Roy Gilbert Stevens (6 February 1933 – 6 October 1992) 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 and

Royal Marines The Corps of Royal Marines (RM), also known as the Royal Marines Commandos, are the UK's special operations capable commando force, amphibious light infantry and also one of the five fighting arms of the Royal Navy. The Corps of Royal Marine ...

officer who became a prominent cricket administrator after leaving the forces. Stevens was born in Walmer,

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 ...

and died at

Ipswich Ipswich () is a port town and borough in Suffolk, England, of which it is the county town. The town is located in East Anglia about away from the mouth of the River Orwell and the North Sea. Ipswich is both on the Great Eastern Main Line r ...

Suffolk Suffolk () is a ceremonial county of England in East Anglia. It borders Norfolk to the north, Cambridgeshire to the west and Essex to the south; the North Sea lies to the east. The county town is Ipswich; other important towns include Lowes ...

Cricketer

As a Royal Marine, Stevens played cricket as a left-handed lower-order batsman and bowler for the

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against F ...

, first representing the team in non-first-class inter-services matches in 1952. His only first-class appearance was for the Combined Services in 1962, against

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

. In the first innings he scored 29 runs before being dismissed by Noel Ferguson and in the second-innings he scored 9 runs before being dismissed by Archie McQuilken. With the ball he took the wicket of Thomas McCloy in the Irish first innings and in the second he took the wicket of Archie McQuilken, the two wickets coming at a combined cost of 47 runs. In August 1962 he played two

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 ...

matches for

Devon Devon ( , historically known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South West England. The most populous settlement in Devon is the city of Plymouth, followed by Devon's county town, the city of Exeter. Devon is ...

, both against the Somerset Second XI.

Career

In his 1952 appearance for the Royal Navy, Stevens is recorded by

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 ...

as a lance-corporal in the Royal Marines. In 1955, he was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the marines. He was promoted to full lieutenant in 1957. There was a further promotion to the rank of local captain in 1963, and he became a full captain in 1965. He retired from the marines at his own request with the rank of captain in 1973. After he left the Royal Marines in 1973, Stevens became secretary of

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_ ...

between 1975 and 1979 and moved on to the same role at

Sussex Sussex (), from the Old English (), is a historic county in South East England that was formerly an independent medieval Anglo-Saxon kingdom. It is bounded to the west by Hampshire, north by Surrey, northeast by Kent, south by the English ...

from 1980 to 1983. In its obituary of him in the 1993 edition, Wisden wrote: "He cut a slightly old-fashioned figure at a time when clubs were starting to appoint marketing-oriented men rather than ex-officers as administrators."

References

External links

Roy Stevens
at

ESPNcricinfo 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 ...

Roy Stevens
at CricketArchive {{DEFAULTSORT:Stevens, Roy 1933 births 1992 deaths People from Walmer Royal Marines officers English cricketers Combined Services cricketers Devon cricketers English cricket administrators Cricketers from Kent Military personnel from Kent 20th-century Royal Marines personnel