Ricardo ("Ricky") McDonald Ellcock (born 17 June 1965) is a

Barbados Barbados is an island country in the Lesser Antilles of the West Indies, in the Caribbean region of the Americas, and the most easterly of the Caribbean Islands. It occupies an area of and has a population of about 287,000 (2019 estimate). ...

-born 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 and

List A cricket List A cricket is a classification of the limited-overs (one-day) form of the sport of cricket, with games lasting up to eight hours. List A cricket includes One Day International (ODI) matches and various domestic competitions in which the numbe ...

between the early 1980s and the early 1990s. His career was seriously hampered by injury, and despite being picked to tour with

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 ...

in 1989–90 he was forced into retirement shortly afterward. After his cricket career finished, Ellcock became a commercial pilot, and was the first black captain with

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Early career

He was educated at Combermere School Barbados, Malvern College England, British Aerospace Flying College Scotland and The University of Westminster London. Sc Air Transport Planning and Management After a couple of seasons of Second XI cricket, and immediately after taking 11 wickets in one such game 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 ...

II, Ellcock made his full Worcestershire debut in a

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 ...

match against future employers

Middlesex Middlesex (; abbreviation: Middx) is a Historic counties of England, historic county in South East England, southeast England. Its area is almost entirely within the wider urbanised area of London and mostly within the Ceremonial counties of ...

Worcester Worcester may refer to: Places United Kingdom * Worcester, England, a city and the county town of Worcestershire in England ** Worcester (UK Parliament constituency), an area represented by a Member of Parliament * Worcester Park, London, Engla ...

at the end of 1982, still only 17 years old. He took three lower-order wickets and scored 0 in his only innings. His next match was against

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

in the

Benson & Hedges Cup The Benson & Hedges Cup was a one-day cricket competition for first-class counties in England and Wales that was held from 1972 to 2002, one of cricket's longest sponsorship deals. It was the third major one-day competition established in Englan ...

Mannofield Park Mannofield is a cricket ground in the Mannofield district of Aberdeen, Scotland. The cricket ground is the home of the Aberdeenshire Cricket Club and the Scotland national cricket team regularly plays international matches at this venue. Hist ...

, the first List A game to be played at the

Aberdeen Aberdeen (; sco, Aiberdeen ; gd, Obar Dheathain ; la, Aberdonia) is a city in North East Scotland, and is the third most populous city in the country. Aberdeen is one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas (as Aberdeen City), and ...

venue. Ellcock took one wicket and did not bat. He played quite often in 1983, and ended the season with 25 first-class wickets at 37.24 and nine List A wickets at 17.88; the latter figure included 4/43 in a

John Player Special League The NatWest Pro40 League was a one-day cricket league for first-class cricket counties in England and Wales. It was inaugurated in 1999, but was essentially the old Sunday League retitled to reflect large numbers of matches being played on days o ...

fixture against

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 ...

, a career best that he equalled six years later for Middlesex. In the English winter of 1983–84 he played for his native

, as he did again (albeit very briefly) in 1984–85. In 1984 Ellcock picked up 29 first-class wickets, his highest in any one season, but his struggles with fitness meant that he never again approached that figure for Worcestershire. Worcestershire won the County Championship in 1988, but Ellcock only played four County Championship matches (one of which Worcestershire won) that year. After several such seasons of struggle Ellcock moved to Middlesex for the 1989 season. Although he did not play until June, he managed his most productive summer: 32 first-class wickets at under 20 runs apiece, and 16 wickets at 23 in the one-day game. He matched his List A best with 4/43 versus

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 ...

in July in the

NatWest Trophy The Friends Provident Trophy was a one-day cricket competition in the United Kingdom. It was one of the four tournaments in which the eighteen first-class cricket, first-class counties competed each season. They were joined by teams from Scott ...

, and a week later recorded his only five-wicket haul when he claimed 5/35 against

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 ...

in the Championship.

Later cricket career

The England selectors were sufficiently impressed by Ellcock's form to call him up for the winter tour against

West Indies The West Indies is a subregion of North America, surrounded by the North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea that includes 13 independent island countries and 18 dependencies and other territories in three major archipelagos: the Greater A ...

. However, his tour had barely begun before it was over: he pulled up after just a few balls in the nets, and when he was diagnosed with a

stress fracture A stress fracture is a fatigue-induced bone fracture caused by repeated stress over time. Instead of resulting from a single severe impact, stress fractures are the result of accumulated injury from repeated submaximal loading, such as running or ...

of his back he was forced to go home without having played a single match on tour. Ellcock missed the entire 1990 season, but returned to play a few matches for Middlesex in 1991. Despite evidence of a possibility of improving, such as match figures of 6-110 against

Somerset ( en, All The People of Somerset) , locator_map = , coordinates = , region = South West England , established_date = Ancient , established_by = , preceded_by = , origin = , lord_lieutenant_office =Lord Lieutenant of Somerset , lord_ ...

, he was unable to make a success of his comeback and retired in mid-season.

Personal life

He became a

pilot An aircraft pilot or aviator is a person who controls the flight of an aircraft by operating its directional flight controls. Some other aircrew members, such as navigators or flight engineers, are also considered aviators, because they a ...

and was the first black captain with

. His brother

Dale Ellcock Dale Ellcock (born 16 November 1967) is a Barbadian cricketer. He played in four first-class and three List A matches for the Barbados cricket team in 1986/87. See also * List of Barbadian representative cricketers This is a list of all crick ...

had a short career with Barbados.

Notes

References

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Ellcock, Ricardo English cricketers Middlesex cricketers Worcestershire cricketers Barbados cricketers 1965 births Living people People educated at Malvern College Barbadian cricketers People from Saint Thomas, Barbados Barbadian expatriates in the United Kingdom