Raymond Randall Dovey (18 July 1920 – 27 December 1974), known as Ray Dovey, 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

Kent County Cricket Club Kent County Cricket Club is one of the eighteen first-class county clubs within the domestic cricket structure of England and Wales. It represents the historic county of Kent. A club representing the county was first founded in 1842 but Ke ...

from 1938 to 1954. Dovey was born in

Chislehurst Chislehurst () is a suburban district of south-east London, England, in the London Borough of Bromley. It lies east of Bromley, south-west of Sidcup and north-west of Orpington, south-east of Charing Cross. Before the creation of Greater L ...

Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...

in 1920 and first played for Kent before 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 opposin ...

as an

off-break Off spin is a type of finger spin bowling in cricket. A bowler who uses this technique is called an off spinner. Off spinners are right-handed spin bowlers who use their fingers to spin the ball. Their normal delivery is an off break, which spi ...

bowler.Carlaw D (2020) ''Kent County Cricketers A to Z. Part Two: 1919–1939'', pp. 57–60.
Available online
at the

Association of Cricket Statisticians and Historians The Association of Cricket Statisticians and Historians (ACS) was founded in England in 1973 for the purpose of researching and collating information about the history and statistics of cricket. Originally called the Association of Cricket Stati ...

. Retrieved 2020-07-01.)Dovey, Raymond Randall
Obituaries before 1975, ''

Wisden Cricketers' Almanack ''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 ...

'', 1976. Retrieved 2018-03-07.Ray Dovey

CricInfo ESPN cricinfo (formerly known as Cricinfo or CricInfo) is a sports news website exclusively for the game of cricket. The site features news, articles, live coverage of cricket matches (including liveblogs and scorecards), and ''StatsGuru'', a d ...

. Retrieved 2018-03-07. He made his debut for Kent's Second XI in 1936 before making 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 officiall ...

debut in 1938 against

Surrey Surrey () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South East England, bordering Greater London to the south west. Surrey has a large rural area, and several significant urban areas which form part of the Greater London Built-up Area. ...

Rectory Field, Blackheath Rectory Field is a sports ground in Blackheath in the Royal Borough of Greenwich in south-east London. It was developed in the 1880s by Blackheath Cricket, Football and Lawn Tennis Company and became the home ground of rugby union team Blackheath ...

. He played for Kent until 1954, making a total of 249 appearances for the Kent First XI either side of the war.Ray Dovey
CricketArchive. Retrieved 2018-03-07. Dovey was awarded 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 1946 and was used as a "stock bowler"Obituary, ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (fou ...

'', 1975-01-07, p.14. by Kent. He has been described as a "more than useful off-spinner"The History of Kent County Cricket Club – Part Six: The Post-War Years
Kent Cricket Heritage Trust. Retrieved 2018-03-07. who was "reliable". As well as spinning the ball he could also bowl effective medium-pace deliveries and turned the ball sharply, especially on damp pitches. Dovey took career best bowling figures of eight wickets for 23 runs on such a pitch in 1950 against Surrey, taking 102 wickets for Kent during the season. Dovey toured India and

Ceylon Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්‍රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an ...

with a Commonwealth cricket team in 1950–51, playing in 10 first-class matches on the tour, and took a total of 777 first-class wickets in his career. He played non-first-class matches for Glamorgan sides during the war and made his final first class appearance for Kent against the touring Pakistanis in August 1954. After retiring from first-class cricket Dovey coached cricket at

Sherborne School (God and My Right) , established = 705 by Aldhelm, re-founded by King Edward VI 1550 , closed = , type = Public school Independent, boarding school , religion = Church of England , president = , chair_label = Chairman of the governors , ...

Dorset Dorset ( ; archaically: Dorsetshire , ) is a county in South West England on the English Channel coast. The ceremonial county comprises the unitary authority areas of Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole and Dorset (unitary authority), Dors ...

, playing

Minor Counties Championship The NCCA 3 Day Championship (previously the Minor Counties Cricket Championship) is a season-long competition in England and Wales that is contested by the members of the National Counties Cricket Association (NCCA), the so-called national cou ...

cricket for

Dorset County Cricket Club Dorset County Cricket Club is one of twenty National county clubs within the domestic cricket structure of England and Wales. It represents the historic county of Dorset. The team is currently a member of the National Counties Cricket Associ ...

from 1955 to 1959. He made 57 Championship appearances for the county side before returning to Kent to work at

Tonbridge School (God Giveth the Increase) , established = , closed = , type = Public schoolIndependent day and boarding , religion = , president = , head_label ...

where he was involved with developing young cricketers including

Christopher Cowdrey Christopher Stuart Cowdrey (born 20 October 1957) is a former English cricketer. Cowdrey played for Kent, Glamorgan and England as an all-rounder. He is the eldest son of the cricketer and life peer, Colin Cowdrey, Baron Cowdrey of Tonbridge. H ...

.Cricket history at Tonbridge School

Tonbridge School (God Giveth the Increase) , established = , closed = , type = Public schoolIndependent day and boarding , religion = , president = , head_label ...

. Retrieved 2018-03-07. Dovey died suddenly at

Tunbridge Wells Royal Tunbridge Wells is a town in Kent, England, southeast of central London. It lies close to the border with East Sussex on the northern edge of the Weald, High Weald, whose sandstone geology is exemplified by the rock formation High Roc ...

in Kent in December 1974 aged 54.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dovey, Ray 1920 births 1974 deaths English cricketers Kent cricketers North v South cricketers Dorset cricketers East of England cricketers Commonwealth XI cricketers People from Chislehurst Cricketers from Kent