Alan Roderick Hansford (born 1 October 1968) is a former English

first-class cricket First-class cricket, along with List A cricket and Twenty20 cricket, is one of the highest-standard forms of cricket. A first-class match is one of three or more days' scheduled duration between two sides of eleven players each and is officiall ...

er. A right-handed

batsman In cricket, batting is the act or skill of hitting the ball with a bat to score runs and prevent the loss of one's wicket. Any player who is currently batting is, since September 2021, officially referred to as a batter (historically, the ...

who bowled right-arm

medium pace Fast bowling (also referred to as pace bowling) is one of two main approaches to bowling in the sport of cricket, the other being spin bowling. Practitioners of pace bowling are usually known as ''fast'' bowlers, ''quicks'', or ''pacemen''. T ...

, he was born at

Cuckfield Cuckfield ( ) is a village and civil parishes in England, civil parish in the Mid Sussex District, Mid Sussex District of West Sussex, England, on the southern slopes of the Weald. It lies south of London, north of Brighton, and east northeas ...

, Sussex. Hansford made his debut in

List A cricket List A cricket is a classification of the limited-overs (one-day) form of the sport of cricket, with games lasting up to eight hours. List A cricket includes One Day International (ODI) matches and various domestic competitions in which the numbe ...

for the Combined Universities against

Surrey Surrey () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South East England, bordering Greater London to the south west. Surrey has a large rural area, and several significant urban areas which form part of the Greater London Built-up Area. ...

in the 1989 Benson & Hedges Cup. He played five matches for the Combined Universities side in that competition, which captained by

Michael Atherton Michael Andrew Atherton (born 23 March 1968) is a broadcaster, journalist and a former England international first-class cricketer. A right-handed opening batsman for Lancashire and England, and occasional leg-break bowler, he achieved the ca ...

, famously reached the quarter-final of the competition by defeating professional first-class opposition along the way. Having played for the Sussex Second XI since 1987, it was in the 1989 season that he made his first-class debut for

Sussex Sussex (), from the Old English (), is a historic county in South East England that was formerly an independent medieval Anglo-Saxon kingdom. It is bounded to the west by Hampshire, north by Surrey, northeast by Kent, south by the English ...

against

Cambridge University , mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts. Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge. , established = , other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...

Hove Hove is a seaside resort and one of the two main parts of the city of Brighton and Hove, along with Brighton in East Sussex, England. Originally a "small but ancient fishing village" surrounded by open farmland, it grew rapidly in the 19th cen ...

, taking figures of 4/46 and 4/29 during the match. During his time at Sussex, he featured infrequently in first-class cricket, making just nine further appearances, the last of which came against

Hampshire Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants) is a ceremonial county, ceremonial and non-metropolitan county, non-metropolitan counties of England, county in western South East England on the coast of the English Channel. Home to two major English citi ...

in the

1992 County Championship The 1992 Britannic Assurance County Championship was the 93rd officially organised running of the County Championship. Essex won the Championship title. Durham Durham most commonly refers to: *Durham, England, a cathedral city and the county tow ...

. Primarily a bowler, Hansford took 30 wickets in his ten first-class appearances, which came at an

average In ordinary language, an average is a single number taken as representative of a list of numbers, usually the sum of the numbers divided by how many numbers are in the list (the arithmetic mean). For example, the average of the numbers 2, 3, 4, 7, ...

of 33.03, with best figures of 5/79. These figures were his only first-class

five wicket haul In cricket, a five-wicket haul (also known as a "five–for" or "fifer") occurs when a bowler takes five or more wickets in a single innings. This is regarded by critics as a notable achievement, equivalent to a century from a batsman. Taking ...

, and came against Hampshire in 1989. He first featured in List A cricket for Sussex in his debut season, making his debut in that format for the county in the

Refuge Assurance League The NatWest Pro40 League was a one-day cricket league for first-class cricket counties in England and Wales. It was inaugurated in 1999, but was essentially the old Sunday League retitled to reflect large numbers of matches being played on days o ...

against Hampshire. He featured in a total of seventeen List A matches for the county in 1989 and 1990, including taking what would be his only five wicket haul in one-day cricket, against

Gloucestershire Gloucestershire ( abbreviated Glos) is a county in South West England. The county comprises part of the Cotswold Hills, part of the flat fertile valley of the River Severn and the entire Forest of Dean. The county town is the city of Gl ...

in 1989. In 1991, he once again featured for the Combined Universities in the

Benson & Hedges Cup The Benson & Hedges Cup was a one-day cricket competition for first-class counties in England and Wales that was held from 1972 to 2002, one of cricket's longest sponsorship deals. It was the third major one-day competition established in Englan ...

, making four appearances. Further appearances in that format for Sussex followed, with Hansford making five further appearances for the county, the last of which came against

Northamptonshire Northamptonshire (; abbreviated Northants.) is a county in the East Midlands of England. In 2015, it had a population of 723,000. The county is administered by two unitary authorities: North Northamptonshire and West Northamptonshire. It is ...

in the Sunday League. In total, Hansford made 23 List A appearances for Sussex, taking 24 wickets at an average of 42.54. Michael Atherton later wrote that Hansford was the only

gay ''Gay'' is a term that primarily refers to a homosexual person or the trait of being homosexual. The term originally meant 'carefree', 'cheerful', or 'bright and showy'. While scant usage referring to male homosexuality dates to the late 1 ...

cricketer he had come across, in response to a letter from Hansford in which he wrote "there can't be too many gay accountants who dismissed you twice in a first-class match" (in reference to Hansford's first-class debut against Cambridge University, in which he dismissed Atherton twice).

References

External links

Alan Hansford
at

ESPNcricinfo ESPN cricinfo (formerly known as Cricinfo or CricInfo) is a sports news website exclusively for the game of cricket. The site features news, articles, live coverage of cricket matches (including liveblogs and scorecards), and ''StatsGuru'', a ...

Alan Hansford
at CricketArchive {{DEFAULTSORT:Hansford, Alan 1968 births Living people Sportspeople from Cuckfield English cricketers British Universities cricketers Sussex cricketers English accountants English gay sportsmen LGBT cricketers 21st-century English LGBT people Cricketers from West Sussex