Leslie Fletcher Townsend (8 June 1903 – 17 February 1993) 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 striki ...

er who played for

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 ...

between 1929 and 1934, for

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 ...

between 1922 and 1939, and also for

Auckland Auckland (pronounced ) ( mi, Tāmaki Makaurau) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. The List of New Zealand urban areas by population, most populous urban area in the country and the List of cities in Oceania by po ...

in 1934–35 and 1935–36. He was the leading

all-rounder An all-rounder is a cricketer who regularly performs well at both batting and bowling. Although all bowlers must bat and quite a handful of batsmen do bowl occasionally, most players are skilled in only one of the two disciplines and are consi ...

for Derbyshire between the wars and at his peak probably the most deadly bowler on a

sticky wicket A sticky wicket (or sticky dog, or glue pot) is a metaphor used to describe a difficult circumstance. It originated as a term for difficult circumstances in the sport of cricket, caused by a damp and soft wicket. In cricket The phrase comes fr ...

Derbyshire ever produced, owing to his perfect length and ability to turn the ball back from the off. His pace was almost medium and even the most fleet-footed of batsmen could not hit him easily on a bad pitch; however, his lack of flight and variety made him less effective on good pitches. Townsend was also an enterprising middle order batsman, who set a longstanding record for most centuries for Derbyshire in a season in 1933.

Career for Derbyshire

Townsend was born at

Long Eaton Long Eaton is a town in the Erewash district of Derbyshire, England, just north of the River Trent, about south-west of Nottingham and some 8½ miles (13.7 km) south-east of Derby. The town population was 37,760 at the 2011 census. It has ...

, Derbyshire. He did not play cricket in his youth and was only attracted to the game by watching

Nottinghamshire Nottinghamshire (; abbreviated Notts.) is a landlocked county in the East Midlands region of England, bordering South Yorkshire to the north-west, Lincolnshire to the east, Leicestershire to the south, and Derbyshire to the west. The traditi ...

's star batsman George Gunn. Townsend first played for his native county Derbyshire in the 1922 season and obtained a regular place in the 1924 season. In the 1925 season Townsend scored over 800 runs at an average of 18. These modest figures, with 59 as his best score, placed Townsend fourth in the county's averages. In the 1926 season after a very slow start Townsend developed as a bowler in August on a number of treacherous pitches. He took 6 for 32 against Nottinghamshire at Ilkeston and 9 for 36 for two innings against Northamptonshire at Chesterfield. In the 1927 season, with Derbyshire rising to fifth in the Championship, Townsend's medium pace off-break bowling was close to the top of the averages. He took 5 for 29 on a sticky wicket against the formidable Lancashire side and 5 for 42 against Warwickshire. In the 1928 season, his deadliness on sticky wickets was so pronounced he topped the county bowling table with 101 wickets, including 13 against Sussex, and his batting developed so much he edged past 1000 runs with a best score of 98. In the 1929 season, despite only one five-wicket return, he again managed 100 wickets. He was chosen for a second-string tour of the West Indies but did nothing of note. The 1930s saw Townsend's batting bloom due to improved technique. Having not scored a century before the 1930 season, he hit four alone this year, and after a decline in the 1931 season, did even better as a batsman in the 1932 season. At the same, time, so deadly was his bowling on the many sticky wickets than he was in the top ten of the 1931 national bowling averages and took 117 wickets in 1932. In the 1933 season, Townsend's batting was so successful that he scored over 2,000 runs, including innings of 233 against Leicestershire at Loughborough, 172 not out against Warwickshire at Derby, and 151 against Essex at Leyton. He took 100 wickets for 18.71 each and was second only to

Verity Verity (''alias'' Veretie, Verety, Verita, Veritie, etc.) is a female first name and a surname. As a first name it derives from the Latin feminine noun ''veritas'', meaning "truth". It is thus an equivalent of Alethea, a female first name first us ...

in deadliness on the sticky wickets of May and June. His best performances were 9 for 82 against Somerset at Ilkeston, 10 for 54 against Hampshire at Portsmouth and 14 for 90 against Gloucestershire at Chesterfield. However, his limitations on the hard pitches in July and August meant he only reached the rare "double" of 2000 runs and 100 wickets in the last match. Nonetheless, he was named as a '' Cricketer of the Year'' by ''

Wisden ''Wisden Cricketers' Almanack'', or simply ''Wisden'', colloquially the Bible of Cricket, is a cricket reference book published annually in the United Kingdom. The description "bible of cricket" was first used in the 1930s by Alec Waugh in a ...

'' and toured India, though again meeting with little success. He played in three of the Tests but did not show the skill required. In the following three years, as Derbyshire attained the greatest heights they ever have in the

County Championship The County Championship (referred to as the LV= Insurance County Championship for sponsorship reasons) is the domestic first-class cricket competition in England and Wales and is organised by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB). It bec ...

. Townsend's bowling declined steadily. By the 1935 season he was rarely given substantial spells of bowling but still could do well on a sticky pitch, as at Edgbaston in the 1936 season when he took twelve Warwickshire wickets. Along with Dennis Smith he was the indispensable backbone of the batting, which was that year still very weak for a champion county. His best score that year was 182 not out against Sussex at Chesterfield. Townsend played a season with Auckland in 1934/1935, and after his batting declined so badly in 1939 that he scored fewer than 700 runs for an average of only 19, Townsend settled in New Zealand permanently.

Career in New Zealand

Townsend went to New Zealand to work as a joiner and cabinet-maker. In 1954 a group of cricket enthusiasts in

Nelson Nelson may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Nelson'' (1918 film), a historical film directed by Maurice Elvey * ''Nelson'' (1926 film), a historical film directed by Walter Summers * ''Nelson'' (opera), an opera by Lennox Berkeley to a lib ...

asked him to coach there, and he became the driving force behind the development of cricket in the district.''

'' 1994, p. 1354.

held the

Hawke Cup The Hawke Cup is a non-first-class cricket competition for New Zealand's district associations. Apart from 1910–11, 1912–13 and 2000–01 the competition has always been on a challenge basis. To win the Hawke Cup, the challengers must beat t ...

for 28 defences from 1958 to 1965. Most observers during his later years as a coach there saw Townsend as ''the'' reason why the city produced an unusual proportion of New Zealand's

Test cricket Test cricket is a form of first-class cricket played at international level between teams representing full member countries of the International Cricket Council (ICC). A match consists of four innings (two per team) and is scheduled to last fo ...

ers in the latter part of the twentieth century. Leslie Townsend died in Nelson in February 1993 at the age of 89.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Townsend, Leslie 1903 births 1993 deaths English cricketers England Test cricketers Auckland cricketers Derbyshire cricketers Wisden Cricketers of the Year People from Long Eaton Cricketers from Derbyshire Marylebone Cricket Club cricketers Players cricketers North v South cricketers Northumberland cricketers English cricketers of 1919 to 1945 H. D. G. Leveson Gower's XI cricketers