Harold Gimblett was a cricketer who played for Somerset and England. He was known for his fast scoring as an opening batsman and for the much-repeated story of his debut. In a book first published in 1982, the cricket writer and Somerset historian David Foot wrote: "Harold Gimblett is the greatest batsman Somerset has ever produced." Gimblett is a member of the Gimblett family, an Anglo-French family who arrived in Britain in the early 18th century from Metz. The family spread out over Britain, with branches located in Somerset, Scotland, and South Wales. There are variations of the spelling of the name, including Gimlet, Gimlette, and Gimblette.
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.
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.
The Indian cricket team toured England in the 1959 season. The team played five Test matches against England and lost them all: the first time that England had won all the matches in a five-match series. Only one of the Tests, the game at Manchester, went into the fifth day.
Derek Clifton Morgan was an English cricketer who played for Derbyshire County Cricket Club between 1950 and 1969, captaining the side between 1965 and 1969. An all-rounder, he is the only Derbyshire cricketer besides Leslie Townsend to have achieved the double of 10,000 runs and 1,000 wickets.
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.
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.
Herbert Francis Thomas Buse (1910–1992) was a cricketer who played 304 first-class matches for Somerset before and after the Second World War.
Graham Atkinson was a cricketer who played first-class and List A cricket for Somerset and Lancashire. He was born in Lofthouse, Wakefield, Yorkshire, England.
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).
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.
Claud Neville Woolley was an English cricketer who played first-class cricket for Gloucestershire and Northamptonshire. He also served as a first-class umpire and stood in one Test during the 1948 Ashes series. A right-handed batsman and right-arm slow-medium bowler, he was the older brother of Frank who had a more successful playing career, including representing England in 64 Tests.
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. He set up the airline Aurigny Air Services in Jersey.
Christopher Herbert Millington Greetham played first-class cricket for Somerset County Cricket Club from 1957 to 1966 as a middle-order batsman and a medium-pace bowler. Greetham was a tall, fair-haired right-handed batsman usually used in Somerset's late middle order and a right-arm seam bowler who, for a couple of seasons in the early 1960s, took enough wickets to be classed as an all-rounder. He was considered a good cover fielder, with a strong and accurate throw.
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.
James Geoffrey Lomax played first-class cricket as a right-handed batsman and right-arm fast-medium bowler for Lancashire and Somerset between 1949 and 1962. He was born at Rochdale, then in Lancashire, and died at Frenchay Hospital, near Bristol.
Cecil Charles Cole Case, known as Box Case, played first-class cricket for Somerset as an amateur batsman between 1925 and 1935. He was born at Frome, Somerset and died at Keyford, which is part of Frome.
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.
Michael Godfrey Melvin Groves is a former cricketer who played first-class cricket for Western Province, Oxford University, Somerset County Cricket Club, Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) and the Free Foresters between 1961 and 1968. He was born at Taihape, Manawatu, New Zealand.
Gerald Lester was an English cricketer who played first-class cricket for Leicestershire. He was born at Long Whatton, Leicestershire and died at Leicester.