Justin David Ramsay Benson (born 1 March 1967) is a former Irish

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 striki ...

er. He was a right-handed batsman and right-arm medium pace bowler as well as an occasional wicket-keeper. Benson attended

St Faith's School St Faith's School is an independent preparatory day school on Trumpington Road, Cambridge, England, for girls and boys aged four to thirteen. The headmaster is Crispin Hyde-Dunn, and the school has in excess of five hundred children. St Faith's ...

in Cambridge, England. Though born in Ireland, he spent the early part of his cricket career playing solely in England, starting by playing minor counties cricket with Cambridgeshire before moving on to play first-class cricket with

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 ...

. A highlight of his time at Leicestershire came in helping them to the final of the

1992 NatWest Trophy The 1992 NatWest Trophy was the 12th NatWest Trophy. It was an English limited overs county cricket tournament which was held between 24 June and 5 September 1992. The tournament was won by Northamptonshire County Cricket Club who defeated Le ...

, Benson being at the wicket at the tight conclusion to a semi-final victory over then County Champions Essex. He spent five years with Leicestershire from 1988 to 1993 and as his career with them was winding down, he began to play for the country of his birth shortly after they gained associate membership of the International Cricket Council in 1993. He made his debut for Ireland against

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

in 1993 and was then selected for the

1994 ICC Trophy The 1994 ICC Trophy (formally the ABN AMRO ICC Trophy) was a cricket tournament that took place in Kenya between 12 February and 6 March 1994. It was the fifth ICC Trophy tournament to be staged, and acted as the Cricket World Cup qualification to ...

. He carried on playing for Ireland whilst also again playing minor counties cricket for Cambridgeshire, playing in one more

ICC Trophy The ICC World Cup Qualifier (previously called the ICC Trophy and officially known as the ICC Men's Cricket World Cup Qualifier) is a One-Day International (ODI) cricket tournament that serves as the culmination of the Cricket World Cup qualifi ...

1997 File:1997 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The movie set of ''Titanic'', the highest-grossing movie in history at the time; ''Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'', is published; Comet Hale-Bopp passes by Earth and becomes one of t ...

as well as the inaugural European Championship in 1996. His last match came 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 August 1997 at which point he had represented Ireland 59 times. He was captain in all his games in 1996 and 1997.

References

External links

Cricket Europe Stats Zone profile
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Benson, Justin 1967 births Living people Leicestershire cricketers Cambridgeshire cricketers Cricketers from Dublin (city) Irish cricket captains Wicket-keepers People educated at St Faith's School Irish cricketers