Douglas Ernest Vernon Padgett (born 20 July 1934)
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 str ...
er, who played more than 500
first-class matches and represented
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
Tests
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twice, both in 1960. Cricket writer Colin Bateman recorded Padgett was, "nimble, happy anywhere in the
order, he was a great technician and one of the best batsmen of his era on a bad wicket".
Life and career
Born 20 July 1934, Padgett had an elder brother, Granville, who was also a professional cricketer. He played for
Idle Cricket Club
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in 1951. In 1951, he became the youngest player then to play first-class cricket for
Yorkshire
Yorkshire ( ; abbreviated Yorks), formally known as the County of York, is a historic county in northern England and by far the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its large area in comparison with other English counties, functions have ...
, aged just 16 years and 320 days.
Paul Jarvis broke Padgett's record in 1981.
Following his
National Service
National service is the system of voluntary government service, usually military service. Conscription is mandatory national service. The term ''national service'' comes from the United Kingdom's National Service (Armed Forces) Act 1939.
The ...
, Padgett was one of the first of a new generation of Yorkshire batsmen to cement his place in the Yorkshire first team. He scored more than 1,000 runs in 1956, and in the
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 ...
-winning side of 1959 he was the leading batsman with more than 2,000 runs. He usually batted at No 3, though he occasionally opened the innings.
In 1960, a tour by the
South Africans
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, widely perceived as weak, led the England Test selectors to experiment with new batsmen, and Padgett played in the fourth and fifth matches. He was not a great success, and was one of a number of England players criticised in
The Oval
The Oval, currently known for sponsorship reasons as the Kia Oval, is an international cricket ground in Kennington, located in the borough of Lambeth, in south London. The Oval has been the home ground of Surrey County Cricket Club since ...
Test match for slow batting in the second innings.
He went to
New Zealand
New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...
the following winter on an extensive
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, but he was never picked again for England. Padgett failed to convert his innings into big scores, albeit registering 50 one hundred and twenty nine times in his first-class career, He reached the century mark on thirty two occasions. This counted against him when the England selectors considered his promotion to further international duty.
However, he remained a valued member of the Yorkshire side that won six further Championships across the 1960s. He scored more than 1,000 runs during his twelve seasons.
He retired from playing in 1971, much to the frustration of the new captain,
Geoffrey Boycott
Sir Geoffrey Boycott (born 21 October 1940) is a former Test cricketer, who played cricket for Yorkshire and England. In a prolific and sometimes controversial playing career from 1962 to 1986, Boycott established himself as one of England's m ...
, who relied on his counsel. Padgett then captained Yorkshire's second eleven, becoming assistant, then head coach.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Padgett, Doug
1934 births
Living people
English cricketers
England Test cricketers
Marylebone Cricket Club cricketers
Yorkshire cricketers
International Cavaliers cricketers
Combined Services cricketers
People from Idle, West Yorkshire
Cricketers from Bradford
Players cricketers
T. N. Pearce's XI cricketers
English cricketers of 1946 to 1968