Norman Kilner (21 July 1895 – 28 April 1979) 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 69 matches 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 1919 to 1923, and 330 matches for

Warwickshire Warwickshire (; abbreviated Warks) is a county in the West Midlands region of England. The county town is Warwick, and the largest town is Nuneaton. The county is famous for being the birthplace of William Shakespeare at Stratford-upon-Avon an ...

from 1924 to 1937. He also appeared in first-class cricket for The Players (1924–1928), the North of England (1928) and Sir L Parkinson's XI (1933). Born in Low Valley,

Wombwell Wombwell () is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Barnsley in South Yorkshire, England. The town in the 2011 census was split between a ward called Wombwell, as well as small parts that fell under two other wards called Darfield (specifically ...

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 ...

, Kilner was a tough, professional right-handed batsman who scored 1,253 runs for Yorkshire at 18.98, with two centuries to his name. He fared better after his move to

Edgbaston Edgbaston () is an affluent suburban area of central Birmingham, England, historically in Warwickshire, and curved around the southwest of the city centre. In the 19th century, the area was under the control of the Gough-Calthorpe family an ...

, scoring 16,075 runs for Warwickshire at 31.89. Overall, in 403 first-class matches, he scored 17,522 runs at 30.36, with 25 centuries and a best score of 228 at

New Road, Worcester New Road is a cricket ground in the English city of Worcester. It has been the home ground of Worcestershire County Cricket Club since 1896. Since October 2017 the ground has been known for sponsorship purposes as Blackfinch New Road following ...

in 1935, during which he scored a hundred before lunch. A fine fielder, he took 184 catches, and one wicket for 83 runs with his eccentric bowling. He once bowled three balls of an over right-handed, and three balls of it with his left. His brother,

Roy Kilner Roy is a masculine given name and a family surname with varied origin. In Anglo-Norman England, the name derived from the Norman ''roy'', meaning "king", while its Old French cognate, ''rey'' or ''roy'' (modern ''roi''), likewise gave rise to ...

played

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 ...

for

whilst his nephew, Irving Washington, also played for Yorkshire as a left-handed bat. Kilner was a familiar figure at Edgbaston after his retirement, often commenting on the match in his broad Yorkshire accent, in company with

Tiger Smith Ernest James "Tiger" Smith (6 February 1886 – 31 August 1979) was an English wicket-keeper who played in 11 Tests from 1911/1912 to 1914. In county cricket, he had a much longer career as the successor to Dick Lilley: he played for Warwicks ...

. Kilner died in April 1979 in

Alum Rock, Birmingham Alum Rock is an inner-city suburb of Birmingham, England, located roughly 2 miles east of Birmingham city centre. The area is officially a division of Saltley. Alum Rock Road is located here and has many Pakistani clothing shops and restaurants ...

, aged 83.

References

External links

Cricinfo Profile
1895 births 1979 deaths People from Wombwell English cricketers Yorkshire cricketers Warwickshire cricketers Players cricketers North v South cricketers Sportspeople from Yorkshire English cricketers of 1919 to 1945 Sir L. Parkinson's XI cricketers {{england-cricket-bio-1890s-stub