George Paine (cricketer)

George Alfred Edward Paine (11 June 1908 – 30 March 1978) was an English

cricketer 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 ...

who played in four

Test matches Test match in some sports refers to a sporting contest between national representative teams and may refer to: * Test cricket * Test match (indoor cricket) * Test match (rugby union) * Test match (rugby league) * Test match (association football) ...

in 1934–35. A tall lower-order right-handed batsman and an orthodox left-arm spinner, Paine played in five first-class matches for

Middlesex Middlesex (; abbreviation: Middx) is a Historic counties of England, historic county in South East England, southeast England. Its area is almost entirely within the wider urbanised area of London and mostly within the Ceremonial counties of ...

in 1926, but then qualified by residence to play for

Warwickshire Warwickshire (; abbreviated Warks) is a county in the West Midlands region of England. The county town is Warwick, and the largest town is Nuneaton. The county is famous for being the birthplace of William Shakespeare at Stratford-upon-Avon an ...

, making his debut in 1929. Inclined in his first two seasons to be expensive, he developed in 1931 into a top-class spinner, adding extra flight and spin to his delivery. He took 127 wickets in that season and passed the 100 wickets mark in each of the next five seasons, with a best performance of 156 wickets in 1934, when he was top of the first-class averages. He was picked as a

Wisden Cricketer of the Year The ''Wisden'' Cricketers of the Year are cricketers selected for the honour by the annual publication ''Wisden Cricketers' Almanack'', based primarily on their "influence on the previous English season". The award began in 1889 with the naming ...

in the 1935 edition of

Wisden Cricketers' Almanack ''Wisden Cricketers' Almanack'', or simply ''Wisden'', colloquially the Bible of Cricket, is a cricket reference book published annually in the United Kingdom. The description "bible of cricket" was first used in the 1930s by Alec Waugh in a ...

. In 1934–35, he was chosen, with his county colleague

Eric Hollies William Eric Hollies (5 June 1912 – 16 April 1981) was an English cricketer, who is mainly remembered for taking the wicket of Donald Bradman for a duck in Bradman's final Test match innings, in which he needed only four runs for a Test avera ...

, for the

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 of the West Indies and there he played his only Test matches. He took more wickets, 17, than any other

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 ...

bowler and also hit the highest score, 49, in England's innings of 226 in the third Test match, having been sent in as a nightwatchman. But the tour as a whole was not a success, with the

West Indies The West Indies is a subregion of North America, surrounded by the North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea that includes 13 independent island countries and 18 dependencies and other territories in three major archipelagos: the Greater A ...

winning the four-match series by two to one, and Paine was not picked for any further Test matches. In fact, in 1935, though he still took more than 100 wickets, Paine was much less effective for Warwickshire; Wisden for 1936 says that he "suffered from physical trouble", which appears to have been rheumatism, and that he had lost much of the flight and spin that had made him a force since 1931. He was ill for much of 1936, back but out of form in 1937 and after another ineffective season in 1938, he refused the terms Warwickshire offered for 1939 and left

first-class cricket First-class cricket, along with List A cricket and Twenty20 cricket, is one of the highest-standard forms of cricket. A first-class match is one of three or more days' scheduled duration between two sides of eleven players each and is officiall ...

, though he reappeared in one match in 1947. In retirement he was a coach at Solihull School. 1908 births 1978 deaths People from Paddington England Test cricketers English cricketers Middlesex cricketers Warwickshire cricketers Wisden Cricketers of the Year Players cricketers Marylebone Cricket Club cricketers English cricketers of 1919 to 1945 Marylebone Cricket Club West Indian Touring Team cricketers {{England-Test-cricket-bio-stub