David George Pilch (2 February 1943 – 28 September 2023) 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. Pilch was a right-handed batsman who bowled right-arm medium pace. Outside of cricket, Pilch played hockey at county level for Norfolk. He was born in West Kirby,

Cheshire Cheshire ( ) is a ceremonial and historic county in North West England, bordered by Wales to the west, Merseyside and Greater Manchester to the north, Derbyshire to the east, and Staffordshire and Shropshire to the south. Cheshire's county t ...

. Pilch made his debut for Norfolk in the 1961

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 ...

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 ...

. Pilch played Minor counties cricket for Norfolk from 1961 to 1983, which included 215 Minor Counties Championship appearances and a single MCCA Knockout Trophy appearance. 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 against Hampshire in the

1965 Gillette Cup The 1965 Gillette Cup was the third Gillette Cup, an English limited overs county cricket tournament. It was held between 23 April and 4 September 1965. The tournament was won by Yorkshire, following Geoff Boycott's 146 runs in the final at Lord ...

. He made four further List A appearances for Norfolk, the last coming 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 the

1983 NatWest Trophy The 1983 NatWest Trophy was an English limited overs county cricket tournament which was held between 29 June and 3 September 1983. The third NatWest Trophy competition, it was won by Somerset who defeated Kent by 24 runs in the final at Lor ...

. Primarily a bowler, Pilch took nine wickets in List A cricket for Norfolk, which came at an average of 20.00, with best figures of 3/15. Playing for Norfolk allowed him to represent

Minor Counties North 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 un ...

, with Pilch making his debut for the team against Nottinghamshire in the

1974 Benson & Hedges Cup The 1974 Benson & Hedges Cup was the third edition of cricket's Benson & Hedges Cup. The competition was won by Surrey County Cricket Club. Fixtures and results Group stage Midlands Group Northern Group Southern Group Western ...

. He made two further List A appearances for the team, against Yorkshire and Nottinghamshire in the

1975 Benson & Hedges Cup The 1975 Benson & Hedges Cup was the fourth edition of cricket's Benson & Hedges Cup. The competition was won by Leicestershire County Cricket Club. Fixtures and results Group stage Midlands Group Northern Group Southern Group Western ...

. With the ball, he took two wickets for the team, which came at an average of 44.50, with best figures of 1/38. His father, George Pilch, played Minor Counties cricket for Norfolk, his grandfather, Robert Pilch, played

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

for Tottenham Hotspur, Everton and Norwich City, and his great-great uncle, William Pilch, played first-class cricket for

Kent County Cricket Club Kent County Cricket Club is one of the eighteen first-class county clubs within the domestic cricket structure of England and Wales. It represents the historic county of Kent. A club representing the county was first founded in 1842 but Ke ...

. Pilch died on 28 September 2023, aged 80.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Pilch, David 1943 births 2023 deaths People from West Kirby Cricketers from Merseyside Sportspeople from Wirral English cricketers Norfolk cricketers Free Foresters cricketers Minor Counties cricketers English male field hockey players Cricketers from Cheshire