Christopher “Cliff” Lethbridge (born 23 June 1961) is 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. Lethbridge was 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

Castleford Castleford is a town within the City of Wakefield, West Yorkshire, England. It had a population of 45,106 at a 2021 population estimate. Historically in the West Riding of Yorkshire, to the north of the town centre the River Calder joins the ...

, Yorkshire. Lethbridge made his first-class debut 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 ...

against

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 ...

in the

1981 County Championship The 1981 Schweppes County Championship was the 82nd officially organised running of the County Championship. Nottinghamshire won the Championship title. The number of points awarded for a win was increased to 16. The Championship was sponsored ...

. He made 49 further first-class appearances for the county, the last of which came against

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 ...

in the

1985 County Championship The 1985 Britannic Assurance County Championship was the 86th officially organised running of the County Championship. Middlesex Middlesex (; abbreviation: Middx) is a historic county in southeast England. Its area is almost entirely wi ...

. In his 50 first-class matches, he scored a total of 1,033 runs 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 22.95, with a high score of 87

not out In cricket, a batter is not out if they come out to bat in an innings and have not been dismissed by the end of an innings. The batter is also ''not out'' while their innings is still in progress. Occurrence At least one batter is not out at t ...

. This score, which was one of three first-class fifties he made, came against

Somerset ( en, All The People of Somerset) , locator_map = , coordinates = , region = South West England , established_date = Ancient , established_by = , preceded_by = , origin = , lord_lieutenant_office =Lord Lieutenant of Somerset , lord_ ...

in 1982. An

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 ...

, with the ball he took 77 wickets at a

bowling average In cricket, a player's bowling average is the number of runs they have conceded per wicket taken. The lower the bowling average is, the better the bowler is performing. It is one of a number of statistics used to compare bowlers, commonly use ...

of 38.90, with best figures of 5/68. These figures, which 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 ...

, came against

Glamorgan , HQ = Cardiff , Government = Glamorgan County Council (1889–1974) , Origin= , Code = GLA , CodeName = Chapman code , Replace = * West Glamorgan * Mid Glamorgan * South Glamorgan , Motto ...

in 1982. He made his

List A 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 ...

debut for Warwickshire in the

1981 John Player League The 1981 John Player League was the thirteenth competing of what was generally known as the Sunday League. The competition was won for the first time by Essex County Cricket Club. Standings Batting averages Bowling averages See also Sun ...

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 ...

. He made 55 further List A appearances for the county, the last of which came against

in the

1985 John Player Special League The 1985 John Player Special League was the seventeenth competing of what was generally known as the Sunday League. The competition was won for the third time by Essex County Cricket Club. Rain affected most rounds of the Sunday League that se ...

. In his 55 List A matches for Warwickshire, he scored 271 runs at an average of 18.06, with a high score of 57 not out. This score, which was his only one-day half century, came against Somerset in 1982. With the ball, he took 57 wickets at an average of 33.38, with best figures of 5/47. These figures represented his only five wicket haul in List A cricket and 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 1982. He left Warwickshire at the end of the 1985 season. He joined

Cambridgeshire Cambridgeshire (abbreviated Cambs.) is a Counties of England, county in the East of England, bordering Lincolnshire to the north, Norfolk to the north-east, Suffolk to the east, Essex and Hertfordshire to the south, and Bedfordshire and North ...

for the 1986 season, making his debut for the county against

Staffordshire Staffordshire (; postal abbreviation Staffs.) is a landlocked county in the West Midlands region of England. It borders Cheshire to the northwest, Derbyshire and Leicestershire to the east, Warwickshire to the southeast, the West Midlands Cou ...

in the

Minor Counties Championship The NCCA 3 Day Championship (previously the Minor Counties Cricket Championship) is a season-long competition in England and Wales that is contested by the members of the National Counties Cricket Association (NCCA), the so-called national cou ...

. He played

Minor counties The National Counties, known as the Minor Counties before 2020, are the cricketing counties of England and Wales that do not have first-class status. The game is administered by the National Counties Cricket Association (NCCA), which comes unde ...

cricket for Cambridgeshire from 1986 to 1991, making 21 Minor Counties Championship and seven

MCCA Knockout Trophy The National Counties Cricket Association Knockout Cup was started in 1983 as a knockout one-day competition for the National Counties in English cricket. At first it was known as the ''English Industrial Estates Cup'', before being called the ...

appearances. He also made two List A appearances for the county, one in the

1986 NatWest Trophy The 1986 NatWest Trophy was the 6th NatWest Trophy. It was an English limited overs county cricket tournament which was held between 25 June and 6 September 1986. The tournament was won by Sussex who defeated Lancashire by 7 wickets in the final ...

against Yorkshire and another against Derbyshire in the 1987 NatWest Trophy, taking two wickets.

References

External links

Christopher Lethbridge
at

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Lethbridge, Christopher 1961 births Living people Cricketers from Castleford English cricketers Warwickshire cricketers Cambridgeshire cricketers English cricketers of 1969 to 2000