Terence Beverley Racionzer (born 18 December 1943) is a Scottish businessman and former

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. A

batsman In cricket, batting is the act or skill of hitting the ball with a bat to score runs and prevent the loss of one's wicket. Any player who is currently batting is, since September 2021, officially referred to as a batter (historically, the ...

, he played

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 ...

for

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 ...

and

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 ...

and is a member of the Scottish Cricket Hall of Fame. In business, he was chairman of the Scottish footwear retailer

Schuh Schuh (pronounced //, like "shoe") is a Scottish footwear retailer based in Livingston, Scotland. It has 132 stores in the United Kingdom and Ireland. The company is predominantly a branded shoe stockist, selling over 80 brands, including: Conve ...

Early life

Terry Racionzer was born in

Maidenhead Maidenhead is a market town in the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead in the county of Berkshire, England, on the southwestern bank of the River Thames. It had an estimated population of 70,374 and forms part of the border with southern Bu ...

, Berkshire, England, before moving to

Glasgow Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popul ...

, Scotland. He was educated at

Queen's Park Secondary School Queen's Park Secondary School was a secondary school in Glasgow, Scotland. History Queen's Park School was built in 1873 for the ''Cathcart Parish School Board'' and opened officially in 1876, with the original building located on Grange Road in ...

and the

University of Glasgow , image = UofG Coat of Arms.png , image_size = 150px , caption = Coat of arms Flag , latin_name = Universitas Glasguensis , motto = la, Via, Veritas, Vita , ...

. From a Jewish family, his great-grandparents emigrated from Poland to London in the 19th century before settling in Glasgow.

Cricket career

A right-handed batsman and

off spin 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 arm, right-handed spin bowling, spin bowlers who use their fingers to spin the ball. Their normal Delivery (cr ...

bowler, Racionzer played for

Clydesdale Cricket Club Clydesdale Cricket Club is a sporting club situated at Titwood on the periphery of Pollokshields in the south of Glasgow. History The club was founded in Kinning Park in 1848 by Archibald Campbell. It was formed by members of two previous cl ...

in Glasgow from 1960 to 1990. He scored 11,004 runs in the Western District Cricket Union for Clydesdale, making him the club's top scorer in the competition by a 6,000 run margin, with his highest score being 123 against Drumpellier in 1975. He also took 255 wickets. Racionzer made his first appearance for

in August 1965, playing 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 ...

at Sydney Parade in Dublin, in what was also his first-class debut. He top-scored with 57 runs as Scotland won by an innings. Racionzer made a total of 65 appearances for Scotland in cap matches, scoring 2,807 runs in 107 innings at an average of 26.2, including 5 centuries and 16 fifties. Between 1967 and 1969, Racionzer played

county cricket Inter-county cricket matches are known to have been played since the early 18th century, involving teams that are representative of the historic counties of England and Wales. Since the late 19th century, there have been two county championship ...

in England for

. During his career he played a total of 45 first-class matches for Scotland and Sussex, scoring 1,552 runs at an average of 21.85. He scored his only first-class hundred for Scotland against Ireland at

Downpatrick Downpatrick () is a town in County Down, Northern Ireland. It is on the Lecale peninsula, about south of Belfast. In the Middle Ages, it was the capital of the Dál Fiatach, the main ruling dynasty of Ulaid. Its cathedral is said to be the bu ...

in 1983, making 115 runs in the first innings. His final first-class appearance, also against Ireland, was on his home club ground,

Titwood Titwood is a cricket ground in the Pollokshields area of Glasgow, Scotland. It is the home of the Clydesdale Cricket Club and is one of four international grounds in Scotland approved by the International Cricket Council (ICC) as a home venue f ...

in Glasgow, in August 1984. He also made 20 appearances for Scotland and Sussex in

List A 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 ...

matches between 1968 and 1984. Racionzer has been inducted by

Cricket Scotland Cricket Scotland, formerly known as the Scottish Cricket Union, is the Sport governing body, governing body of the sport of cricket in Scotland. The body is based at the National Cricket Academy, Edinburgh. The SCU was formed in 1908, but unde ...

into their Scottish Cricket Hall of Fame.

Business career

Racionzer was a freelance business consultant before joining Scottish footwear retailer

in 1990. As chairman, he was instrumental in the company's growth from its Edinburgh origins to a major nationwide chain. He has continued to be involved in Scottish cricket, forming the Cricket Scotland Development Trust as a joint initiative with Cricket Scotland in 2009, and chairing it until 2013. He also funded a scholarship scheme giving promising young Scottish cricketers opportunities to gain experience playing in Australia.

References

External links

Terence Racionzer
at

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 ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Racionzer, Terence 1943 births Living people Sussex cricketers International Cavaliers cricketers People from Maidenhead Scottish cricketers Cricketers from Glasgow Businesspeople from Glasgow Alumni of the University of Glasgow Scottish Jews Scottish people of Polish-Jewish descent Clydesdale CC players People educated at Queen's Park Secondary School Jewish cricketers