Robert Elliott Storey Wyatt (2 May 1901 – 20 April 1995) 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 who played for

Warwickshire Warwickshire (; abbreviated Warks) is a county in the West Midlands region of England. The county town is Warwick, and the largest town is Nuneaton. The county is famous for being the birthplace of William Shakespeare at Stratford-upon-Avon an ...

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 ...

and

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 ...

in a career lasting nearly thirty years from 1923 to 1951. He was born at Milford Heath House in Surrey and died at

Treliske The Royal Cornwall Hospital, formerly and still commonly known as the Treliske Hospital, is a medium-sized teaching hospital in Treliske, on the outskirts of Truro, Cornwall, England. The hospital provides training services for the University of ...

Truro Truro (; kw, Truru) is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and civil parishes in England, civil parish in Cornwall, England. It is Cornwall's county town, sole city and centre for administration, leisure and retail trading. Its ...

. A determined

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 ...

and handy medium pace bowler, Wyatt made his

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 ...

debut in 1923. He played his first

Test match 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) ...

against

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

Johannesburg Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu and xh, eGoli ), colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, or "The City of Gold", is the largest city in South Africa, classified as a megacity, and is one of the 100 largest urban areas in the world. According to Demo ...

in 1927. He was controversially, by replacing Percy Chapman, appointed captain for England's last Test against the dominant Australian touring team in 1930. He was unsuccessful and lost the role to

Douglas Jardine Douglas Robert Jardine ( 1900 – 1958) was an English cricketer who played 22 Test matches for England, captaining the side in 15 of those matches between 1931 and 1934. A right-handed batsman, he is best known for captaining the English ...

for the next few years. Nevertheless, 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 ...

for 1930. Serving as Jardine's vice-captain on the 1932–1933 tour of Australia, Wyatt was in charge of an early tour match that Jardine sat out of, and became the first captain to employ the controversial

Bodyline Bodyline, also known as fast leg theory bowling, was a cricketing tactic devised by the English cricket team for their 1932–33 Ashes tour of Australia. It was designed to combat the extraordinary batting skill of Australia's leading batsman, ...

tactic against Australia. After Jardine resigned following the political and administrative fallout caused by Bodyline, Wyatt was made captain again. He played in 40 test matches, fifteen as captain. He is said to have captained "soundly if without inspiration". Wyatt was noted for sustaining several injuries during his career but he had a "bulldog spirit". Most famously, a ball bowled by

West Indian A West Indian is a native or inhabitant of the West Indies (the Antilles and the Lucayan Archipelago). For more than 100 years the words ''West Indian'' specifically described natives of the West Indies, but by 1661 Europeans had begun to use it ...

bowler

Manny Martindale Emmanuel Alfred Martindale (25 November 1909 – 17 March 1972) was a West Indian cricketer who played in ten Test matches from 1933 to 1939. He was a right-arm fast bowler with a long run up; although not tall for a bowler of his type he bowl ...

hit him in the jaw during a match in Jamaica in 1935. He was carried unconscious from the field with his jaw broken in four places. When he regained consciousness in the dressing room, his first action was to signal for a pencil and paper – when these were supplied he wrote that he attached no blame to Martindale and amended his team's batting order. Wyatt played his last Test against Australia at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in 1937. In his test career, he scored 1,839 runs at an average of 31.70 and took 18 wickets at an average of 35.66. In his first-class career he played 739 matches, scoring 39,405 runs at an average of 40.04, and taking 901 wickets at an average of 32.84. His highest innings in a test match was 149 against South Africa at Trent Bridge in 1935. He captained Warwickshire from 1930 to 1937 when he was replaced by Peter Cranmer. Wyatt didn't like the way this was handled, but he nevertheless continued to play for Warwickshire through the 1938 and 1939 seasons. He served in the

Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) and ...

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 ...

. After the war, he transferred to Worcestershire, where he said he had six happy summers. In his penultimate match in 1951, he faced the final ball of the game against Somerset at Taunton with Worcestershire needing six to win, and "he duly drove it high into the pavilion for victory".Smith, Martin ed. (2013) ''The Promise of Endless Summer (Cricket Lives from the Daily Telegraph)''. Aurum. pp. 10–12. . He lived to be 93 years old and was England's oldest living Test cricketer before his death. He has a stand named after him at Warwickshire's home ground of

Edgbaston Edgbaston () is an affluent suburban area of central Birmingham, England, historically in Warwickshire, and curved around the southwest of the city centre. In the 19th century, the area was under the control of the Gough-Calthorpe family an ...

. He was the cousin of politician and broadcaster

Woodrow Wyatt Woodrow may refer to: People *Woodrow (name), a given name and a surname Places Canada *Woodrow, Saskatchewan, an unincorporated community United Kingdom *Woodrow, Buckinghamshire, England *Woodrow, Cumbria, England United States *Woodrow, Color ...

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Wyatt, R. E. S. 1901 births 1995 deaths England Test cricketers England Test cricket captains English cricketers English cricketers of 1919 to 1945 People from Surrey Warwickshire cricketers Warwickshire cricket captains Wisden Cricketers of the Year Worcestershire cricketers Worcestershire cricket captains Free Foresters cricketers Royal Air Force cricketers People educated at King Henry VIII School, Coventry England cricket team selectors Gentlemen cricketers Marylebone Cricket Club cricketers Gentlemen of England cricketers D. R. Jardine's XI cricketers H. D. G. Leveson Gower's XI cricketers Lord Hawke's XI cricketers C. I. Thornton's XI cricketers North v South cricketers L. H. Tennyson's XI cricket team Sir T. E. W. Brinckman's XI cricketers Sir L. Parkinson's XI cricketers Royal Air Force personnel of World War II 20th-century British businesspeople Marylebone Cricket Club West Indian Touring Team cricketers Marylebone Cricket Club Australian Touring Team cricketers Marylebone Cricket Club South African Touring Team cricketers