Leslie Townsend
Encyclopedia
Leslie Fletcher Townsend (8 June 1903 – 17 February 1993) was an English cricket
er who played for England
between 1929 and 1934, for Derbyshire
between 1922 and 1939 and also for Auckland New Zealand between 1934 and 1936.
Townsend was born at Long Eaton
, Derbyshire
. He did not play cricket in his youth and was only attracted to the game by watching Nottinghamshire
's star batsman George Gunn
. Townsend first played for his native county Derbyshire in the 1922 season
and obtained a regular place in the 1924 season
.
In the 1925 season
Townsend scored over 800 runs at an average of 18. These modest figures, with 59 as his best score, placed Townsend fourth in the county's averages. In the 1926 season
after a very slow start Townsend developed as a bowler in August on a number of treacherous pitches. He took 6 for 32 against Nottinghamshire at Ilkeston and 9 for 36 for two innings against Northamptonshire at Chesterfield.
In the 1927 season
, with Derbyshire rising to fifth in the Championship, Townsend's medium pace off-break bowling was close to the top of the averages. He took 5 for 29 on a sticky wicket against the formidable Lancashire side and 5 for 42 against Warwickshire. In the 1928 season
, his deadliness on sticky wickets was so pronounced he topped the county bowling table with 101 wickets, including 13 against Sussex, and his batting developed so much he edged past 1000 runs with a best score of 98. In the 1929 season
, despite only one five-wicket return, he again managed 100 wickets. He was chosen for a second-string tour of the West Indies but did nothing of note.
The 1930s saw Townsend's batting bloom due to improved technique. Having not scored a century before the 1930 season
, he hit four alone this year, and after a decline in the 1931 season
, did even better as a batsman in the 1932 season
. At the same, time, so deadly was his bowling on the many sticky wickets than he was in the top ten of the 1931 national bowling averages and took 117 wickets in 1932. In the 1933 season
, Townsend's batting was so successful that he scored over 2,000 runs, including innings of 233 against Leicestershire at Loughborough, 172 not out against Warwickshire at Derby, and 151 against Essex at Leyton. He took 100 wickets for 18.71 each and was second only to Verity
in deadliness on the sticky wickets of May and June. His best performances were 9 for 82 against Somerset at Ilkeston, 10 for 54 against Hampshire at Portsmouth and 14 for 90 against Gloucestershire at Chesterfield. However, his limitations on the hard pitches in July and August meant he only reached the rare "double" of 2000 runs and 100 wickets in the last match. Nonetheless, he was named as a Cricketer of the Year
by Wisden and toured India, though again meeting with little success. He played in three of the Tests but did not show the skill required.
In the following three years, as Derbyshire attained the greatest heights they ever have in the County Championship
. Townsend's bowling declined steadily. By the 1935 season
he was rarely given substantial spells of bowling but still could do well on a sticky pitch, as at Edgbaston in the 1936 season
when he took twelve Warwickshire wickets. Along with Dennis Smith he was the indispensable backbone of the batting, which was that year still very weak for a champion county. His best score that year was 182 not out against Sussex at Chesterfield. Townsend played a season with Auckland in 1934/1935, and after his batting declined so badly in 1939 that he scored fewer than 700 runs for an average of only 19, Townsend settled in New Zealand permanently.
However, in his adopted country Leslie Townsend, who originally went there to work as a joiner and cabinet-maker, became the vital driving force behind the development of first-class cricket
in the Nelson
district of New Zealand where Nelson
held the Hawke Cup
for 28 defences from 1958 to 1965. Most observers during his later years as a coach there saw Leslie Townsend as the reason why the city produced an unusual proportion of New Zealand's Test cricket
ers in the latter part of the twentieth century. Leslie Townsend died in February 1993 at the age of 89.
Townsend died at Nelson, New Zealand at the age of 89.
He was the leading all-rounder
for Derbyshire between the wars and at his peak probably the most deadly bowler on a sticky wicket
Derbyshire ever produced, owing to his perfect length and ability to turn the ball back from the off. His pace was almost medium and even the most fleet-footed of batsmen could not hit him easily on a bad pitch; however, his lack of flight and variety made him usually harmless on good pitches. Townsend was also an enterprising middle order batsman, who set a longstanding record for most centuries for Derbyshire in a season in 1933
Cricket
Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of 11 players on an oval-shaped field, at the centre of which is a rectangular 22-yard long pitch. One team bats, trying to score as many runs as possible while the other team bowls and fields, trying to dismiss the batsmen and thus limit the...
er who played for England
English cricket team
The England and Wales cricket team is a cricket team which represents England and Wales. Until 1992 it also represented Scotland. Since 1 January 1997 it has been governed by the England and Wales Cricket Board , having been previously governed by Marylebone Cricket Club from 1903 until the end...
between 1929 and 1934, for Derbyshire
Derbyshire County Cricket Club
Derbyshire County Cricket Club is one of the 18 major county clubs which make up the England and Wales domestic cricket structure, representing the historic county of Derbyshire...
between 1922 and 1939 and also for Auckland New Zealand between 1934 and 1936.
Townsend was born at Long Eaton
Long Eaton
Long Eaton is a town in Derbyshire, England. It lies just north of the River Trent about southwest of Nottingham and is part of the Nottingham Urban Area...
, Derbyshire
Derbyshire
Derbyshire is a county in the East Midlands of England. A substantial portion of the Peak District National Park lies within Derbyshire. The northern part of Derbyshire overlaps with the Pennines, a famous chain of hills and mountains. The county contains within its boundary of approx...
. He did not play cricket in his youth and was only attracted to the game by watching Nottinghamshire
Nottinghamshire County Cricket Club
Nottinghamshire County Cricket Club is one of the 18 major county clubs which make up the English and Welsh domestic cricket structure, representing the historic county of Nottinghamshire, and the current county champions. Its limited overs team is called the Nottinghamshire Outlaws...
's star batsman George Gunn
George Gunn
George Gunn was an English cricketer who played in 15 Tests from 1907 to 1930. Along with other notable batsmen such as Jack Hobbs, Frank Woolley and Phil Mead, he was one of a group who, beginning their first-class careers in the Edwardian Era, seemed to go on for ever...
. Townsend first played for his native county Derbyshire in the 1922 season
Derbyshire County Cricket Club in 1922
Derbyshire Country Cricket Club in 1922 represents the cricket season when the English club Derbyshire had been playing for fifty-one years. It was their twenty-fourth season in the County Championship and they won six matches to finish eleventh.-1922 season:...
and obtained a regular place in the 1924 season
Derbyshire County Cricket Club in 1924
Derbyshire Country Cricket Club in 1924 represents the cricket season when the English club Derbyshire had been playing for fifty three years. It was their twenty sixth season in the County Championship and they failed to win a match, finishing seventeenth in the County Championship.-1924...
.
In the 1925 season
Derbyshire County Cricket Club in 1925
Derbyshire Country Cricket Club in 1925 was the cricket season when the English club Derbyshire had been playing for fifty four years. It was their twenty seventh season in the County Championship and they won five matches to finish fourteenth in the County Championship.-1925 season:Guy Jackson was...
Townsend scored over 800 runs at an average of 18. These modest figures, with 59 as his best score, placed Townsend fourth in the county's averages. In the 1926 season
Derbyshire County Cricket Club in 1926
Derbyshire Country Cricket Club in 1926 represents the cricket season when the English club Derbyshire had been playing for fifty five years. It was their twenty-eighth season in the County Championship and they won five matches to finish eleventh in the County Championship..-1926 season:Derbyshire...
after a very slow start Townsend developed as a bowler in August on a number of treacherous pitches. He took 6 for 32 against Nottinghamshire at Ilkeston and 9 for 36 for two innings against Northamptonshire at Chesterfield.
In the 1927 season
Derbyshire County Cricket Club in 1927
Derbyshire Country Cricket Club in 1927 represents the cricket season when the English club Derbyshire had been playing for fifty six years. It was their twenty-ninth season in the County Championship and they won eight matches to finish fifth in the County Championship..-1927 season:Derbyshire...
, with Derbyshire rising to fifth in the Championship, Townsend's medium pace off-break bowling was close to the top of the averages. He took 5 for 29 on a sticky wicket against the formidable Lancashire side and 5 for 42 against Warwickshire. In the 1928 season
Derbyshire County Cricket Club in 1928
Derbyshire Country Cricket Club in 1928 was the cricket season when the English club Derbyshire had been playing for fifty seven years. It was their thirtieth season in the County Championship and they won six matches to finish tenth in the County Championship..-1928 season:Derbyshire played 26...
, his deadliness on sticky wickets was so pronounced he topped the county bowling table with 101 wickets, including 13 against Sussex, and his batting developed so much he edged past 1000 runs with a best score of 98. In the 1929 season
Derbyshire County Cricket Club in 1929
Derbyshire Country Cricket Club in 1929 represents the cricket season when the English club Derbyshire had been playing for fifty eight years. It was their thirty-first season in the County Championship and they came seventh in the competition after winning ten matches in the championship.-1929...
, despite only one five-wicket return, he again managed 100 wickets. He was chosen for a second-string tour of the West Indies but did nothing of note.
The 1930s saw Townsend's batting bloom due to improved technique. Having not scored a century before the 1930 season
Derbyshire County Cricket Club in 1930
Derbyshire Country Cricket Club in 1930 was the cricket season when the English club Derbyshire had been playing for fifty nine years. It was their thirty-second season in the County Championship and they won seven matches to finish ninth in the County Championship..-1930 season:Derbyshire played...
, he hit four alone this year, and after a decline in the 1931 season
Derbyshire County Cricket Club in 1931
Derbyshire Country Cricket Club in 1931 represents the cricket season when the English club Derbyshire had been playing for sixty years. It was their thirty-third season in the County Championship and they won seven matches to finish seventh.-1931 season:...
, did even better as a batsman in the 1932 season
Derbyshire County Cricket Club in 1932
Derbyshire Country Cricket Club in 1932 represents the cricket season when the English club Derbyshire had been playing for sixty one years. It was their thirty-fourth season in the County Championship and they won six matches to finish tenth-1932 season:...
. At the same, time, so deadly was his bowling on the many sticky wickets than he was in the top ten of the 1931 national bowling averages and took 117 wickets in 1932. In the 1933 season
Derbyshire County Cricket Club in 1933
Derbyshire Country Cricket Club in 1933 was the cricket season when the English club Derbyshire had been playing for sixty two years. It was their thirty-fifth season in the County Championship and they won eleven matches to finish sixth.-1933 season:...
, Townsend's batting was so successful that he scored over 2,000 runs, including innings of 233 against Leicestershire at Loughborough, 172 not out against Warwickshire at Derby, and 151 against Essex at Leyton. He took 100 wickets for 18.71 each and was second only to Verity
Hedley Verity
Hedley Verity was a professional cricketer who played first-class cricket for Yorkshire and England between 1930 and 1939. A slow left arm orthodox bowler, he took 1,956 wickets in first-class cricket at an average of 14.90 and in 40 Tests he took 144 wickets at an average of 24.37...
in deadliness on the sticky wickets of May and June. His best performances were 9 for 82 against Somerset at Ilkeston, 10 for 54 against Hampshire at Portsmouth and 14 for 90 against Gloucestershire at Chesterfield. However, his limitations on the hard pitches in July and August meant he only reached the rare "double" of 2000 runs and 100 wickets in the last match. Nonetheless, he was named as a Cricketer of the Year
Wisden Cricketers of the Year
The Wisden Cricketers of the Year are cricketers selected for the honour by the annual publication Wisden Cricketers' Almanack, based primarily on their "influence on the previous English season"...
by Wisden and toured India, though again meeting with little success. He played in three of the Tests but did not show the skill required.
In the following three years, as Derbyshire attained the greatest heights they ever have in the County Championship
County Championship
The County Championship is the domestic first-class cricket competition in England and Wales...
. Townsend's bowling declined steadily. By the 1935 season
Derbyshire County Cricket Club in 1935
Derbyshire Country Cricket Club' in 1935 was the cricket season when the English club Derbyshire were runners up in the County Championship for the first time, as a prelude to winning the Championship in the 1936 season. They had been playing for sixty four years and it was their thirty-seventh...
he was rarely given substantial spells of bowling but still could do well on a sticky pitch, as at Edgbaston in the 1936 season
Derbyshire County Cricket Club in 1936
Derbyshire Country Cricket Club in 1936 was the cricket season when the English club Derbyshire won the County Championship for the first and only time. They had been playing for sixty five years and it was their thirty-eighth season in the County Championship....
when he took twelve Warwickshire wickets. Along with Dennis Smith he was the indispensable backbone of the batting, which was that year still very weak for a champion county. His best score that year was 182 not out against Sussex at Chesterfield. Townsend played a season with Auckland in 1934/1935, and after his batting declined so badly in 1939 that he scored fewer than 700 runs for an average of only 19, Townsend settled in New Zealand permanently.
However, in his adopted country Leslie Townsend, who originally went there to work as a joiner and cabinet-maker, became the vital driving force behind the development of first-class cricket
First-class cricket
First-class cricket is a class of cricket that consists of matches of three or more days' scheduled duration, that are between two sides of eleven players and are officially adjudged first-class by virtue of the standard of the competing teams...
in the Nelson
Nelson, New Zealand
Nelson is a city on the eastern shores of Tasman Bay, and is the economic and cultural centre of the Nelson-Tasman region. Established in 1841, it is the second oldest settled city in New Zealand and the oldest in the South Island....
district of New Zealand where Nelson
Nelson cricket team
Nelson cricket team is a cricket team representing the Nelson Region of New Zealand and currently competes in the Hawke Cup.Cricket was first reported as being played in Nelson in the Nelson Examiner in March 1844, in a match between the Surveyors of the Land Company and Nelson...
held the Hawke Cup
Hawke Cup
The Hawke Cup is a cricket competition for New Zealand's District Associations. Apart from 1910/11, 1912/13 and 2000/01 the competition has always been on a challenge basis. In order to win the Hawke Cup the challenger must beat the holder on their home ground...
for 28 defences from 1958 to 1965. Most observers during his later years as a coach there saw Leslie Townsend as the reason why the city produced an unusual proportion of New Zealand's Test cricket
Test cricket
Test cricket is the longest form of the sport of cricket. Test matches are played between national representative teams with "Test status", as determined by the International Cricket Council , with four innings played between two teams of 11 players over a period of up to a maximum five days...
ers in the latter part of the twentieth century. Leslie Townsend died in February 1993 at the age of 89.
Townsend died at Nelson, New Zealand at the age of 89.
He was the leading all-rounder
All-rounder
An all-rounder is a cricketer who regularly performs well at both batting and bowling. Although all bowlers must bat and quite a few batsmen do bowl occasionally, most players are skilled in only one of the two disciplines and are considered specialists...
for Derbyshire between the wars and at his peak probably the most deadly bowler on a sticky wicket
Sticky wicket
Sticky wicket is a metaphor used to describe a difficult circumstance; it originates from difficult circumstances in the sport of cricket.-Origins:...
Derbyshire ever produced, owing to his perfect length and ability to turn the ball back from the off. His pace was almost medium and even the most fleet-footed of batsmen could not hit him easily on a bad pitch; however, his lack of flight and variety made him usually harmless on good pitches. Townsend was also an enterprising middle order batsman, who set a longstanding record for most centuries for Derbyshire in a season in 1933