London: Pavilion, 1981). According to the then Yorkshire captain, Norman Yardley, his batting invited comparison with the young Australians of the time. Cricket historian Alan Hill (author) wrote that this particular innings "aroused hopes of an exciting future" and compared the style of the later England left-hander David Gower to that of Smithson.

Conscripted into

Bevin Boy in the coal mines during World War II, he worked for three years at Askern Main Colliery in South Yorkshire, before receiving special permission (after his case had been debated in the House of Commons) for temporary release so that he could join the tour to the West Indies with the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) team of 1947–48.[3] Smithson took part in two Test matches in the Kensington Oval in Bridgetown, Barbados and the Queen's Park Oval in Port of Spain, Trinidad – where the West Indies trio of Frank Worrell, Clyde Walcott and Everton Weekes
first appeared together. He was not successful in the first game, but made 35 in each innings of the 2nd Test, and his durability at the wicket helped to save the match for England. He was then injured on the tour, and did not play for Yorkshire in 1948.

In 1949, Smithson was part of

Scotland at Edinburgh
in July 1950.

In 1951 he joined Leicestershire County Cricket Club, with whom he remained until the close of the 1956 season.[2] His best season there was in 1952, when he hit 1,264 runs, (including two centuries) averaging 28.08. His last first-class match was for Leicestershire against Northamptonshire at the County Ground, Northampton, in August 1956.

After his full-time professional playing career ended, Smithson served as a professional cricket coach and groundsman, first at Caterham School, Surrey, and then at Abingdon School, Oxfordshire,[2] and played Minor Counties cricket for Hertfordshire County Cricket Club.

The Gerald Smithson Memorial Twenty20 Cricket Tournament was inaugurated at Abingdon School on 21 June 2009, with former England cricketer Devon Malcolm as the guest of honour.

A photograph of Smithson wearing his pit clothes appeared in Wisden in 1948 on page 38.[2]

He married Anne Salter at St Peter's Church, Earley, Berkshire, in 1954. Together they had four daughters; Jacqueline (born 1956), Gillian (1958), Joanne (1964) and Justine (1966).[4]

Gerald Smithson died suddenly in

Abingdon, Oxfordshire in September 1970, at the age of 43, as a result of a coronary.[2] At the time of his death, Abingdon was in Berkshire
.

References

  1. ^ "Gerald Smithson". www.cricketarchive.com. Retrieved 5 March 2012.
  2. ^ a b c d e "Gerald Smithson". Espncricinfo.com. Retrieved 29 April 2011.
  3. ISBN 1-869833-21-X
    .
  4. ISBN 978-0-9508503-0-6
    .

External links
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