Philip Bainbridge, born on 16 April 1958 at

Sneyd Green Sneyd Green is an area in the city of Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England, in the north-east of the city, from Hanley. Sneyd Green borders Smallthorne in the north, Milton in the east, Birches Head in the south, and Cobridge in the west. ...

Stoke-on-Trent Stoke-on-Trent (often abbreviated to Stoke) is a city and Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area in Staffordshire, England, with an area of . In 2019, the city had an estimated population of 256,375. It is the largest settlement ...

, is a retired

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 for

Gloucestershire Gloucestershire ( abbreviated Glos) is a county in South West England. The county comprises part of the Cotswold Hills, part of the flat fertile valley of the River Severn and the entire Forest of Dean. The county town is the city of Gl ...

and

Durham Durham most commonly refers to: *Durham, England, a cathedral city and the county town of County Durham *County Durham, an English county *Durham County, North Carolina, a county in North Carolina, United States *Durham, North Carolina, a city in No ...

. A right-handed middle order batsman and a right-arm medium pace bowler, Bainbridge was a member of the Gloucestershire team throughout the 1980s, batting at number 5 or 6, and bowling medium pace seamers. Bainbridge came into the Gloucestershire side in 1977, whilst studying to be a Teacher at Borough Road College, Isleworth and won a regular place in 1981. In that season, he passed 1,000 runs for the first time at an average of over 40 runs per innings and made the first of what would be 24 first-class centuries. He passed 1,000 runs in each of the next three seasons, but in 1985, he was moved up the batting order to No 4 and his batting moved up a notch. He made 1,644 runs at an average of more than 56 runs per innings as Gloucestershire rose from the bottom of 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 ...

table to challenge for the title. Bainbridge was named as a

Wisden Cricketer of the Year The ''Wisden'' Cricketers of the Year are cricketers selected for the honour by the annual publication ''Wisden Cricketers' Almanack'', based primarily on their "influence on the previous English season". The award began in 1889 with the naming ...

in 1986, but he had a less successful season and talk of him as a potential

Test Test(s), testing, or TEST may refer to: * Test (assessment), an educational assessment intended to measure the respondents' knowledge or other abilities Arts and entertainment * ''Test'' (2013 film), an American film * ''Test'' (2014 film), ...

player subsided. After four more years, Bainbridge retired from Gloucestershire after the 1990 season to go into business, and became involved in the marketing side of the development of Durham as a first-class county. Having missed the entire 1991 season, he played in most of Durham's first-class games in their two inaugural seasons and he topped both batting and bowling averages in 1993. He was then made captain for 1994, and the side finished 16th, the first time it had not been bottom in the County Championship. But Bainbridge's own form suffered, and he was replaced as captain for 1995 and retired finally from first-class cricket the following year. As Durham captain Bainbridge inadvertently contributed to a piece of cricketing history in June 1994. As a match against

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 ...

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the West ...

entered its last day, lost time meant that the match was still in its first innings,

Brian Lara Brian Charles Lara, (born 2 May 1969) is a Trinidadian former international cricketer, widely acknowledged as one of the greatest batsmen of all time. He topped the Test batting rankings on several occasions and holds several cricketing reco ...

at the crease for Warwickshire, and no result was likely without declarations agreed between Bainbridge and the home side's captain Dermot Reeve. "The presence of Lara allied to the excellent pitch gave Durham skipper Phil Bainbridge little incentive to enter into any negotiations, and so Warwickshire batted on", and by the end of the day Lara had racked up 501, the highest ever first-class individual score.

References

1958 births Living people Durham cricket captains Durham cricketers English cricketers Gloucestershire cricketers People from Sneyd Green Cricketers from Stoke-on-Trent Wisden Cricketers of the Year Marylebone Cricket Club cricketers People educated at Hanley High School {{England-cricket-bio-1950s-stub