George Leach (18 July 1881 – 10 January 1945) was an English cricketer active from 1903 to 1914 who played for Sussex. He was born in

Malta Malta ( , , ), officially the Republic of Malta ( mt, Repubblika ta' Malta ), is an island country in the Mediterranean Sea. It consists of an archipelago, between Italy and Libya, and is often considered a part of Southern Europe. It lies ...

and died in

Rawtenstall Rawtenstall () is a town in the borough of Rossendale, Lancashire, England. The town lies 15 miles/24 km north of Manchester, 22 miles/35 km east of Preston and 45 miles/70 km south east of the county town of Lancaster. The town is at the ...

. He appeared in 226 first-class matches as a righthanded

batsman In cricket, batting is the act or skill of hitting the cricket ball, ball with a cricket bat, bat to score runs (cricket), runs and prevent the dismissal (cricket), loss of one's wicket. Any player who is currently batting is, since Septembe ...

who

bowled In cricket, the term bowled has several meanings. First, is the act of propelling the ball towards the wicket defended by a batsman. Second, it is a method of dismissing a batsman, by hitting the wicket with a ball delivered by the bowler. (Th ...

right arm fast. He scored 5,870 runs with a highest score of 113

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 ...

and took 413

wicket In cricket, the term wicket has several meanings: * It is one of the two sets of three stumps and two bails at either end of the pitch. The fielding team's players can hit the wicket with the ball in a number of ways to get a batsman out. ...

s with a best performance of eight for 48. George Leach was a summer cricketer for Sussex and played for both Tottenham Hotspurs and Brighton & Hove Albion in the early 1900s as a centre forward. Having joined from

Hailsham Hailsham is a town, a civil parish and the administrative centre of the Wealden district of East Sussex, England.OS Explorer map Eastbourne and Beachy Head Scale: 1:25 000. Publisher:Ordnance Survey – Southampton B2 edition. Publishing Da ...

Leach played at Brighton & Hove Albion for a short while before joining Spurs in 1905, coming in to add some physical presence, but only made the team on seven occasions (two in the Southern League and five in the Western League) in his first season scoring 3 goals and then failed to make the first eleven appearances again in a senior game. The rest of his appearances were in friendlies. It was unsurprising that without much opportunity to play, Tottenham released him in April 1907 and he later re-signed with the Seagulls. A useful right hand batsman and a right arm fast bowler, George represented Sussex at county cricket with distinction between 1903 and 1912, playing 226 matches and scoring runs at an average of 18.93, while taking over 400 wickets at an average of 27.94. In 1917, he was selected for Captain Harwood's England XI. George Leach died in Rowtenstall, Lancashire on 10 January 1945.

Notes

1881 births 1945 deaths English cricketers Sussex cricketers Non-international England cricketers {{england-cricket-bio-1880s-stub