Arthur John William McIntyre (14 May 1918 – 26 December 2009) was an English

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by striki ...

er. A

wicket-keeper The wicket-keeper in the sport of cricket is the player on the fielding side who stands behind the wicket or stumps being watchful of the batsman and ready to take a catch, stump the batsman out and run out a batsman when occasion arises. Th ...

, he was an integral part of the

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. ...

side that won the

County Championship The County Championship (referred to as the LV= Insurance County Championship for sponsorship reasons) is the domestic first-class cricket competition in England and Wales and is organised by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB). It bec ...

in every season from 1952 to 1958 inclusive, and played in three

Tests Test(s), testing, or TEST may refer to: * Test (assessment), an educational assessment intended to measure the respondents' knowledge or other abilities Arts and entertainment * ''Test'' (2013 film), an American film * ''Test'' (2014 film), ...

for the

English cricket team The England cricket team represents England and Wales in international cricket. Since 1997, it has been governed by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB), having been previously governed by Marylebone Cricket Club (the MCC) since 1903. Engla ...

, two in 1950 and one in 1955. According to McIntyre's obituary in ''

The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally. It was fo ...

'',

Peter May Peter May may refer to: *Peter W. May, American businessman *Peter May (cricketer) (1929–1994), English Test cricketer *Peter May (writer) Peter May (born 20 December 1951) is a Scottish television screenwriter, novelist, and crime writer. H ...

wrote: "

Godfrey Evans Thomas Godfrey Evans (18 August 1920 – 3 May 1999) was an English cricketer who played for Kent and England. Described by ''Wisden'' as 'arguably the best wicket-keeper the game has ever seen', Evans collected 219 dismissals in 91 Test match ...

could touch great heights of wicketkeeping but day in, day out, Arthur was the most reliable wicketkeeper of the 1950s... He should have kept many times for England."Obituary
''The Daily Telegraph'' (30 December 2009)

Life and career

He was born in

Kennington Kennington is a district in south London, England. It is mainly within the London Borough of Lambeth, running along the boundary with the London Borough of Southwark, a boundary which can be discerned from the early medieval period between the ...

in London, within a quarter of a mile of

the Oval The Oval, currently known for sponsorship reasons as the Kia Oval, is an international cricket ground in Kennington, located in the borough of Lambeth, in south London. The Oval has been the home ground of Surrey County Cricket Club since ...

. He was educated at Kennington Road School, and played cricket as wicket-keeper for London Schools alongside

Denis Compton Denis Charles Scott Compton (23 May 1918 – 23 April 1997) was an English multi-sportsman. As a cricketer he played in 78 Test matches and spent his whole cricket career with Middlesex. As a footballer, he played as a winger and spent most o ...

. After a short period outside cricket after leaving school, he joined the ground staff at the Oval in 1936, and made his debut in

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 ...

for Surrey in 1938, originally as

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 handful of batsmen do bowl occasionally, most players are skilled in only one of the two disciplines and are consi ...

batsman and

leg-spin Leg spin is a type of spin bowling in cricket. A leg spinner bowls right-arm with a wrist spin action. The leg spinner's normal delivery causes the ball to spin from right to left (from the bowler's perspective) when the ball bounces on the ...

ner. In

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, McIntyre served in the British Army in North Africa, and was wounded in the Anzio landings, ending as a sergeant in the APTC. He became friends with the Bedser twins near the end of the war when all three served in Italy. After the war, he successfully filled in for Surrey as an emergency wicket-keeper, and took over the position permanently from Gerald Mobey when he retired in 1946. In addition to his excellent wicket-keeping, he was a strong first-class batsman, and passed 1,000 runs on three occasions. He was kept out of the

England cricket team The England cricket team represents England and Wales in international cricket. Since 1997, it has been governed by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB), having been previously governed by Marylebone Cricket Club (the MCC) since 1903. Engla ...

. He made his Test debut alongside

David Sheppard David Stuart Sheppard, Baron Sheppard of Liverpool (6 March 1929 – 5 March 2005) was a Church of England Bishop of Liverpool who played cricket for Sussex and England in his youth. Sheppard remains the only ordained minister to have played T ...

and

Malcolm Hilton Malcolm Jameson Hilton (2 August 1928 – 8 July 1990) was an English left-arm spin bowler, who played for Lancashire and in four Test matches for England. Cricket writer, Colin Bateman, stated, "he was the best slow left-arm bowler Lancashi ...

in the fourth Test against the West Indies at

in 1950, when Evans was incapacitated with a broken thumb. He toured Australia and New Zealand with the MCC that winter, and played in the first Test of the 1950-51 Ashes series as a batsman, with Evans keeping wicket. He played his third and last Test in the fourth Test against South Africa at Headingley in 1955, his benefit season, when Evans was again injured. Evans was still not available for the fifth Test, but McIntyre was also not able to play. He was one of the

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". The award began in 1889 with the naming ...

in 1958. In his autobiography,

wrote that McIntyre should have played many times for England (he played in only three Tests and in one of those not as wicket-keeper). May commented on McIntyre's reliability and how he kept superbly to the great Surrey bowling attack of Bedser,

Loader Loader can refer to: * Loader (equipment) * Loader (computing) ** LOADER.EXE, an auto-start program loader optionally used in the startup process of Microsoft Windows ME * Loader (surname) * Fast loader * Speedloader * Boot loader ** LOADER.COM ...

, Laker and

Lock Lock(s) may refer to: Common meanings *Lock and key, a mechanical device used to secure items of importance *Lock (water navigation), a device for boats to transit between different levels of water, as in a canal Arts and entertainment * ''Lock ...

on difficult wickets. McIntyre, said May, made it look easy and was "never acrobatic" (unlike Evans). McIntyre himself said he had the greatest difficulty keeping wicket to

Jim Laker James Charles Laker (9 February 1922 – 23 April 1986) was an English professional cricketer who played for Surrey County Cricket Club from 1946 to 1959 and represented England in 46 Test matches. He was born in Shipley, West Riding of York ...

who "spun the ball so viciously". He retired from regular

after the 1958 season and became Surrey's coach, a position he held until the end of the 1976 season. He made a few first-class appearances while coach when the usual wicket-keeper was injured or unavailable: six in 1959, two in 1960 and two in 1963. Following the death of

Ken Cranston Kenneth Cranston (20 October 1917 – 8 January 2007) was an English amateur cricketer, who played first-class cricket for Lancashire and eight times for England, in 1947 and 1948. He retired from playing cricket to concentrate on his career as ...

on 9 January 2007, he became England's oldest living former Test cricketer. He died on

Boxing Day Boxing Day is a holiday celebrated after Christmas Day, occurring on the second day of Christmastide (26 December). Though it originated as a holiday to give gifts to the poor, today Boxing Day is primarily known as a shopping holiday. It ...

, 2009.

References

External links

*
Guardian obituary

Cricinfo, 9 January 2007

Cricketer of the Year 1958, from

Cricinfo 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 d ...

(text taken from the 1958 edition of ''Wisden Cricketers' Almamack'')
Arthur McIntyre dies aged 91
Cricinfo, 26 December 2009 * Smith, Martin (editor). ''The Promise of Endless Summer (Cricket Lives from the Daily Telegraph)''. Aurum (2013). {{DEFAULTSORT:McIntyre, Arthur 1918 births 2009 deaths Military personnel from London British Army personnel of World War II East of England cricketers England Test cricketers English cricket coaches English cricketers Marylebone Cricket Club cricketers North v South cricketers Royal Army Physical Training Corps soldiers Surrey cricketers Wisden Cricketers of the Year H. D. G. Leveson Gower's XI cricketers Wicket-keepers