George Summers (cricketer)

George Summers (21 June 1844 – 19 June 1870) was an English

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the North Sea to the east, with the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 cricket

Cricket

Cricket is a bat-and-ball team sport that is first documented as being played in southern England in the 16th century. By the end of the 18th century, cricket had developed to the point where it had become the national sport of England. The expansion of the British Empire led to cricket being...

er. He played all his first-class cricket

First-class cricket

First-class cricket refers to the class of cricket matches of three or more days scheduled duration, between two sides of eleven players and officially adjudged first-class by virtue of the standard of the competing teams...

 for Nottinghamshire

Nottinghamshire County Cricket Club

Nottinghamshire County Cricket Club is one of the 18 major county clubs which make up the English domestic cricket structure, representing the historic county of Nottinghamshire. Its limited overs team is called the Nottinghamshire Outlaws...

.

In the match against MCC

Marylebone Cricket Club

Marylebone Cricket Club was founded in 1787 as a private members' club dedicated to the development of cricket. It owns, and is based at, Lord's Cricket Ground near St John's Wood in north London. MCC was formerly the governing body of cricket in England and across the world...

 at Lord's in 1870, Summers was hit by a short delivery from John Platts

John Platts

John Thomas Brown Dumelow Platts was an English cricketer who played for Derbyshire between 1871 and 1884. He was a member of the team that played Derbyshire's first match in May 1871....

, at the time a fast bowler

Fast bowling

Fast bowling, sometimes known as pace bowling, is one of the two main approaches to bowling in the sport of cricket. The other is spin bowling...

. He was carried off the field. He seemed to recover, and was not taken to hospital, but went by train back to Nottingham. He died from his injury four days later. Lord's at the time was renowned for being a poor pitch. After Summers' death, efforts were made to improve it, and MCC paid for his gravestone. The death of Summers ensured that the bowler never bowled fast again.

As a protest against what he saw as dangerous bowling, the next batsman - Richard Daft

Richard Daft

Richard Daft was an English cricketer. He was one of the best batsmen of his day, the peak of his first-class career being the 1860s and early 1870s...

- came out to the wicket with his head wrapped in a towel.