John Parkin Whitehead (3 September 1925 – 15 August 2000) was an English

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 played thirty seven first-class games for

Yorkshire County Cricket Club Yorkshire County Cricket Club is one of 18 first-class county clubs within the domestic cricket structure of England and Wales. It represents the historic county of Yorkshire. Yorkshire are the most successful team in English cricketing hi ...

from 1946 to 1951, plus thirty three for

Worcestershire Worcestershire ( , ; written abbreviation: Worcs) is a county in the West Midlands of England. The area that is now Worcestershire was absorbed into the unified Kingdom of England in 927, at which time it was constituted as a county (see His ...

in 1953 and 1955, and four more for 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 1947. He also played for the Yorkshire Second XI (1946-1951),

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 ...

(1945),

Army An army (from Old French ''armee'', itself derived from the Latin verb ''armāre'', meaning "to arm", and related to the Latin noun ''arma'', meaning "arms" or "weapons"), ground force or land force is a fighting force that fights primarily on ...

(1947), Yorkshire Present (1951) and the Worcestershire Second XI (1955). Born in

Uppermill Uppermill is a village in the civil parish of Saddleworth in the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham, in Greater Manchester, England. Historically in the West Riding of Yorkshire, it lies on the River Tame in a valley amongst the South Pennines with ...

Saddleworth Saddleworth is a civil parish of the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham in Greater Manchester, England. It comprises several villages and hamlets as well as suburbs of Oldham on the west side of the Pennine hills. Areas include Austerlands, Delph, ...

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

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

, Whitehead was a right arm fast medium bowler, who took 147 wickets at 29.23, with a best of 5 for 10 for the Combined Services against Worcestershire, one of four hauls of five wickets in an innings. He scored 1,246 first-class runs at 19.16, with a highest score of 71, which he made twice, once for Worcestershire and once for the Combined Services. He took 25 catches in the field. He had trials for

before his native county signed him. In his younger days, he bowled for

Oldham C.C. Oldham Cricket Club is a cricket team based at The Pollards in the Watersheddings area of Metropolitan Borough of Oldham, Oldham, Greater Manchester, England. In 1892 Oldham were one of the founding members of the Central Lancashire Cricket Leag ...

, and he took 35 wickets at 7 runs each for Lascelles Hall in 1948, again acting as their professional in 1949. In 1950, he was professional at Littleborough C.C. Moving to Worcestershire, his contacts included its President, Sir George Dowty and during the winter and after retirement from professional cricket he worked for his company Dowty Aviation in Cheltenham. Subsequently he moved to Hampshire in the 1960s and joined Plessey Aerospace at Titchfield as a Project Manager. There he played for Yorkshire Nomads and later became Chairman of Hampshire League club Fareham. Whitehead died in August 2000, in

Southampton Southampton () is a port city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. It is located approximately south-west of London and west of Portsmouth. The city forms part of the South Hampshire built-up area, which also covers Po ...

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

, England.

References

;Sources * *Hampshire Cricket League Handbook, 1975

External links

Cricinfo Profile
1925 births 2000 deaths Yorkshire cricketers Combined Services cricketers Worcestershire cricketers People from Saddleworth English cricketers Cricketers from Yorkshire {{england-cricket-bio-1920s-stub