Edward Ibson Lester (18 February 1923 – 23 March 2015) was an English

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 officia ...

er who played for

Yorkshire County Cricket Club Yorkshire County Cricket Club is one of 18 first-class county clubs within the domestic cricket structure of England and Wales. It represents the historic county of Yorkshire. Yorkshire are the most successful team in English cricketing hi ...

. He was born and died at

Scarborough Scarborough or Scarboro may refer to: People * Scarborough (surname) * Earl of Scarbrough Places Australia * Scarborough, Western Australia, suburb of Perth * Scarborough, New South Wales, suburb of Wollongong * Scarborough, Queensland, su ...

Yorkshire Yorkshire ( ; abbreviated Yorks), formally known as the County of York, is a historic county in northern England and by far the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its large area in comparison with other English counties, functions have ...

, England. Lester had a first-class cricket career lasting from 1945 to 1956 for Yorkshire, but remained a significant influence in the county cricket club's fortunes as

scorer In cricket, a scorer is someone appointed to record all runs scored, all wickets taken and, where appropriate, the number of overs bowled. In professional games, in compliance with Law 3 of the ''Laws of Cricket'', two scorers are appointed, ...

and committee man. He made his debut as an amateur right-handed middle-order batsman immediately after

World War II 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 opposing ...

, and in 1947 he made three centuries in eleven innings, which left him third in the English national averages behind Denis Compton and Bill Edrich in their year of unparalleled success. For 1948, Lester joined the Yorkshire staff, and for next seven seasons he made more than 1,000 runs each year except 1951. His best years were 1949, when he scored 1,801 runs, and

1952 Events January–February * January 26 – Black Saturday in Egypt: Rioters burn Cairo's central business district, targeting British and upper-class Egyptian businesses. * February 6 ** Princess Elizabeth, Duchess of Edinburgh, becomes m ...

when, with 1,786 at an average little short of 50 runs an innings, he was fourth in the national averages. After further good seasons in 1953 and 1954, though, his batting fell away badly in 1955, and at the end of July he was dropped from the first team. Apart from one match against

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a Anglo-Scottish border, border with England to the southeast ...

in 1956, he never regained his place. Lester continued, however, to play for Yorkshire's Second XI for the next six seasons, often captaining the side and acting as the senior player alongside the younger players, including

John Hampshire John Harry Hampshire (10 February 1941 – 1 March 2017), also known as Jack Hampshire, was an English cricketer and umpire, who played eight Tests and three One Day Internationals (ODIs) for England between 1969 and 1975. He played first-cla ...

Geoffrey Boycott Sir Geoffrey Boycott (born 21 October 1940) is a former Test cricketer, who played cricket for Yorkshire and England. In a prolific and sometimes controversial playing career from 1962 to 1986, Boycott established himself as one of England's m ...

Philip Sharpe Philip, also Phillip, is a male given name, derived from the Greek language, Greek (''Philippos'', lit. "horse-loving" or "fond of horses"), from a compound of (''philos'', "dear", "loved", "loving") and (''hippos'', "horse"). Prominent Philip ...

and

Brian Bolus John Brian Bolus (31 January 1934 – 7 May 2020) was an English cricketer who played in seven Test matches from 1963 to 1964. Cricket commentator Colin Bateman stated, "Bolus was essentially an accumulator, dependably totting up 25,000 run ...

. There was a brief codicil to his playing career: in 1964, John Hampshire fell ill just before the Gillette Cup one day match against

Middlesex Middlesex (; abbreviation: Middx) is a historic county in southeast England. Its area is almost entirely within the wider urbanised area of London and mostly within the ceremonial county of Greater London, with small sections in neighbour ...

at Lord's and Lester, acting as scorer, was drafted into the side. But Yorkshire lost and Lester, batting at number nine, failed to score. Lester also played football as a

goalkeeper In many team sports which involve scoring goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie or keeper) is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by blocking or intercepting o ...

for

Scarborough F.C. Scarborough Football Club was a football club based in the seaside resort of Scarborough, North Yorkshire. They were one of the oldest football clubs in England, formed in 1879, before they were wound up on 20 June 2007, with debts of £2.5&n ...

Thereafter, he became Yorkshire's regular scorer until his retirement in 1988. He was an often forthright champion against what he perceived as the undeserved neglect of the scorer's role in cricket competitions.

References

External links

* ''

Wisden ''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 ...

'', 1946 to 1965 editions {{DEFAULTSORT:Lester, Ted 1923 births 2015 deaths English cricketers Yorkshire cricketers Cricket scorers Cricketers from Scarborough, North Yorkshire Scarborough F.C. players Association football goalkeepers H. D. G. Leveson Gower's XI cricketers North v South cricketers T. N. Pearce's XI cricketers Association football players not categorized by nationality