William Ian Lewis (29 September 1935 – 20 November 2004), usually known by his middle name, was an Irish

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 ...

. A right-handed

batsman In cricket, batting is the act or skill of hitting the ball with a bat to score runs and prevent the loss of one's wicket. Any player who is currently batting is, since September 2021, officially referred to as a batter (historically, the ...

,Cricket Archive profile
/ref> he played twenty times for the

Ireland cricket team The Ireland cricket team represents all of Ireland in international cricket. The Irish Cricket Union, operating under the brand Cricket Ireland is the sport's governing body in Ireland, and organises the international team. Ireland participa ...

between 1955 and 1973CricketEurope Stats Zone profile
/ref> including five first-class matches.First-class matches played by Ian Lewis
at CricketArchive He was born and died in

Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of th ...

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

. His son,

Alan Alan may refer to: People *Alan (surname), an English and Turkish surname * Alan (given name), an English given name **List of people with given name Alan ''Following are people commonly referred to solely by "Alan" or by a homonymous name.'' *A ...

, and granddaughters,

Robyn Robin Miriam Carlsson (born 12 June 1979), known as Robyn (), is a Swedish pop singer, songwriter, record producer, and DJ. She arrived on the music scene with her 1995 debut album, ''Robyn Is Here'', which produced two Billboard Hot 100, ''Bil ...

and

Gaby Lewis Gaby Hollis Lewis (born 27 March 2001) is an Irish international cricketer who made her senior debut for the Irish national team in July 2014, aged only 13. She made her Twenty20 International (T20I) debut later in the year, becoming the younge ...

, also played cricket for Ireland.

Playing career

Though his last match for Ireland was just over eighteen years after his first, he was never a regular member of the side, regularly being absent from the national side for long periods. His debut was against the MCC at

Lord's Lord's Cricket Ground, commonly known as Lord's, is a cricket venue in St John's Wood, London. Named after its founder, Thomas Lord, it is owned by Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) and is the home of Middlesex County Cricket Club, the England and ...

in September 1955 and his first-class debut came the following June against

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

. He played twice more in 1956; 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 ...

and the MCC, and twice in 1957; against Scotland and the MCC before the first substantial gap in matches. It would be almost three years before he returned to the Irish side, playing a match against

Leicestershire Leicestershire ( ; postal abbreviation Leics.) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East Midlands, England. The county borders Nottinghamshire to the north, Lincolnshire to the north-east, Rutland to the east, Northamptonshire t ...

in August 1960, before another gap, this time for almost two years, playing against

Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 24 ...

in June 1962. He played four times for Ireland in 1963, including two matches against 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 ...

, before his longest gap in appearances, this time for seven years. He returned to international duty for a match against the

Combined Services The Combined Services cricket team represents the British Armed Forces. The team played at first-class level in England for more than forty years in the mid-twentieth century. Their first first-class match was against Gentlemen of England at Lo ...

in August 1970, playing against the MCC the following month. Matches against the

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

, the Combined Services and the MCC followed in 1971, before his final first-class match against Scotland in June 1972. His last match for Ireland was against

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at the

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in September 1973. He later served as president of the

Irish Cricket Union Cricket Ireland, officially the Irish Cricket Union, is the national Sport governing body, governing body for cricket on the island of Ireland (both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland), and oversees the national Ireland cricket team, m ...

in 1989.

Statistics

In all matches for Ireland, Lewis scored 353 runs at an

average In ordinary language, an average is a single number taken as representative of a list of numbers, usually the sum of the numbers divided by how many numbers are in the list (the arithmetic mean). For example, the average of the numbers 2, 3, 4, 7, ...

of 12.61, with a top score of 41 against the West Indies in June 1963. He never bowled for Ireland. His top first-class score was 20 against Scotland,First-class batting against each opponent by Ian Lewis
at Cricket Archive whom he played against in all but one of his first-class matches.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lewis, Ian 1935 births 2004 deaths Cricketers from County Dublin Irish cricketers