Robert Berry (29 January 1926 – 2 December 2006) 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. He played in two
Test matches Test match in some sports refers to a sporting contest between national representative teams and may refer to:
* Test cricket
* Test match (indoor cricket)
* Test match (rugby union)
* Test match (rugby league)
* Test match (association football)
...
in 1950. He played
county cricket
Inter-county cricket matches are known to have been played since the early 18th century, involving teams that are representative of the historic counties of England and Wales. Since the late 19th century, there have been two county championship ...
for Lancashire from 1948 to 1954, for
Worcestershire
Worcestershire ( , ; written abbreviation: Worcs) is a county in the West Midlands of England. The area that is now Worcestershire was absorbed into the unified Kingdom of England in 927, at which time it was constituted as a county (see His ...
from 1955 to 1958, and for
Derbyshire
Derbyshire ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands, England. It includes much of the Peak District National Park, the southern end of the Pennine range of hills and part of the National Forest. It borders Greater Manchester to the nor ...
from 1959 to 1962. He was the first cricketer to be capped by three different counties.
Life and career
Berry was born in
Gorton
Gorton is an area of Manchester in North West England, southeast of the city centre. The population at the 2011 census was 36,055. Neighbouring areas include Levenshulme and Openshaw.
A major landmark is Gorton Monastery, a 19th-century Hi ...
,
Manchester
Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...
,
Lancashire
Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated Lancs) is the name of a historic county, ceremonial county, and non-metropolitan county in North West England. The boundaries of these three areas differ significantly.
The non-metropolitan county of Lancashi ...
, the youngest of 10 children.
[Obituary]
''The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
, 13 February 2007] He played League cricket in both Lancashire and Cheshire before making his debut for
Lancashire County Cricket Club, Lancashire in 1948. Within two years and having taken barely more than 50
first-class wickets, he was in the
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
Test side, having taken 5 wickets in a Test trial. He was picked for the 1st Test against the
West Indies
The West Indies is a subregion of North America, surrounded by the North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea that includes 13 independent island countries and 18 dependencies and other territories in three major archipelagos: the Greater A ...
at his home ground of
Old Trafford
Old Trafford () is a football stadium in Old Trafford, Greater Manchester, England, and the home of Manchester United. With a capacity of 74,310 it is the largest club football stadium (and second-largest football stadium overall after Wemb ...
in 1950, on a pitch made for spinners – each side played three. Berry took
5–63 in the first innings and 4–53 in the second, to finish with match figures of 9–116.
Eric Hollies
William Eric Hollies (5 June 1912 – 16 April 1981) was an English cricketer, who is mainly remembered for taking the wicket of Donald Bradman for a duck in Bradman's final Test match innings, in which he needed only four runs for a Test avera ...
took another 8 wickets for England (3–70 and 5–63), and West Indian debutant
Alf Valentine
Alfred Louis Valentine (28 April 1930 – 11 May 2004) was a West Indies cricket team, West Indian cricketer in the 1950s and 1960s. He is most famous for his performance in the West Indies' 1950 tour of England cricket team, England, which was ...
took 11–204 (for West Indies 8–104 and 3–100). England won by 202 runs.
Berry retained his place for th
2nd Testat
Lord's
Lord's Cricket Ground, commonly known as Lord's, is a cricket venue in St John's Wood, London. Named after its founder, Thomas Lord, it is owned by Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) and is the home of Middlesex County Cricket Club, the England and ...
. On a much less helpful pitch to spinners, he was unable to match his Old Trafford success. He bowled economically, but took no wickets (0–45 in 19 overs, and 0–67 in 32 overs). By contrast, the West Indian spinners
Sonny Ramadhin
Sonny Ramadhin, Chaconia Medal, CM (1 May 1929 – 27 February 2022) was a West Indian cricket team, West Indian cricketer, and was a dominant bowler of the 1950s. He was the first of many West Indian cricketers of Indo-Trinidadian, Indian orig ...
and
Alf Valentine
Alfred Louis Valentine (28 April 1930 – 11 May 2004) was a West Indies cricket team, West Indian cricketer in the 1950s and 1960s. He is most famous for his performance in the West Indies' 1950 tour of England cricket team, England, which was ...
continued their success from Manchester, taking 18 wickets between them, and the West Indies won the match, their first Test victory in England. Berry was dropped after this match.
By the end of the 1950 season, Berry was not even first-choice left-arm spinner for Lancashire, his long-time friend
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 ...
being often preferred as the spin alternative to the
off-spin
Off spin is a type of finger spin bowling in cricket. A bowler who uses this technique is called an off spinner. Off spinners are right-handed spin bowlers who use their fingers to spin the ball. Their normal delivery is an off break, which spi ...
of
Roy Tattersall
Roy Tattersall (17 August 1922 – 9 December 2011) was an English cricketer who played for Lancashire and played sixteen Tests for England as a specialist off spin bowler. He was born at Tonge Moor, Bolton, Lancashire, England.
Tattersa ...
. Hilton was reckoned as the more devastating bowler on a turning wicket, and could also bowl flatter and faster than Berry, which meant that he was at times used to open the bowling. Berry was known for flight and spin, but was also inclined to be more expensive than Hilton. Nonetheless, it was Berry who was picked for the 1950–51
Marylebone Cricket Club
Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) is a cricket club founded in 1787 and based since 1814 at Lord's Cricket Ground, which it owns, in St John's Wood, London. The club was formerly the governing body of cricket retaining considerable global influence ...
(MCC) tour to Australia and New Zealand under
Freddie Brown. He had a poor tour on pitches not designed for spin and was not chosen for any of the Test matches, with
Doug Wright
Douglas Wright (born December 20, 1962) is an American playwright, librettist, and screenwriter. He received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 2004 for his play ''I Am My Own Wife''.
Early years
Wright was born in Dallas, Texas. He attended and ...
being preferred. Hilton was picked for the 1951–52 tour to India, and Berry did not play Test cricket again.
Berry stayed with Lancashire for four more seasons, but was usually considered as second choice to Hilton, except in 1953, when Hilton had the first experience of the loss of control that was eventually to end his career. In that season, Berry took 98 wickets at an average of 18.97, including all 10 in an innings for Lancashire against
Worcestershire
Worcestershire ( , ; written abbreviation: Worcs) is a county in the West Midlands of England. The area that is now Worcestershire was absorbed into the unified Kingdom of England in 927, at which time it was constituted as a county (see His ...
at
Blackpool
Blackpool is a seaside resort in Lancashire, England. Located on the North West England, northwest coast of England, it is the main settlement within the Borough of Blackpool, borough also called Blackpool. The town is by the Irish Sea, betw ...
. He toured India successfully in the winter of 1953–54 with a Commonwealth XI, but with the return of Hilton, Lancashire picked him for only six
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 ...
matches in 1954, and he left at the end of the season to join Worcestershire.
Berry enjoyed considerable success in his four seasons with Worcestershire, before leaving to join
Derbyshire in the 1959 season He played four further seasons until the
1962 season. He was the first cricketer to receive a county cap from three different first-class counties.
Berry was an orthodox slow left-arm
spin bowler
Spin bowling is a bowling technique in cricket, in which the ball is delivered slowly but with the potential to deviate sharply after bouncing. The bowler is referred to as a spinner.
Purpose
The main aim of spin bowling is to bowl the cricket ...
and took 703 first-class wickets. He was an excellent outfielder, but a tail-end left-handed batsman. In all first-class cricket, his highest first-class score was 40.
Bob Berry at CricketArchive
/ref>
Berry became a publican
In antiquity, publicans (Greek τελώνης ''telōnēs'' (singular); Latin ''publicanus'' (singular); ''publicani'' (plural)) were public contractors, in whose official capacity they often supplied the Roman legions and military, managed the ...
after he retired from professional cricket, running pubs
A pub (short for public house) is a kind of drinking establishment which is licensed to serve alcoholic drinks for consumption on the premises. The term ''public house'' first appeared in the United Kingdom in late 17th century, and was ...
in Burton, Derby
Derby ( ) is a city and unitary authority area in Derbyshire, England. It lies on the banks of the River Derwent in the south of Derbyshire, which is in the East Midlands Region. It was traditionally the county town of Derbyshire. Derby gai ...
, Mansfield
Mansfield is a market town and the administrative centre of Mansfield District in Nottinghamshire, England. It is the largest town in the wider Mansfield Urban Area (followed by Sutton-in-Ashfield). It gained the Royal Charter of a market tow ...
and Farnsfield
Farnsfield is a large village and civil parish in Nottinghamshire in Sherwood Forest. It is in the local government district of Newark and Sherwood. The population of the civil parish as at the 2011 Census was 2,731, an increase from 2,681 in ...
. He was president of Farnsfield Cricket Club and of the Lancashire Players' Association. It is often claimed that he bred pigeon
Columbidae () is a bird family consisting of doves and pigeons. It is the only family in the order Columbiformes. These are stout-bodied birds with short necks and short slender bills that in some species feature fleshy ceres. They primarily ...
s, but that misapprehension originates from an incident at a match against Derbyshire at Queen's Park, Chesterfield, when Berry rescued a pigeon from the pitch.[
He married twice. After his first wife, Eileen, died in 1992, Berry married Vera Hilton, the widow of his long-time friend and rival Malcolm Hilton, who had died in 1990. He finally retired to ]Greenfield
Greenfield or Greenfields may refer to:
Engineering and Business
* Greenfield agreement, an employment agreement for a new organisation
* Greenfield investment, the investment in a structure in an area where no previous facilities exist
* Greenf ...
near Oldham
Oldham is a large town in Greater Manchester, England, amid the Pennines and between the rivers Irk and Medlock, southeast of Rochdale and northeast of Manchester. It is the administrative centre of the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham, wh ...
in 2004, and died in Manchester
Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...
. He was survived by his second wife.
References
External links
*
Bob Berry dies aged 80
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 ...
, 8 December 2006
Obituary
''The Independent
''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...
'', 13 February 2007
{{DEFAULTSORT:Berry, Bob
1926 births
2006 deaths
England Test cricketers
English cricketers
Derbyshire cricketers
Lancashire cricketers
Worcestershire cricketers
Commonwealth XI cricketers
People from Gorton
Marylebone Cricket Club cricketers
Minor Counties cricketers
North v South cricketers
Cricketers who have taken five wickets on Test debut
Cricketers who have taken ten wickets in an innings