David Acfield

Last updated

David Acfield
Born (1947-07-24) 24 July 1947 (age 76)
Height5 ft 9 in (175 cm)
Cricket information
BattingRight-handed
BowlingRight-arm off-break
Domestic team information
YearsTeam
Fencing
Representing Flag of England.svg  England
British Commonwealth Games
Gold medal icon (G initial).svg 1970 Edinburgh team sabre

David Laurence Acfield (born 24 July 1947) is an English former first-class cricketer [1] who was also a champion fencer.

Contents

Cricket career

He was part of the successful Essex County Cricket Club team of the late 1970s and early 1980s and formed a noted county spin partnership with Ray East. He was a right-arm off break bowler and right-handed tail-end batsman. He played for Cambridge University from 1966 to 1968 and Essex from 1966 to 1986. He also appeared for MCC in 1973–74 and 1974. He was awarded his Essex cap in 1970 and had his Essex benefit season in 1981.

He took 10 wickets in a match 4 times and 5 wickets in an innings 34 times. His best first-class figures, 8 for 55, came against Kent. Acfield was no batsman, failing to score a first-class fifty in 417 innings. His best score, 42, came against Leicestershire. His lack of batting ability, and strong competition from the likes of Fred Titmus and John Emburey, told against his chances of Test selection, although he was on the 'long list' for inclusion in the English team that toured West Indies in 1973.

After retiring he remained in the game and served on the ECB's management committee. [2] [3]

Fencing career

Acfield was also an Olympic fencer, taking part in the 1968 and 1972 Games. [4] [5]

He represented England and won a gold medal in the team sabre at the 1970 British Commonwealth Games in Edinburgh. [6] [7] [8]

Acfield was a four times British fencing champion, winning the sabre title at the British Fencing Championships for four years in a row, 1969–1972, during which period he was the leading sabre fencer in the country. [9] He retired from fencing after the 1972 Olympics, preferring to devote himself to cricket as a professional, having previously retained his amateur status to protect his Olympic qualification. [10] [11]

Personal life

Acfield attended Brentwood School, and graduated in history from Christ's College, Cambridge. For many years, during his cricket career, he taught history and took nets in winter at Rainsford Comprehensive School, later renamed St Peter's College, Chelmsford.

After his retirement from athletics, Acfield served as an administrator for the England and Wales Cricket Board and later as the president of the Essex County Cricket Club. [12]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Garfield Sobers</span> Barbadian cricketer (born 1936)

The Right Excellent Sir Garfield St Aubrun Sobers, NH, AO, OCC, also known as Sir Gary or Sir Garry Sobers, is a former Barbadian cricketer who played for the West Indies between 1954 and 1974. A highly skilled bowler, an aggressive batsman and an excellent fielder, he is widely considered to be cricket's greatest ever all-rounder and one of the greatest cricketers of all time.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Grant Flower</span> Zimbabwean cricketer

Grant William Flower is a Zimbabwean cricket coach and former cricketer. He was the batting coach of the Sri Lanka cricket team, Pakistan cricket team, and Sussex.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robert Croft</span> British cricketer

Robert Damien Bale Croft is a former Welsh cricketer who played international cricket for the England cricket team. He is an off-spin bowler who played for Glamorgan and captained the county from 2003 to 2006. He retired from first class cricket at the end of the 2012 season, having played county cricket for 23 seasons. He commentates on cricket occasionally for Sky Sports.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Johnny Douglas</span> English cricketer

John William Henry Tyler Douglas was an English cricketer who was active in the early decades of the twentieth century. Douglas was an all-rounder who played for Essex County Cricket Club from 1901 to 1928 and captained the county from 1911 to 1928. He also played for England and captained the England team both before and after the First World War with markedly different success. As well as playing cricket, Douglas was a notable amateur boxer who won the middleweight gold medal at the 1908 Olympic Games.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Trevor Bailey</span> England cricketer, sportswriter and broadcaster

Trevor Edward Bailey was an England Test cricketer, cricket writer and broadcaster.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Micky Stewart</span> English cricketer (born 1932)

Michael James Stewart is an English former cricketer, coach and administrator. A right-handed batsman, Stewart's international career was hampered by illness that curtailed his first overseas tour – serving as vice-captain in India in 1963–64 – and he made only eight Test appearances in all, scoring two half-centuries. His domestic career for Surrey spanned eighteen years, in which he scored over 26,000 first-class runs with forty-nine centuries. He made a century on debut for his county, against Pakistan, and went on to break the then-world record number of catches in a match in 1957 with his strong fielding. He captained Surrey between 1963 and 1972, winning the County Championship in 1971. After retiring, he became a manager at the club and later for England until 1992. He then worked for the ECB until 1997. He was the coach of the English squad which finished as runners-up at the 1987 Cricket World Cup.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sailor Young</span> English cricketer

Harding Isaac "Sailor" Young was a professional cricketer who played for Essex and England.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Claude Buckenham</span> English cricketer and footballer

Claude Percival Buckenham was an English first-class cricketer who played for Essex and England. He also won a gold medal playing football at the Olympic Games in 1900.

David Wilde is a former English cricketer who played first-class cricket for Derbyshire in 1971 and 1972.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Charles Ollivierre</span> West Indian cricketer

Charles Augustus Ollivierre was a Vincentian cricketer who represented the West Indies in matches before they attained Test match status. Born in St Vincent, Ollivierre initially played first-class cricket for Trinidad; he was selected to tour England with the West Indies team in 1900. He later qualified to play first-class cricket for Derbyshire between 1901 and 1907, becoming the first black West Indian to play for an English county. Ollivierre was reasonably successful in county cricket and had a reputation as a stylish batsman. However, he dropped out of first-class cricket after 1907 owing to eye trouble.

Arthur Henry Seymour Clark, was a first-class cricketer who played five times for Somerset in the 1930 English cricket season and set a record for the number of innings batted without scoring a run that appears not to have been surpassed.

Cyril Theodore Anstruther Wilkinson CBE was an English field hockey player who competed in the 1920 Summer Olympics for Great Britain. The team won the gold medal. He was also a cricketer, as well as Registrar of the Probate and Divorce Registry from 1936 to 1959.

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.

Richard A Cohen is a retired British fencer who competed at three Olympic Games and the author of four books, Making History, The Storytellers Who Shaped the Past,Chasing the Sun, the story of man's relationship to that star, How to Write Like Tolstoy, A Journey into the Minds of Our Greatest Writers, and By the Sword, a history of sword fighting. He is the founder of the book publisher Richard Cohen Books.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Laurie Johnson (cricketer)</span> West Indian cricketer (1927–2020)

Hubert Laurence Johnson was a Barbados-born cricketer who played first-class cricket for Derbyshire between 1949 and 1966, scoring more than 14,000 runs.

Henry William Furse "Bill" Hoskyns MBE was a British fencer who appeared at six Olympic Games.,

Alexander James O'Connell is a sabre fencer who competed for Great Britain at the 2008 Olympic Games.

Peter Jacobs is a British épée fencer who competed at the Olympics.

Henry James Pallett was an English cricketer who played first-class cricket between 1886 and 1898, principally for Warwickshire. He was born in Birchfield, then in Staffordshire, and died at Aston, Birmingham.

References

  1. David Acfield, CricInfo. Retrieved 25 June 2021.
  2. Wilde, Simon (18 March 2012). "Best & Worst; David Acfield Essex spinner and Olympic fencer". The Sunday Times.
  3. Acfield steps down, BBC Sport, 30 July 2001. Retrieved 25 June 2021.
  4. "David Acfield Olympic Results". sports-reference.com. Archived from the original on 4 November 2012. Retrieved 29 December 2010.
  5. "Olympians Who Played First-Class Cricket". Olympedia. Retrieved 28 July 2020.
  6. The Sword magazine, 1966 and 1970 "1970 Athletes". Team England.
  7. "Edinburgh, 1970 Team". Team England.
  8. "Athletes and results". Commonwealth Games Federation.
  9. "British Champions" (PDF). British Fencing. Retrieved 29 October 2022.
  10. "Whatever happened to... David Acfield". The Cricketer. 1 September 2021. pp. 98–99.
  11. "David Laurence Acfield". Olympics.com. International Olympic Committee. Retrieved 23 January 2022.
  12. "David Acfield". Olympedia. OLYMadMen. Retrieved 7 October 2022.