Gregory George Watson (born 29 January 1955) is a former Australian first-class cricketer who played domestically for New South Wales and Western Australia, as well as for Worcestershire in English county cricket.

Biography

Born in Gulgong, New South Wales, Watson made his first-class debut for New South Wales at the Adelaide Oval against South Australia in the 1977-78 Sheffield Shield. He took four wickets, his maiden victim being opposing captain

Ashley Woodcock Ashley James Woodcock (born 27 February 1947) is a former Australian cricketer who played in one Test match and one One Day International in 1974. A right-handed batsman from Adelaide, he played for South Australia in Australian domestic crick ...

, but did not bat in either innings. He played a further six games in the Shield, capturing another 13 wickets, and made a single

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 ...

appearance in the Gillette Cup, taking 1-25 from 8 eight-ball overs. In 1978, Watson went to England to play

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 ...

for Worcestershire. He had a reasonably successful season, taking 48 first-class wickets at just under 32 in 21 games, including a career-best 6–45 against

Sussex Sussex (), from the Old English (), is a historic county in South East England that was formerly an independent medieval Anglo-Saxon kingdom. It is bounded to the west by Hampshire, north by Surrey, northeast by Kent, south by the English ...

in early August. He also made his highest score with the bat: 38 against Somerset. In one-day cricket he had great success, claiming 19 wickets at a mere 9.52 apiece, including 5-22 (again a career best) against

Combined Universities The British Universities cricket team was a cricket team whose players were drawn from university students studying in Great Britain. The team played under the title of Combined Universities until 1995. The team played List A cricket from 1975 t ...

in the

Benson & Hedges Cup The Benson & Hedges Cup was a one-day cricket competition for first-class counties in England and Wales that was held from 1972 to 2002, one of cricket's longest sponsorship deals. It was the third major one-day competition established in Englan ...

, a performance which won him the man-of-the-match award. The defection of many of the senior Australian players to join World Series Cricket in 1977 led to speculation that Watson would be a contender for the Australian team in the 1978–79

Ashes Ashes may refer to: *Ash, the solid remnants of fires. Media and entertainment Art * ''Ashes'' (Munch), an 1894 painting by Edvard Munch Film * ''The Ashes'' (film), a 1965 Polish film by director Andrzej Wajda * ''Ashes'' (1922 film), a ...

series against England. However, after impressive early performances, Watson had a disappointing season in 1978–79, taking only 13 first-class wickets for New South Wales at average just under 50. He returned for another season with Worcestershire in 1979, but played only nine times in first-class cricket (taking 22 wickets at 37.50) and not at all in the one-day format; from mid-July onwards he had to satisfy himself with Second XI games. Watson was to play only one more match: a single outing in the 1979-80 Sheffield Shield for Western Australia against Queensland at Perth. The game was drawn, and Watson had a rather poor match: he conceded 135 runs from 30 six-ball overs and had only the second-innings wickets of Ray Phillips and Alec Parker to show for it. Watson never played first-class cricket again but continued to play English league cricket semi-professionally with Billingham, Crewe, Stourbridge and Smethwick. After his cricket career ended, he worked as a metallurgist and systems analyst.''Cricketer'', April 1980. p. 23.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Watson, Greg 1955 births Living people Australian cricketers New South Wales cricketers Western Australia cricketers Worcestershire cricketers People from the Central Tablelands Cricketers from New South Wales