Leonard Blunt (21 March 1929 – July 2005) was a

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 who played first-class cricket for Worcestershire and the

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in the 1940s. He also stood on one occasion as a first-class umpire. Blunt made his first-class debut on

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1942, turning out for

against

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in the Madras Presidency Match; he took four wickets and made a duck in his only innings. After the end of the Second World War, Blunt played 14 first-class games for Worcestershire between 1946 and 1948, and he made a good start to his

county cricket Inter-county cricket matches are known to have been played since the early 18th century, involving teams that are representative of the historic counties of England and Wales. Since the late 19th century, there have been two county championship ...

career by taking seven wickets (including his career best of 5-60) against Hampshire at Southampton on debut. However, he could not keep up this form, and after 1946 he appeared but rarely. Although he was not seen in the first-class game after 1948, Blunt continued to play for Worcestershire's Second XI for another year, and in the early 1950s produced some impressive performances in minor counties cricket for

Cheshire Cheshire ( ) is a ceremonial and historic county in North West England, bordered by Wales to the west, Merseyside and Greater Manchester to the north, Derbyshire to the east, and Staffordshire and Shropshire to the south. Cheshire's county t ...

. He took 8–20 against Yorkshire's Second XI in late May 1951, and had a remarkable run against Northumberland in July of the following year: in three consecutive innings, spread over two games, Blunt claimed 5-49, 6-49 and 6-46. After the end of his Worcestershire career, Blunt had a single outing as a first-class umpire, standing in a match between Worcestershire and the Combined Services in 1949.

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References

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Blunt, Leonard 1929 births 2005 deaths English cricketers Worcestershire cricketers Europeans cricketers English cricket umpires Cheshire cricketers Cricketers from Worcester, England