Cedric Boyns

Cedric Boyns
Personal information
Born	14 August 1954 (age 69); Starbeck, Harrogate, Yorkshire
Batting	Right-handed
Bowling	Right-arm medium
Career statistics
	Source: Cricinfo, 7 November 2022

Last updated January 30, 2024

Cedric Nigel Boyns (born 14 August 1954) is an English former cricketer who played at first-class level for a few years in the late 1970s.

He was born in Starbeck, Harrogate, Yorkshire and educated at Adams' Grammar School, Newport, Shropshire, Cambridge University, and the University of London.^[1]

Boyns started his career at Worcestershire in 1972, making a useful 47 opening for the Second XI against their Derbyshire equivalents on 31 July. He played two more Second XI matches that season, two in 1973, and then a considerable number in the second half of 1974. However, by the end of that year, in 25 innings his debut 47 remained his highest score. 1975 saw Boyns make two Second XI hundreds, on both occasions sharing large partnerships with fellow centurion Keith Wilkinson. Boyns also bowled for the first time in this season.

The following summer, he finally made his first-class debut against Somerset, albeit for Cambridge University rather than Worcestershire. He failed twice with the bat and bowled only four overs, and three further games for the university brought little change in his fortunes. Nevertheless, Worcestershire selected him to make his first-team debut on 23 June in the local derby against Warwickshire in the Benson & Hedges Cup. Despite his county's 12-run victory, it was a personal anticlimax: Boyns neither batted nor bowled. Three days later he did get to bat against Gloucestershire in the Gillette Cup, but was lbw to Procter for a duck. One day later still, he turned out against Surrey in the John Player League, but once more did not get a turn at the crease.

Boyns worked out some of his frustration with a hundred for the second team against Gloucestershire II, and at the start of July he was rewarded with a County Championship debut against Lancashire. Worcestershire won by an innings thanks to a superb all-round display by Imran Khan (111*; 7–53 and 6–46) so Boyns was only allowed a single innings, in which he scored 23. He also bowled seven wicketless overs for a cost of 17 runs. In a losing appearance in the B&H Cup final two weeks later he at least claimed his first senior wickets: Kent's Graham Johnson and Alan Ealham.

The latter part of the 1976 season saw Boyns at last establish himself in the Worcestershire first team, and he claimed his maiden first-class wicket (that of Surrey's Lonsdale Skinner) as well as scoring what would prove to be his highest score, a fighting 95 against Yorkshire which rescued his county from 76/4 in their first innings and eventually helped ensure a draw.

1977 started strangely for Boyns. He took 3–24 (his career best) against Oxford University, but this small bowling success was soon to be overtaken by a large batting crisis. Successive first-team innings of 16, 2, 4, 1, 1 and 2 saw Boyns drop to the seconds in the second week of May, but he immediately made an unbeaten 111 against Somerset II and was just as quickly recalled to the team proper. Once back, however, he struggled again, and this time it did not seem to matter whether he played in the first or the second team. In eight successive innings in all cricket he was dismissed for single-figure scores, and though his form had improved slightly by mid-August it was only in the final innings of the season, with Worcestershire following on against Somerset, that he made a significant score once more, with 77*.

In 1978 Boyns had plenty of first-team opportunities from late May to early July, but on the whole did not make the most of them. His highest score during this period was 41*, and though he claimed a List A career-best of 4–34 in the John Player League against Leicestershire he was soon back in the seconds yet again. Here, as they had on several previous occasions, the runs flowed, with scores of 105*, 87 and 78* leading to his recall. He made 71 against the New Zealanders in the second half of August, but little else was worthy of note. By 1979 Boyns' days as a Worcestershire cricketer were numbered, and indeed he made only one first-class appearance that summer, against the Sri Lankans in mid-July, although he did play six times in one-day matches. His last first-class wicket was that of Sri Lankan Roy Dias, while his last List A scalp was Sussex's Tony Pigott just a few days later.

Although Boyns never again played at first-class level, he did appear for Shropshire from 1973 up to 1985,^[1] both in the Minor Counties Championship and, on a single occasion in 1983, at List A level in the NatWest Trophy. Shropshire lost the game by 87 runs, unsurprisingly given that their opponents were the Somerset of Botham, Richards and Garner, while Boyns himself scored 12 and did not bowl. The following year he (and his former Worcestershire team-mate Wilkinson) appeared for the Old Hill side that won the William Younger Cup, while in 1986 Boyns had two minor outings for Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) and while representing Shropshire played at club level for Newport as well as for Old Hill at Cradley Heath.^[1]

Boyns was a biology teacher at Royal Grammar School Worcester and a housemaster at Bloxham School.^[2]

Related Research Articles

Ian Terence Botham, Baron Botham, is an English cricket commentator, member of the House of Lords, a former cricketer who has been chairman of Durham County Cricket Club since 2017 and charity fundraiser. Hailed as one of the greatest all-rounders in the history of the game, Botham represented England in both Test and One-Day International cricket.

Andrew Richard Caddick is a former cricketer who played for England as a fast bowler in Tests and ODIs. At 6 ft 5in, Caddick was a successful bowler for England for a decade, taking 13 five-wicket hauls in Test matches. He spent his entire English domestic first-class cricket career at Somerset County Cricket Club, and then played one Minor Counties match for Wiltshire in 2009.

Samuel Moses James Woods was an Australian sportsman who represented both Australia and England at Test cricket, and appeared thirteen times for England at rugby union, including five times as captain. He also played at county level in England at both soccer and hockey. At cricket—his primary sport—he played over four hundred first-class matches in a twenty-four-year career. The majority of these matches were for his county side, Somerset, whom he captained from 1894 to 1906. A. A. Thomson described him thus: "Sammy ... radiated such elemental force in hard hitting, fast bowling and electrical fielding that he might have been the forerunner of Sir Learie Constantine."

Philip John Newport is a former English first-class cricketer, who played primarily as a seam and swing bowler. Newport was a stalwart of Worcestershire County Cricket Club for most of the 1980s and 1990s, and played a key part in the county's triumphs in the late 1980s. Newport played in three Test matches for England between 1988 and 1991. He was born at High Wycombe in 1962.

Lionel Charles Hamilton Palairet was an English amateur cricketer who played for Somerset and Oxford University. A graceful right-handed batsman, he was selected to play Test cricket for England twice in 1902. Contemporaries judged Palairet to have one of the most attractive batting styles of the period. His obituary in The Times described him as "the most beautiful batsman of all time". An unwillingness to tour during the English winter limited Palairet's Test appearances; contemporaries believed he deserved more Test caps.

Daryl Keith Henry Mitchell is an English former first-class cricketer. Primarily a right-handed batsman who often opened the innings, Mitchell also bowled right-arm medium pace. He played for Worcestershire. He was appointed vice-captain for the 2010 season, and made captain when Vikram Solanki resigned in mid-August.

Duncan Neil Catterall is an English cricketer who played first-class cricket for Worcestershire and currently plays at minor counties level for Shropshire. He was born in Preston, Lancashire.

Scott William Kenneth Ellis is a former English cricketer who played county cricket for Worcestershire in the late 1990s.

Michael Burns is an English first-class list cricket umpire and former first-class cricketer who played county cricket for Warwickshire and Somerset in a first-class career which spanned from 1992 until 2005. He also played Minor Counties cricket for Cumberland and Cornwall. An adaptable cricketer, he appeared for Cumberland and Warwickshire as a wicket-keeper, but when he moved to Somerset he developed into an aggressive batsman who bowled at medium-pace when needed.

Douglas Norman Frank Slade is a former English cricketer who played for Worcestershire and Shropshire.

A cricket team from South America toured England, Scotland and Wales in the 1932 season. The team played six first-class matches and 12 other games. A seventh first-class match with Worcestershire was abandoned without a ball being bowled.

Ronald Ernest Bird (4 April 1915 – 20 February 1985) was an English cricketer who played 195 first-class matches in the years after the Second World War. 190 of these were for Worcestershire, while the other five were for Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC). He captained Worcestershire between 1952 and 1954, though he had acted as such on many occasions during the previous two seasons when official captain Bob Wyatt was unavailable. He usually batted at number four, while his fast-medium bowling was of the occasional variety: he never took a season's tally of wickets into double figures.

Roy Cosmo Kerslake is a former English cricketer who played first-class cricket for Cambridge University and Somerset, and captained Somerset for one season in 1968. More recently he has been prominent as a cricket administrator, serving as president of Somerset County Cricket Club from 2004 to 2015. He was born at Paignton in Devon.

Edward Sainsbury was an English cricketer who represented, and captained, Somerset County Cricket Club in the late 19th century. During a 10-year first-class cricket career, he also represented Gloucestershire and the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC).

Keith William Wilkinson is a former English first-class cricketer who played for Worcestershire between 1969 and 1975.

George Rodney Cass was an English cricketer: a wicket-keeper who played first-class cricket for Essex and Worcestershire in England, and for Tasmania in Australia, in the 1960s and 1970s. He was capped by Worcestershire in 1970. He was born at Overton, Wakefield, Yorkshire, and educated at Dewsbury Technical College.

Barry John Richardson Jones is a former English cricketer who played first-class and List A cricket for Worcestershire between 1976 and 1980.

Peter James Robinson is a former English cricketer who played first-class cricket for Worcestershire and Somerset during the 1960s and 1970s; he also played List A cricket for Somerset, who capped him in 1966. He is the nephew of England Test cricketer Roly Jenkins.

John Lawrence was a diminutive Yorkshire-born cricketing all-rounder whose middle or lower order batting and leg-break and googly bowling were of great importance to Somerset in the 10 cricket seasons immediately after the Second World War.

Jack David Shantry is a former English cricketer who played county cricket for Worcestershire. He is now an umpire.

References

1 2 3 Percival, Tony (1999). Shropshire Cricketers 1844-1998. A.C.S. Publications, Nottingham. p. 32. ISBN 1-902171-17-9.Published under Association of Cricket Statisticians and Historians.
↑ Fissler, Neil. "Where are they now? Shropshire – 1973 Minor Counties champions". The Cricket Paper. Retrieved 15 June 2019.

External links

Cedric Boyns at ESPNcricinfo

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.

[sc1-1] 1 2 3 Percival, Tony (1999). Shropshire Cricketers 1844-1998. A.C.S. Publications, Nottingham. p. 32. ISBN 1-902171-17-9.Published under Association of Cricket Statisticians and Historians.

[2] Fissler, Neil. "Where are they now? Shropshire – 1973 Minor Counties champions". The Cricket Paper. Retrieved 15 June 2019.

[1]

[2]