Personal information | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Full name | Brian James Griffiths | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Born | Wellingborough, Northamptonshire, England | 13 June 1949|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Batting | Right-handed | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Bowling | Right arm medium | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Role | Bowler | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Domestic team information | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Years | Team | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
1974–1986 | Northamptonshire | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Career statistics | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Source:Cricinfo,7 June 2013 |
Brian James Griffiths (born 13 June 1949 in Wellingborough,Northamptonshire) is a former English first-class cricketer who played for Northamptonshire. He was a medium pace seam bowler,who took over 400 first-class wickets spanning a twelve-year period between 1974 and 1986. Griffiths later played for Lincolnshire and continued playing league cricket into his fifties.
He is however best remembered not for his bowling but for his inept batting,managing a career average of just over 3 runs per innings,which is the second-lowest by any regular first-class cricketer ahead of Francis McHugh of Yorkshire and Gloucestershire. [1] Griffiths was out 51 times in his career without scoring and early in his career played ten consecutive innings without scoring a run, [2] breaking the long-time record of Tom Goddard,Seymour Clark and Brian Boshier. [3] [4] Griffiths’batting was considered so inferior that his local club nicknamed him "the world’s worst batsman" and "the wally of the willow".
Ironically however,perhaps Griffiths’most celebrated achievement in his cricketing career came with the bat;playing Lancashire in the 1981 Natwest Trophy semi-final on Northamptonshire's home ground,Griffiths came in at number 11 with fellow tail-ender Tim Lamb still needing 13 runs to win,with one of the world’s most fearsome fast bowlers of the period,Michael Holding,running in at one end. Somehow,both Griffiths and Lamb stood firm and held on,managing to accumulate the runs required,with Griffiths getting off the mark after twenty-nine balls and hitting the winning run and being carried off shoulder high by the partisan crowd. [5] Three years later,Griffiths made eleven runs against Kent to level the scores and was run out attempting a bye off the last ball of the day,resulting in the first tie ever at Wantage Road. [6]
James Charles Laker was an English professional cricketer who played for Surrey County Cricket Club from 1946 to 1959 and represented England in 46 Test matches. He was born in Shipley,West Riding of Yorkshire,and died in Wimbledon,London.
Northamptonshire County Cricket Club is one of eighteen first-class county clubs within the domestic cricket structure of England and Wales. It represents the historic county of Northamptonshire. Its limited overs team is called the Northants Steelbacks –a reference to the Northamptonshire Regiment which was formed in 1881. The name was supposedly a tribute to the soldiers' apparent indifference to the harsh discipline imposed by their officers. Founded in 1878,Northamptonshire (Northants) held minor status at first but was a prominent member of the early Minor Counties Championship during the 1890s. In 1905,the club joined the County Championship and was elevated to first-class status,since when the team have played in every top-level domestic cricket competition in England.
Sir Leonard Hutton was an English cricketer. He played as an opening batsman for Yorkshire County Cricket Club from 1934 to 1955 and for England in 79 Test matches between 1937 and 1955. Wisden Cricketers' Almanack described him as "one of the greatest batsmen in the history of cricket". He set a record in 1938 for the highest individual innings in a Test match in only his sixth Test appearance,scoring 364 runs against Australia,a milestone that stood for nearly 20 years. Following the Second World War,he was the mainstay of England's batting. In 1952,he became the first professional cricketer of the 20th century to captain England in Tests;under his captaincy England won the Ashes the following year for the first time in 19 years.
Arthur Webb Mold was an English professional cricketer who played first-class cricket for Lancashire as a fast bowler between 1889 and 1901. A Wisden Cricketer of the Year in 1892,he was selected for England in three Test matches in 1893. Mold was one of the most effective bowlers in England during the 1890s but his career was overshadowed by controversy over his bowling action. Although he took 1,673 wickets in first-class matches,many commentators viewed his achievements as tainted.
John David Frederick Larter is a former Scottish cricketer,who played in ten Tests for England from 1962 to 1965.
The England cricket team toured Australia during the 1982–83 season,playing a five-Test series for The Ashes and a number of tour matches against Australian domestic teams before competing in a One-Day International (ODI) series against New Zealand for the Rothmans Cup. In between those competitions,England also participated in the Benson &Hedges World Series Cricket triangular ODI series against Australia and New Zealand.
Christopher Gladwin is a retired English first-class cricketer who played for Essex County Cricket Club from 1981 to 1987,and for Derbyshire County Cricket Club in 1989. He also played for Suffolk County Cricket Club in List A matches from 1988 to 1990. He was born at East Ham,Essex.
1947 was the 48th season of County Championship cricket in England. It is chiefly remembered for the batting performances of Denis Compton and Bill Edrich who established seasonal records that,with the subsequent reduction in the number of first-class matches,will probably never be broken. Their form was key to their team Middlesex winning the County Championship for the first time since 1921,although they were involved in a tight contest for the title with the eventual runners-up Gloucestershire,for whom Tom Goddard was the most outstanding bowler of the season. Compton and Edrich were assisted by the fact that it was the driest and sunniest English summer for a generation,ensuring plenty of good batting wickets.
1906 was the 17th season of County Championship cricket in England. The title was decided in the final round of matches with Kent County Cricket Club finishing just ahead of Yorkshire. George Hirst completed a unique "double Double" of 2,385 runs and 208 wickets. Tom Hayward broke Bobby Abel’s 1901 record for the most runs scored in a first-class season.
1907 was the 18th season of County Championship cricket in England. Nottinghamshire won their first official title. England played their sixth Test series against South Africa but it was the first to be held in England.
1888 was the 102nd season of cricket in England since the foundation of Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC). There was a complete contrast to the previous sunlit summer with its record-breaking run-getting:this time the summer was exceptionally cool and wet,resulting in the dominance of bowlers with many records for wicket-taking set.
1876 was the 90th season of cricket in England since the foundation of Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC). Gloucestershire reclaimed the unofficial "Champion County" title. A relatively dry summer and improvements to pitches via the heavy roller saw several batting records broken.
1883 was the 97th season of cricket in England since the foundation of Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC). There was the first of four successive titles won by Notts,and the beginning of the "Great Revival" of Surrey,who had been among the weaker counties since 1866.
1887 was the 101st season of cricket in England since the foundation of Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC). Surrey was the leading county for the first time in over twenty years,a status they would retain until 1892.
Francis Prest McHugh was an English first-class cricketer,who played three games for Yorkshire County Cricket Club in 1949,and 92 matches for Gloucestershire from 1952 to 1956.
Sir Derrick Thomas Louis Bailey,3rd Baronet was the son of the South African entrepreneur Sir Abe Bailey and of the pioneer aviator Dame Mary Bailey,and won fame for himself as a decorated Second World War pilot,a cricketer and a businessman. Inheriting his father's baronetcy in 1946 from his elder half-brother,he was known for the last 63 years of his life as Sir Derrick Bailey.
Brian Stanley Boshier was an English cricketer who played first-class cricket for Leicestershire County Cricket Club between 1953 and 1964.
John William Lee,generally known as Jack Lee,was an English cricketer who played for Somerset from 1925 to 1936,having played one match for Middlesex in 1923. He was an all-rounder,scoring six centuries and taking ten wickets in a match on two occasions by the end of his career. He was killed on active service with the British Army during the Second World War.
The 1979 Gillette Cup Final was a cricket match between Somerset County Cricket Club and Northamptonshire County Cricket Club played on 8 September 1979 at Lord's in London. It was the seventeenth final of the Gillette Cup,which had been the first English domestic knock-out competition between first-class sides. Northamptonshire had won the competition in 1976;Somerset were playing their second consecutive final,having lost to Sussex in 1978.
William Legge Neale was an English professional cricketer who played for Gloucestershire County Cricket Club from 1923 to 1948. He was born in Berkeley,Gloucestershire,and died in Gloucester. Neale was a right-handed batter who scored 14,752 runs in 452 first-class matches with a highest score of 145* among fourteen centuries. An occasional right-arm slow bowler,he took 100 career wickets. Rated an excellent outfielder,he completed 227 catches.