Edwin Smith (born 2 January 1934) is a former county

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

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 ...

between 1951 and 1971 and took over 1200 wickets. Smith was born in

Grassmoor Grassmoor is a village in Derbyshire, England, approximately three miles to the south of Chesterfield. Its original name, according to 16th-century parish records, was ''Gresmore''. The appropriate civil parish is called Grassmoor, Hasland and Wi ...

. He played his entire first-class career for Derbyshire, playing 503 First Class matches in a career spanning 20 years from 1951 to 1971. Smith was primarily an

off-spin Off spin is a type of finger spin bowling in cricket. A bowler who uses this technique is called an off spinner. Off spinners are right-handed spin bowlers who use their fingers to spin the ball. Their normal delivery is an off break, which spi ...

bowler and took 1217 first-class wickets at an average of 25.84, with 51 5 wicket innings and a best performance of 9 for 46. He was also a useful lower middle order

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 scored nearly 7000 runs with a highest score of 90.Edwin Smith at Cricket Archive
/ref> England had a number of very good off-spin bowlers during Smith's career, including

Jim Laker James Charles Laker (9 February 1922 – 23 April 1986) was an English professional cricketer who played for Surrey County Cricket Club from 1946 to 1959 and represented England in 46 Test matches. He was born in Shipley, West Riding of York ...

Fred Titmus Frederick John Titmus (24 November 1932 – 23 March 2011) was an English cricketer, whose first-class career, mostly for Middlesex with a shortish stint for Surrey, spanned five decades. He was the fourth man after W.G. Grace, Wilfred Rhod ...

, David Allen and

Ray Illingworth Raymond Illingworth CBE (8 June 1932 – 25 December 2021) was an English cricketer, cricket commentator and administrator. , he was one of only nine players to have taken 2,000 wickets and made 20,000 runs in first-class cricket.Arnold, Peter ...

, which restricted his opportunities to play Test cricket.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Smith, Edwin 1934 births Living people Derbyshire cricketers People from Grassmoor Cricketers from Derbyshire English cricketers Marylebone Cricket Club cricketers North v South cricketers