Graham Iefvion Burgess (born 5 May 1943) is a former

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 ...

er who made over 450 appearances for

Somerset County Cricket Club Somerset County Cricket Club is one of eighteen first-class county clubs within the domestic cricket structure of England and Wales. It represents the historic county of Somerset. Founded in 1875, Somerset was initially regarded as a minor ...

between 1966 and 1980. A right-arm medium pace bowler and a right-handed lower middle-order hitter, Burgess is described by

Cricinfo ESPN cricinfo (formerly known as Cricinfo or CricInfo) is a sports news website exclusively for the game of cricket. The site features news, articles, live coverage of cricket matches (including liveblogs and scorecards), and ''StatsGuru'', a d ...

as "a good old-fashioned county professional". After his retirement from professional cricket, Burgess qualified as a first-class

umpire An umpire is an official in a variety of sports and competition, responsible for enforcing the rules of the sport, including sportsmanship decisions such as ejection. The term derives from the Old French nonper, ''non'', "not" and ''per'', ...

, and stood in over 500

county cricket Inter-county cricket matches are known to have been played since the early 18th century, involving teams that are representative of the historic counties of England and Wales. Since the late 19th century, there have been two county championship ...

matches between 1990 and 2008, when he retired. He also umpired a number of international matches, including Youth Test matches, Youth One Day Internationals and Women's One Day Internationals.

Early career

An education at

Millfield School Millfield is a public school (English independent day and boarding school for pupils aged 13–18) located in Street, Somerset, England. It was founded in 1935. Millfield is a registered charity and is the largest co-educational boarding scho ...

helped to steer all-round sportsman Burgess to a career in cricket. Although the Somerset side at the time was not known for signing local talent, earning it a tag of 'a team of all nations', Burgess became an exception. He appeared for Somerset Second XI regularly between 1963 and 1966, impressing with both bat and ball. He made his debut for the first-team in a match against the touring

West Indians A West Indian is a native or inhabitant of the West Indies (the Antilles and the Lucayan Archipelago). For more than 100 years the words ''West Indian'' specifically described natives of the West Indies, but by 1661 Europeans had begun to use it ...

in July 1966, and the step-up proved tough. Burgess recorded scores of 1 and 35 with the bat as Somerset followed-on, and opening the bowling, he finished with figures of 0/101. Despite his unimpressive entrance into first-class cricket, Burgess was selected for 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 ...

match against

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated Lancs) is the name of a historic county, ceremonial county, and non-metropolitan county in North West England. The boundaries of these three areas differ significantly. The non-metropolitan county of Lancashi ...

the day after the conclusion of the West Indians match. Not asked to bowl by his captain, Burgess was free to concentrate solely on his batting, and put on a 145 run

partnership A partnership is an arrangement where parties, known as business partners, agree to cooperate to advance their mutual interests. The partners in a partnership may be individuals, businesses, interest-based organizations, schools, governments o ...

for the sixth wicket with

Ken Palmer Kenneth Ernest Palmer (born 22 April 1937) is an English former cricketer and umpire (cricket), umpire, who played in one Test cricket, Test match in 1965, and umpired 22 Tests and 23 One Day Internationals from 1977 to 2001. He was born in Win ...

to help Somerset to recover from 29/5. Burgess claimed his first wicket in

during a Gillette Cup match against

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 ...

in early August, a match that was also his

List A List A cricket is a classification of the limited-overs (one-day) form of the sport of cricket, with games lasting up to eight hours. List A cricket includes One Day International (ODI) matches and various domestic competitions in which the numbe ...

debut. Burgess finished his first season with 406 runs from 21 innings at an average of 20.30 in first-class cricket.

Later career

Burgess continued to play for Somerset in

until 1979 and in limited-over cricket until 1982. The closing stages of his career coincided with increasing success for the county as he played alongside

Viv Richards Sir Isaac Vivian Alexander Richards (born 7 March 1952) is an Antiguan retired cricketer who represented the West Indies cricket team between 1974 and 1991. Batting generally at number three in a dominant West Indies side, Richards is widely ...

Ian Botham Ian Terence Botham, Baron Botham, (born 24 November 1955) is an English cricket commentator, member of the House of Lords, a former cricketer who has been chairman of Durham County Cricket Club since 2017 and charity fundraiser. Hailed as one ...

Joel Garner Joel Garner (born 16 December 1952) is a former West Indian cricketer, and a member of the highly regarded late 1970s and early 1980s West Indies cricket teams. Garner is the highest ranked One Day International bowler according to the ICC bes ...

, Brian Rose and

Vic Marks Victor James Marks (born 25 June 1955) is an English sports journalist and former professional cricketer. An off spin bowler, Marks played in six Test matches and thirty four One Day Internationals for England. His entire county cricket car ...

as the club achieved its first major honours. He was part of the team in 1979 which won, on successive days, the Gillette Cup, and the John Player League. Burgess contributed in Somerset's run to the former, top-scoring with 50 not out in the quarter-final against

Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...

, and taking 3 for 25 in the semi-final against

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 ...

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Burgess, Graham Living people 1943 births People from Glastonbury English cricketers Somerset cricketers Wiltshire cricketers Minor Counties cricketers Cambridgeshire cricketers English cricket umpires People educated at Millfield