Personal information | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Full name | Alan Paul Pridegon | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Born | Wall Heath, Kingswinford, Staffordshire | 22 February 1954|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Batting | Right-handed | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Bowling | Right-arm medium | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Domestic team information | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Years | Team | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
1972–1989 | Worcestershire | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
1991 | Shropshire | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Career statistics | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Source:CricketArchive,22 November 2008 |
Alan Paul Pridgeon (born 22 February 1954) is a former English cricketer who played first-class and List A cricket for Worcestershire County Cricket Club,taking 530 first-class and 273 List A wickets for the county between the early 1970s and the late 1980s. He was capped by the county in 1980. He played football in the winters as a centre-half for Stourbridge F.C. [1]
Born at Wall Heath,Kingswinford,Staffordshire,he was educated at Summerhill Secondary Modern School. [2]
After playing club cricket first for Himley,then in the Birmingham League for Stourbridge,he was offered a trial by Worcestershire. [1] He made his first-class debut against Cambridge University at Fenner's in May 1972,though he had an unsuccessful match,taking no wickets and not batting in either innings. [3] He had to wait until the middle of July to play again,bowling Barry Dudleston of Leicestershire to claim the first wicket of his career. [1]
Pridgeon was given only occasional opportunities for the next three seasons,but in 1976 things turned his way:Brian Brain and Keith Wilkinson left the club,while Jim Cumbes spent the summer in the United States playing football. [1] Pridgeon was rarely out of the first team during that famously hot summer. Indeed,his 1,200 deliveries in List A cricket were the most he sent down in any one season. [4] In late May he claimed what was to remain his career-best bowling return in taking 7/35 against Oxford University,three further successes in the second innings bringing him his only ten-wicket match haul. [5]
He dropped out of the side after the first half of 1977,but returned to play a full part in the 1978 season. In late July of that year,he achieved his best bowling performance in a one-day match,taking 6/26 against Surrey in the John Player League. [6] At the time,this was the second-best return for Worcestershire in a List A game (behind Jack Flavell's 6/14 against Lancashire in 1963). [7] However,in 1979 he was once again mainly a Second XI player.
From 1980,when he was capped,until 1984 Pridgeon commanded a regular place in the Worcestershire side. In 1983 he took 72 first-class wickets,the most he would manage in a single summer;he also topped 50 in 1978,1980,1981,1984 and 1986. In 1984 he made his one half-century,hitting 67 against Warwickshire. [8] However in 1985 his fortunes took a dramatic turn for the worse. Neal Radford had arrived from Lancashire,and he and Phil Newport were ahead of Pridgeon in the pecking order;he ended up playing just one first-class match (and that against Cambridge University) and no List A games at all.
Pridgeon bounced back in 1986 to play a full part in the season,but although he took a County Championship best of 7/44 against Leicestershire in 1987, [9] his appearances gradually diminished as his career began to wind down. He did,however,take part in the county's Championship-winning seasons of 1988 and 1989,and in 1988 he took 30 List A wickets,his most of any year. In 1989,his final season of first-class cricket,he was awarded a benefit season in the latter year,which raised £154,720. [1]
On leaving Worcestershire,Pridgeon took up a coaching role at Shrewsbury School. [1] However,he continued to play cricket,turning out for Shropshire in 1991 and 1992 while playing at club level for Wroxeter. [2] In June 1991 he made his sole List A appearance for them,playing (though taking no wickets) against Leicestershire in the NatWest Trophy. [10]
Worcestershire 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 Worcestershire. Its Vitality Blast T20 team has been rebranded the Worcestershire Rapids, but the county is known by most fans as 'the Pears'. The club is based at New Road, Worcester. Founded in 1865, Worcestershire held minor status at first and was a prominent member of the early Minor Counties Championship in the 1890s, winning the competition three times. In 1899, the club joined the County Championship and the team was elevated to first-class status. Since then, Worcestershire have played in every top-level domestic cricket competition in England.
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".
James Cullum Tredwell is an English former international cricketer. A left-handed batsman and a right-arm off break bowler, he played his domestic cricket for Kent County Cricket Club and was appointed as County Captain for the 2013 season. He made his debut for Kent in the 2001 season, nine days before his first appearance for England Under-19s. He often fielded at slip. Tredwell was a member of the England team that won the 2010 ICC World Twenty20.
Fred Barratt played first-class cricket for Nottinghamshire County Cricket Club from 1914 to 1931 and represented England in five Test matches, one in the home series against South Africa in 1929 and four on the inaugural Test series against New Zealand in the 1929–30 season. He was born in Annesley, Nottinghamshire and died at Nottingham General Hospital, Nottingham.
Reginald Thomas David Perks was an English cricketer who played in two Test matches in 1939, and was the mainstay of Worcestershire's bowling for a long period from the middle 1930s until the middle 1950s. He was also an aggressive left-handed tail-end slogger, who frequently hit up thirty runs in twenty or so minutes, and on three occasions hit three sixes off consecutive balls. His highest first-class score of 75 against Nottinghamshire at Trent Bridge in 1938 took just thirty minutes. He does, however, hold the world record for the most ducks in a first-class career, with 156.
The Honourable John Bonynge Coventry was an English cricketer who played 75 times in first-class cricket for Worcestershire between 1919 and 1935, captaining the county for the latter part of the 1929 and the whole of the 1930 seasons, although he played in only July and August of the latter year.
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.
The War Memorial Athletic Ground, often referred to as simply the War Memorial Ground, is a sports ground in the Amblecote region of Stourbridge, West Midlands, England. It plays host to both cricket and football, being the home of Stourbridge Cricket Club and Stourbridge Football Club.
Douglas Norman Frank Slade is a former English cricketer who played for Worcestershire and Shropshire.
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.
Steven Joseph "Steve" O'Shaughnessy is a former English professional cricketer who played for Lancashire and Worcestershire in the 1980s, and then had a substantial career in Minor Counties cricket with Cumberland. Since retiring from playing, he has become an umpire, and was promoted in December 2010 to the first-class panel for the 2011 season.
Charles William Collard Grove was an English first-class cricketer who took over 700 wickets during the course of over 200 games in the mid-20th century, mostly for Warwickshire. He had one season for Worcestershire at the end of his career.
Derek Brooke Pearson is an English former first-class cricketer who played from the mid-1950s until the early 1960s, taking over 200 wickets. He played all but two of his games for Worcestershire, who capped him in 1959; the others were for Combined Services.
Robert George Mallaby Carter, is a former English cricketer who played first-class and List A cricket for Worcestershire. He was capped by the county in 1965, and was awarded a benefit season in 1973, which raised about £7,000. All but two of his 523 first-class wickets came for Worcestershire; the others were obtained for Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) in the very last game of his career. Carter's batting was generally extremely poor, as evidenced by his career batting average of under five in both forms of the game, although he did play one significant – if ultimately fruitless – innings. In the 1963 Gillette Cup final against Sussex at Lord's, he came to the wicket with Worcestershire 133/9, needing 35 runs to win. In fading light, he and wicket-keeper Roy Booth added 21 before Carter was run out to end the match. Carter also played in a critical close finish the following season against Nottinghamshire, where he and Flavell managed to get home by a single wicket and virtually seal the county's first Championship title.
John Darling Inchmore is a former English cricketer who played first-class and List A cricket for Worcestershire during the 1970s and 1980s. He also played briefly for Northern Transvaal, and later for Wiltshire.
Jack David Shantry is a former English cricketer who played county cricket for Worcestershire. He is now an umpire.
Frank Henry Vigar was an English cricketer who played first-class cricket for Essex County Cricket Club between 1938 and 1954. A right-handed batsman, and leg break bowler, Vigar served as an all-rounder with 8,858 runs at 26.28 and 241 wickets at 37.90. From his rained-off debut in 1938, Vigar went on to play 257 matches for his county. His greatest success came in the "golden summer" of 1947, where he scored 1,735 runs and took 64 wickets. A partnership with Peter Smith of 218 for the final wicket remains an Essex record.
Jonathan Patrick Wright is an English cricketer. Wright is a right-handed batsman who bowls right-arm medium. He was born in Sheffield, Yorkshire.
Dominic Williamson is an English cricketer. Williamson is a right-handed batsman who bowls right-arm medium pace. He was born in Durham, County Durham.
Aamer Ali Khan is a Pakistani born former English cricketer. Khan was a right-handed batsman who bowled leg break. He was born at Lahore, Punjab and was educated at Muslim Model High School and MAO College, Lahore.