John Norman Graham (born 8 May 1943) is a former English professional

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 who played for Kent County Cricket Club during the 1960s and 1970s. He was born at Hexham in

Northumberland Northumberland () is a county in Northern England, one of two counties in England which border with Scotland. Notable landmarks in the county include Alnwick Castle, Bamburgh Castle, Hadrian's Wall and Hexham Abbey. It is bordered by land ...

. Graham was a very tall medium-fast right-arm seam bowler.Coney S (2014
Where Are They Now? Kent’s 1970 Champions
''The Cricket Paper'', 2014-04-09. Retrieved 2017-10-15. He made his

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 officia ...

debut for Kent in 1964. Having played a few matches for Kent in each season from 1964, he took 104 first-class wickets in the 1967 season at an average of 13.90, including dismissing

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 ...

opening batsman

Geoffrey Boycott Sir Geoffrey Boycott (born 21 October 1940) is a former Test cricketer, who played cricket for Yorkshire and England. In a prolific and sometimes controversial playing career from 1962 to 1986, Boycott established himself as one of England's m ...

for the only pair of his career.Lynch S (2011
Century stands in low totals, and Boycs' golden pair
CricInfo, 2011-08-02. Retrieved 2017-10-15. Kent finished as runners-up 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 ...

and won the

1967 Gillette Cup The 1967 Gillette Cup was the fifth Gillette Cup, an English limited overs county cricket tournament. It was held between 23 April and 2 September 1967. The tournament was won by Kent County Cricket Club who defeated Somerset County Cricket Clu ...

.Williamson M
Norm Graham
CricInfo. Retrieved 2017-10-15. Although technically a medium pace bowler, Graham was able to use his height – – to produce bounce and lateral movement normally associated with faster bowlers. In 1968, he was picked for

Marylebone Cricket Club Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) is a cricket club founded in 1787 and based since 1814 at Lord's Cricket Ground, which it owns, in St John's Wood, London. The club was formerly the governing body of cricket retaining considerable global influence ...

(MCC) match against Surrey at Lord's. Graham was never again to reproduce the kind of form he displayed in 1967, but he remained a useful county performer for Kent for a further nine seasons, taking more than 70 wickets in 1968, 1969 and 1971 and played a part in Kent's 1970 County Championship winning side and in the sides which won six one-day cup competitions between 1970 and 1976. In 1969, he took eight Essex wickets for 20 runs in the match at Brentwood as the home side was dismissed for just 34 runs in their second innings.Webb
1969: Essex v Kent
Brentwood Cricket Club. Retrieved 2017-10-15. He also became a highly effective bowler in one-day cricket in the early 1970s. He won his

county cap In sport, a cap is a player's appearance in a game at international level. The term dates from the practice in the United Kingdom of awarding a cap to every player in an international match of rugby football and association football. In the ea ...

in 1967 and remained with Kent until the end of the 1977 season, his

benefit season A benefit season is a method of financially rewarding professional cricketers that is used by English county cricket teams to compensate long serving players. The system originated in the 19th century to help out professional cricketers who were ...

, during which the team shared the 1977 County Championship title with

Middlesex Middlesex (; abbreviation: Middx) is a historic county in southeast England. Its area is almost entirely within the wider urbanised area of London and mostly within the ceremonial county of Greater London, with small sections in neighbour ...

.Fissler N (2015
Where are they now? Kent – Joint County Championship winners 1977
''The Cricket Paper'', 2015-11-09. Retrieved 2017-10-15.
CricketArchive. Retrieved 2017-10-15. Graham was a number 11 batsman throughout his career. His highest score in first-class cricket was 23 and his total of first-class wickets comfortably exceeded his total of first-class runs. He was also generally considered a poor fielder, his ground fielding being described as "often entertainingly poor". After retiring from first-class cricket he played Minor Counties cricket for his native

, retiring to Hexham where he worked in the financial services industry. Graham's father Jack played for Northumberland either side of the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

and his cousin, Peter Graham, also played for Northumberland and for

Yorkshire Cricket Board The Yorkshire Cricket Board is the governing body for all recreational cricket in the historic county of Yorkshire. From 1999 to 2003 the Board fielded a team in the English domestic one-day tournament, matches which had List A status. See al ...

.John Graham
CricketArchive. Retrieved 2017-10-15.
CricketArchive. Retrieved 2017-10-15.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Graham, Norman 1943 births Living people English cricketers Kent cricketers Northumberland cricketers Sportspeople from Hexham Cricketers from Northumberland Marylebone Cricket Club cricketers D. H. Robins' XI cricketers T. N. Pearce's XI cricketers