John Sunley (10 October 1946 – 6 August 2009) was an English

cricket 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 str ...

er. Sunley was a right-handed

batsman In cricket, batting is the act or skill of hitting the cricket ball, ball with a cricket bat, bat to score runs (cricket), runs and prevent the dismissal (cricket), loss of one's wicket. Any player who is currently batting is, since Septembe ...

who bowled right-arm

medium pace Fast bowling (also referred to as pace bowling) is one of two main approaches to bowling in the sport of cricket, the other being spin bowling. Practitioners of pace bowling are usually known as ''fast'' bowlers, ''quicks'', or ''pacemen''. T ...

. He was born in

Grimsby Grimsby or Great Grimsby is a port town and the administrative centre of North East Lincolnshire, Lincolnshire, England. Grimsby adjoins the town of Cleethorpes directly to the south-east forming a conurbation. Grimsby is north-east of L ...

Lincolnshire Lincolnshire (abbreviated Lincs.) is a Counties of England, county in the East Midlands of England, with a long coastline on the North Sea to the east. It borders Norfolk to the south-east, Cambridgeshire to the south, Rutland to the south-we ...

. Sunley made his debut for

in the 1966 Minor Counties Championship against

Shropshire Shropshire (; alternatively Salop; abbreviated in print only as Shrops; demonym Salopian ) is a landlocked historic county in the West Midlands region of England. It is bordered by Wales to the west and the English counties of Cheshire to ...

. Sunley played

Minor counties The National Counties, known as the Minor Counties before 2020, are the cricketing counties of England and Wales that do not have first-class status. The game is administered by the National Counties Cricket Association (NCCA), which comes unde ...

cricket for Lincolnshire from 1966 to 1984, which included 42 Minor Counties Championship matches. He made his List A debut against

Hampshire Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in western South East England on the coast of the English Channel. Home to two major English cities on its south coast, Southampton and Portsmouth, Hampshire ...

in the 1966 Gillette Cup. He played 3 further List A matches for Lincolnshire, the last coming against

Derbyshire Derbyshire ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands, England. It includes much of the Peak District National Park, the southern end of the Pennine range of hills and part of the National Forest. It borders Greater Manchester to the nor ...

in the

1976 Gillette Cup The 1976 Gillette Cup was the fourteenth Gillette Cup, an English limited overs county cricket tournament. It was held between 26 June and 4 September 1976. The tournament was won by Northamptonshire County Cricket Club who defeated Lancashire C ...

. In his 4 matches for Lincolnshire, he scored 26 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 6.50, with a high score of 14. With the ball, he took 2 wickets for Lincolnshire, at a bowling average of 7.00. He also played List A cricket for

Minor Counties East The National Counties, known as the Minor Counties before 2020, are the cricketing counties of England and Wales that do not have first-class status. The game is administered by the National Counties Cricket Association (NCCA), which comes unde ...

, making his debut for the team in the 1976 Benson & Hedges Cup against

Essex Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and Grea ...

. He played 3 further matches for the team, the last coming against

Yorkshire Yorkshire ( ; abbreviated Yorks), formally known as the County of York, is a historic county in northern England and by far the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its large area in comparison with other English counties, functions have ...

in the

1977 Benson & Hedges Cup The 1977 Benson & Hedges Cup was the sixth edition of cricket's Benson & Hedges Cup. The competition was won by Gloucestershire County Cricket Club. Fixtures and results Group stage Group A Group B Group C Gro ...

. In these 4 matches, he scored 45 runs at an average of 15.00, with a high score of 15. He died suddenly at his home in Humberston, Lincolnshire on 6 August 2009. Following his death students at the

Grimsby Institute of Further & Higher Education Grimsby Institute of Further & Higher Education and University Centre Grimsby (often Grimsby Institute or GIFHE or Grimsby College or UCG) is a further education college, apprenticeship provider, and higher education university in Grimsby in N ...

, where Sunley worked as a lecturer for 27 years, launched a fund in memory of him.

References

External links

John Sunley
at

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John Sunley
at CricketArchive {{DEFAULTSORT:Sunley, John 1946 births 2009 deaths Cricketers from Grimsby English cricketers Lincolnshire cricketers Minor Counties cricketers Schoolteachers from Lincolnshire