Derek Edward Pratt (31 October 1925 – 10 January 1997) 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. Pratt was a right-handed batsman who bowled

leg break Leg spin is a type of spin bowling in cricket. A leg spinner bowls right-arm with a wrist spin action. The leg spinner's normal delivery causes the ball to spin from right to left (from the bowler's perspective) when the ball bounces on the ...

. He was born at

Balham Balham () is an area in south London, England, mostly within the London Borough of Wandsworth with small parts within the neighbouring London Borough of Lambeth. The area has been settled since Saxon times and appears in the Domesday Book as B ...

, London. Pratt made his first-class debut for

Surrey Surrey () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South East England, bordering Greater London to the south west. Surrey has a large rural area, and several significant urban areas which form part of the Greater London Built-up Area. ...

against Cambridge University in 1954 at Fenner's. He made eight further first-class appearances for Surrey, the last of which came against Oxford University in 1957. In his nine first-class appearances for Surrey, he scored 171 runs at an average of 21.37, with a high score of 33. With the ball, he took 13 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 30.15, with best figures of 6/119. These figures represented his only

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 ...

and came against the Combined Services in 1956 at The Oval. He joined Bedfordshire in 1958, making his debut for the county against Cambridgeshire 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 cricket for Bedfordshire from 1958 to 1963, making a total of 35 appearances, the last of which came 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 ...

. He died at Banstead,

, on 10 January 1997. His brother,

Ronald Ronald is a masculine given name derived from the Old Norse ''Rögnvaldr'',#H2, Hanks; Hardcastle; Hodges (2006) p. 234; #H1, Hanks; Hodges (2003) § Ronald. or possibly from Old English ''Regenweald''. In some cases ''Ronald'' is an Anglicised ...

, also played first-class cricket.

References

External links

Derek Pratt
at ESPNcricinfo
Derek Pratt
at CricketArchive {{DEFAULTSORT:Pratt, Derek 1925 births 1997 deaths People from Balham Cricketers from the London Borough of Wandsworth English cricketers Surrey cricketers Bedfordshire cricketers