Philip Edgar Russell (born 9 May 1944) is a former 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 first-class cricket 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 1965 and 1985. Russell was born at

Ilkeston Ilkeston is a town in the Borough of Erewash, Derbyshire, England, on the River Erewash, from which the borough takes its name, with a population at the 2011 census of 38,640. Its major industries, coal mining, iron working and lace making/texti ...

, Derbyshire. He began playing in the Derbyshire Second XI in 1964, and made his first-class debut at the end of the 1965 season, in a victory against

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 ...

. Russell played in the first team in the 1966 season but saw less action on the 1967 season when Derbyshire were in sixth place. Russell played for Derbyshire solidly for another decade, until the 1979 season, though he came out of retirement six years later to play briefly in the 1985 season, as a 41-year-old. He continued playing in the 1986 season in the one-day game for Derbyshire. Less agile, and supplemented by Derbyshire's Danish wonder,

Ole Mortensen Ole Henrik Mortensen (born 29 January 1958) is a Danish first-class cricketer, probably the best his country has produced. A fast-medium right-arm bowler, in a first-class career with Derbyshire that ran from 1983 to 1994 he took 434 wickets at ...

, Russell brought no shame upon himself in his later years. Russell was a right-arm medium pace bowler and took 339 first-class wickets at an average of 30.53 and a best performance of 7-46. He was a right-handed batsman, and played 170 first-class matches with an average of 12.31 and a top score of 73. He was an occasional wicket-keeper.Philip Russell at Cricket Archive
/ref> He went on to have a distinguished career as Head Groundsman at Kingsmead Stadium, Durban, South Africa. Russell's son, Miles, played cricket for the Derbyshire Second XI in 1991.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Russell, Philip 1944 births English cricketers Living people Derbyshire cricketers International Cavaliers cricketers People from Ilkeston Cricketers from Derbyshire