William Thomas Greensmith (16 August 1930 – 15 July 2022) was a former 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 who played in 379 first-class matches, most of them for

Essex Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and G ...

, between 1947 and 1963. He was born in

Middlesbrough Middlesbrough ( ) is a town on the southern bank of the River Tees in North Yorkshire, England. It is near the North York Moors national park. It is the namesake and main town of its local borough council area. Until the early 1800s, the a ...

, then in

Yorkshire Yorkshire ( ; abbreviated Yorks), formally known as the County of York, is a Historic counties of England, historic county in northern England and by far the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its large area in comparison with other Eng ...

. An all-rounder, the right-handed Greensmith usually batted in the lower middle order, and was a right-arm leg-spin and googly bowler. Without ever hitting the heights – he never scored 1000 runs in a season and nor did he ever take 100 wickets – he was an integral part of the Essex team from the start of the 1951 season through to 1963, when he was replaced in some games by

Robin Hobbs Robin Nicholas Stuart Hobbs (born 8 May 1942) is a former English cricketer, who played in seven Tests for England from 1967 to 1971. He played first-class cricket for both Essex and Glamorgan. Cricket writer, Colin Bateman, remarked, "Hobb ...

and retired at the end of the season. After he retired from cricket he emigrated to Australia, where he lived until his death in 2022. At the time of his death he was Essex's oldest capped player. His daughter was fashion designer

Melanie Greensmith Melanie Greensmith (18 july 1964) is a fashion designer and property investor from Australia. She established the fashion label Wheels & Dollbaby in 1987 and is still going strong. Early life Melanie Greensmith grew up in London, England. He ...

References

1930 births 2022 deaths English cricketers Essex cricketers Combined Services cricketers Marylebone Cricket Club cricketers {{England-cricket-bio-1930s-stub