Harley James Roberts (24 May 1912 – 17 February 1989) 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 ...

and amateur golfer. He played first-class cricket for Warwickshire in 17 matches between 1932 and 1937. He later became an England international golfer and was runner-up in the English Amateur.

Personal life

Roberts was born in Bearwood,

Staffordshire Staffordshire (; postal abbreviation Staffs.) is a landlocked county in the West Midlands region of England. It borders Cheshire to the northwest, Derbyshire and Leicestershire to the east, Warwickshire to the southeast, the West Midlands Cou ...

(now in

West Midlands West or Occident is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from east and is the direction in which the Sun sets on the Earth. Etymology The word "west" is a Germanic word passed into some ...

), and died at Romsley, Worcestershire. He served as a

justice of the peace A justice of the peace (JP) is a judicial officer of a lower or ''puisne'' court, elected or appointed by means of a commission ( letters patent) to keep the peace. In past centuries the term commissioner of the peace was often used with the sa ...

Smethwick Smethwick () is an industrial town in Sandwell, West Midlands, England. It lies west of Birmingham city centre. Historically it was in Staffordshire. In 2019, the ward of Smethwick had an estimated population of 15,246, while the wider bu ...

Cricket career

A right-handed lower-middle-order batsman and a right-arm fast-medium bowler, Roberts had a trial for Warwickshire in 1930 and played for the second eleven from that year, but did not make his first-class debut until 1932, when he appeared in eight matches. In his first game, he finished off the Middlesex first innings by taking the last three wickets at a personal cost of six runs in 3.1 overs. Two weeks later, in the match against Essex, he and

Reg Santall Frederick Reginald Santall (12 July 1903 – 3 November 1950) was an English cricketer. He was a right-hand batsman and right-arm medium pace bowler who played for Warwickshire. Born in Acocks Green, Birmingham, Santall was a regular on the Warw ...

put on 131 for the seventh wicket in what remains the record first-class partnership for this wicket for Warwickshire against Essex; Roberts made 61, but, aside from Santall's 63, his colleagues mustered only 43 more runs between them, and the match was lost heavily. Though Roberts remained at Warwickshire and played frequently for the second eleven, he did not improve on either the bowling or the batting figures of his early games, and his first-class career petered out in 1937.

Golf

Following his cricket career, Roberts was a successful amateur golfer. He won many county and regional events and was an England international for many years. In 1948, he was runner-up in the English Amateur championship at Little Aston. In 1963, he was elected as president of the Midland Counties Golf Association.

Tournament wins

*West of England Amateur Championship: 1938 *Midland Amateur Championship: 1947, 1956, 1958 *Worcestershire Amateur Championship: 1947 *Worcestershire Open: 1955, 1956, 1962 *Midland Amateur–Professional Foursomes: 1958 (with John Wiggett)

References

1912 births 1989 deaths English male golfers Amateur golfers English cricketers Warwickshire cricketers English justices of the peace {{England-cricket-bio-1910s-stub