Ken Taylor (cricketer, born 1935)

Last updated

Ken Taylor
Personal information
Full name Kenneth Taylor
Date of birth (1935-08-21) 21 August 1935 (age 88)
Place of birth Huddersfield, Yorkshire, England
Position(s) Defender
Senior career*
YearsTeamApps(Gls)
1953–1965 Huddersfield Town 250 (14)
1965–1967 Bradford (Park Avenue) 51 (1)
1968 Sligo Rovers 5 (0)
*Club domestic league appearances and goals
Cricket information
BattingRight-handed
BowlingRight-arm medium
International information
National side
Test debut4 June 1959 v  India
Last Test2 July 1964 v  Australia
Career statistics
Competition Test First-class
Matches3313
Runs scored5713,053
Batting average 11.4026.74
100s/50s0/016/68
Top score24203*
Balls bowled1210,631
Wickets 0131
Bowling average 28.72
5 wickets in innings 1
10 wickets in match0
Best bowling6/75
Catches/stumpings 1/–150/–
Source: CricInfo, 7 November 2022

Ken Taylor (born 21 August 1935) [1] is an English former cricketer, who played in three Tests for England from 1959 to 1964. He also played first-class cricket for Yorkshire. He was renowned as a good player of spin and was one of the best cover fielders of his generation, while his medium pace 'darts' broke many a stubborn partnership for his county captains, Vic Wilson and Brian Close. [1]

Contents

The cricket correspondent, Colin Bateman, commented that Taylor was, "a fine, straight-hitting batsman and brilliant fielder.... yet he never made full use of his bounteous abilities and was affected by nerves when the stakes were high". Bateman added, "'A total enigma' was how one former team-mate described him". [1]

He was also a professional footballer in the winter, and later a professional artist. [1]

Early life

Taylor's father repaired looms in the local weaving industry. His maternal grandfather was a ventriloquist, and ran a Punch and Judy show on the beach at Blackpool. His elder brother, Jeff Taylor, played professional football for Huddersfield Town, Fulham and Brentford; he also studied geography at the University of London, and then went to the Royal Academy of Music and became an opera singer.

Ken attended Stile Common School in Huddersfield.

Football career

He joined the groundstaff at Huddersfield Town after leaving school in 1950, and made 250 first-team appearances for them from 1953 to 1965, before playing for Bradford (Park Avenue) from 1965 to 1967, playing as a centre half. [1] He also played for England under 23s. He played in the extraordinary match against Charlton Athletic on 21 December 1957. Charlton played most of the match with ten men after Derek Ufton was injured, and Huddersfield were leading 5–1 with just 27 minutes remaining. At that point, Johnny Summers began an extraordinary passage of play in which he scored five goals and assisted with two others to allow Charlton to win 7–6. Huddersfield become the first, and still the only, team to score six goals in an English Football League match – or indeed any other professional football match – and still be on the losing side.

Cricket career

Taylor was also an important member of the successful Yorkshire team which dominated the County Championship in the 1960s, winning seven titles between 1959 and 1968. Often an opening batsman, he was also an occasional bowler, taking 131 first-class wickets in his career. He was a member of the Yorkshire team that won the final of the third Gillette Cup, in 1965. [2] Taylor made his first appearance for Yorkshire in 1953, aged 17, won his county cap at 21 and played for England at 23, opening the batting against India with Arthur Milton. He was dropped after two matches, but was selected again in 1964, after an epic innings of 160 at Sheffield against the visiting Australians. Unfortunately he broke a finger in that match, and was not selected for his country again. After a benefit, he retired from professional cricket in 1968.

Art career

His father encouraged him to find a job that would continue after he stopped "playing games", and he studied at Huddersfield Art School and then the Slade School of Fine Art in London from 1956, [1] and became a professional artist. After retiring from cricket he taught art at Gresham's School in Norfolk for more than thirty years. His son, Nick Taylor, also played first-class cricket for Yorkshire, Surrey and Somerset. [1]

A biography, Ken Taylor: Drawn to Sport by Stephen Chalke, with illustrations by Taylor, was published in 2006. [3]

Related Research Articles

Michael William Gatting is an English former cricketer, who played first-class cricket for Middlesex and for England from 1977 to 1995, captaining the national side in twenty-three Test matches between 1986 and 1988. He toured South Africa as captain of the rebel tour party in 1990.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brian Close</span> English cricketer

Dennis Brian Close, was an English first-class cricketer. He was picked to play against New Zealand in July 1949, when he was 18 years old. Close went on to play 22 Test matches for England, captaining them seven times to six wins and one drawn test. Close also captained Yorkshire to four county championship titles – the main domestic trophy in English cricket. He later went on to captain Somerset, where he is widely credited with developing the county into a hard-playing team, and helping to mould Viv Richards and Ian Botham into the successful players they became.

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

David Leslie Bairstow was an English cricketer, who played for Yorkshire and England as a wicket-keeper. He also played football for his hometown club Bradford City. He is the father of England international cricketer Jonny Bairstow.

Kenneth Higgs was an English fast-medium bowler, who was most successful as the opening partner to Brian Statham with Lancashire in the 1960s. He later played with success for Leicestershire.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dickie Bird</span> English cricket umpire

Harold Dennis "Dickie" Bird,, is an English former cricketer and retired international cricket umpire. During his long umpiring career, he became a much-loved figure among players and viewing public, due to his excellence as an umpire, but also his many eccentricities.

Jack Birkenshaw, was an English cricketer, who later stood as an umpire and worked as a coach. Cricket commentator, Colin Bateman, stated "Jack Birkenshaw was the epitome of a good all-round county cricketer: a probing off-spinner who used flight and guile, a handy batsman who could grind it out or go for the slog, a dependable fielder and great competitor".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Andrew Greenwood</span> English cricketer (1847–1889)

Andrew Greenwood was an English professional cricketer who played for Yorkshire County Cricket Club from 1869 to 1880. He was born and died in Huddersfield, West Riding of Yorkshire. He was a member of the England team which played in the first two Test matches, retrospectively recognised.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Allen Hill (cricketer)</span> English cricketer

Allen Hill played in the first-ever cricket Test, taking the first wicket. Hill also went on to umpire in the Test match played at Lord's in 1890.

John Harry Hampshire, also known as Jack Hampshire, was an English cricketer and umpire, who played eight Tests and three One Day Internationals (ODIs) for England between 1969 and 1975. He played first-class cricket for Yorkshire from 1961 to 1981, and for Derbyshire from 1982 to 1984. Overseas, he was a successful captain of Tasmania in the period before the state was included in the Sheffield Shield. He was also appointed President of Yorkshire County Cricket Club in 2016, serving until his death a year later.

Gerald Arthur Smithson was an English cricketer who played in two Tests for England in 1947–48. He was born at Spofforth, West Riding of Yorkshire and died at Abingdon, Oxfordshire.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Willie Watson (English cricketer)</span> English cricketer and footballer

Willie Watson was an English cricketer, who played for Yorkshire, Leicestershire and England. He was a double international, as Watson was also a footballer who played for England's national team. He was the son of Billy Watson, and brother of Albert Watson, also footballers.

<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.

Barry Wood is a former English cricketer, who played 12 Test matches for the England cricket team as an opening batsman, as well as 13 One Day Internationals. He played first-class cricket for Yorkshire in 1964, for Lancashire from 1966 to 1979, and for Derbyshire from 1980 to 1983, where he was the captain for three seasons.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Graham Roope</span> English cricketer

Graham Richard James Roope was an English cricketer, who appeared in twenty-one Tests and eight ODIs for England between 1973 and 1978.

Albert John "Allan" Watkins was a Welsh cricketer, who played for England in fifteen Tests from 1948 to 1952.

Peter Howard Parfitt is an English former cricketer. He attended Fakenham Grammar School, and King Edward VII Grammar School, in Kings Lynn, Norfolk.

William Farrand Oates was an English first-class cricketer, who played for Yorkshire in 1956, and for Derbyshire from 1959 to 1965.

Derek Gilbert Ufton was an English professional cricketer and footballer, and later a football manager. Playing professionally for Kent County Cricket Club as a wicket-keeper and Charlton Athletic Football Club, Ufton won a single international cap for the England national football team in 1953. He went on to manage Plymouth Argyle. At the time of his death, in March 2021 at the age of 92, he was England's oldest living international footballer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robert Moorhouse</span> English cricketer

Robert Moorhouse was an English first-class cricketer, who played 206 matches for Yorkshire County Cricket Club between 1888 and 1899. He also played first-class cricket for the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) (1891-1900) and an XI of Yorkshire (1894).

Melville Ryan was an English professional cricketer who played for Yorkshire County Cricket Club from 1954 to 1965. He was born in Huddersfield, and died in the Kirkland Hospice at Dalton in Huddersfield.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Bateman, Colin (1993). If The Cap Fits. Tony Williams Publications. p.  167. ISBN   1-869833-21-X.
  2. Cricketarchive.com
  3. Fairfield Books website Archived 12 August 2013 at archive.today Retrieved 12 August 2013.