Thomas Webley (born 2 March 1983) is 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 str ...

er. Webley is a left-handed

batsman In cricket, batting is the act or skill of hitting the cricket ball, ball with a cricket bat, bat to score runs (cricket), runs and prevent the dismissal (cricket), loss of one's wicket. Any player who is currently batting is, since Septembe ...

who bowls

slow left-arm orthodox Left-arm orthodox spin, Left-arm off spin also known as slow left-arm orthodox spin bowling, is a type of left-arm finger spin bowling in the sport of cricket. Left-arm orthodox spin is bowled by a left-arm bowler using the fingers to spin ...

. Born in

Bristol Bristol () is a city, ceremonial county and unitary authority in England. Situated on the River Avon, it is bordered by the ceremonial counties of Gloucestershire to the north and Somerset to the south. Bristol is the most populous city in ...

before moving to the village of

Corfe Mullen Corfe Mullen is a village in Dorset, England, on the north-western urban fringe of the South East Dorset conurbation. The village had a population of 10,133 at the 2011 Census. It is served by six churches, four pubs, five schools, a library, v ...

in Dorset, Webley had been educated at King's College, a boarding school in

Taunton, Somerset Taunton () is the county town of Somerset, England, with a 2011 population of 69,570. Its thousand-year history includes a 10th-century monastic foundation, Taunton Castle, which later became a priory. The Normans built a castle owned by th ...

.Webley to face the fastest in the world !!!
/ref> In 1999 he first appeared for the Somerset Second XI in the

Second Eleven Championship The Second XI Championship is a season-long cricket competition in England that is competed for by the reserve teams of those county cricket clubs that have first-class status. The competition started in 1959 and has been contested annually ever ...

. In 2001, Webley was selected to represent the

Somerset Cricket Board The Somerset Cricket Board (SCB) is the governing body for all recreational cricket in the historic county of Somerset, and was established in 1994 under its first Cricket Development Officer Andrew Moulding. Following a restructuring in January ...

in the

2001 Cheltenham & Gloucester Trophy The 2001 Cheltenham and Gloucester Trophy was an English limited overs county cricket tournament which was held between 1 May and 1 September 2001. It was the first Cheltenham & Gloucester Trophy following its change of name from the NatWest T ...

and as a result he made his debut in

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 numb ...

against Wales Minor Counties, following this up the next season with his second List A appearance, which was to be the last of his career, against

Cornwall Cornwall (; kw, Kernow ) is a historic county and ceremonial county in South West England. It is recognised as one of the Celtic nations, and is the homeland of the Cornish people. Cornwall is bordered to the north and west by the Atlantic ...

in the 1st round of the

2003 Cheltenham & Gloucester Trophy The 2003 Cheltenham & Gloucester Trophy was an English county cricket tournament, held between 29 August 2002 and 30 August 2003. The competition was won by Gloucestershire who beat Worcestershire by 7 wickets at Lord's. Format The eighteen f ...

which was held in 2002. Taking up education at Anglia University, given its proximity to

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a College town, university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cam ...

resulted in Webley appearing for Cambridge University Centre of Cricketing Excellence, for which he made his debut in

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 ...

in 2003 against

Essex Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and Grea ...

. Two matches later he scored a maiden century against

Northamptonshire Northamptonshire (; abbreviated Northants.) is a county in the East Midlands of England. In 2015, it had a population of 723,000. The county is administered by two unitary authorities: North Northamptonshire and West Northamptonshire. It is ...

, making a cautious 104 before being dismissed by

Monty Panesar Mudhsuden Singh "Monty" Panesar (born 25 April 1982) is a former English international cricketer. A left-arm spinner, Panesar made his Test cricket debut in 2006 against India in Nagpur and One Day International debut for England in 2007. In E ...

. Following encouraging performances with the Cambridge University team and in the Somerset Second XI, which received praise from then Second XI coach Mark Garaway. As a result, he made his debut for

first XI The First XI (or, less commonly, First 11) are the eleven primary players in an organisation's leading team, particularly a football or cricket team. A player who is considered a core part of the starting line-up in a First XI team is often the ...

in that seasons

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 ...

against

Durham Durham most commonly refers to: *Durham, England, a cathedral city and the county town of County Durham *County Durham, an English county * Durham County, North Carolina, a county in North Carolina, United States *Durham, North Carolina, a city in N ...

at the

Riverside Ground The Riverside Ground, known for sponsorship reasons as the Seat Unique Riverside, is a cricket venue in Chester-le-Street, County Durham, England. It is home to Durham County Cricket Club, and has also hosted several international matches. H ...

. In a fairly unsuccessful debut, he was dismissed for 6 in Somerset's first-innings by Vince Wells and for a

duck Duck is the common name for numerous species of waterfowl in the family Anatidae. Ducks are generally smaller and shorter-necked than swans and geese, which are members of the same family. Divided among several subfamilies, they are a form ...

in their second by

Shoaib Akhtar Shoaib Akhtar (; ; born 13 August 1975) is a Pakistani former cricketer and commentator. Nicknamed the "Rawalpindi Express", he was the first bowler to be recorded bowling at 100 miles per hour, a feat he achieved twice in his career. Ak ...

. Webley played five further first-class matches for Somerset in 2003, the last of which came against

Derbyshire Derbyshire ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands, England. It includes much of the Peak District National Park, the southern end of the Pennine range of hills and part of the National Forest. It borders Greater Manchester to the nor ...

. He did not though make any appearances in List A or

Twenty20 Twenty20 (T20) is a shortened game format of cricket. At the professional level, it was introduced by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) in 2003 for the inter-county competition. In a Twenty20 game, the two teams have a single inn ...

format for the county. The following season he continued to represent Cambridge University and did so until the 2005 season when he played his final first-class 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 ...

.First-Class Matches played by Tom Webley
/ref> A fairly reliable batsman at first-class level, Webley scored 833 runs in 15 first-class matches,

averaging In ordinary language, an average is a single number taken as representative of a list of numbers, usually the sum of the numbers divided by how many numbers are in the list (the arithmetic mean). For example, the average of the numbers 2, 3, 4, 7, ...

34.70, making five half centuries and just the single century. With the ball in hand, he took 6 wickets at a bowling average of 59.50, with best figures of 2/57. His association with Somerset ended in 2004 and in 2005 he represented the Leicestershire Second XI. Webley proceeded to play

Minor counties The National Counties, known as the Minor Counties before 2020, are the cricketing counties of England and Wales that do not have first-class status. The game is administered by the National Counties Cricket Association (NCCA), which comes unde ...

cricket for Suffolk in 2005,Teams Tom Webley played for
/ref> before facilitating a move back south where he represented

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. Covering an area of , ...

in Minor counties cricket from 2006 to 2007. During the summer of 2007, he took up the role as a Teacher at

Kimbolton School Kimbolton School is a British HMC co-educational independent day and boarding school in the rural village of Kimbolton, Cambridgeshire, England. There are 1000 students, aged 4 to 18. Boarding and flexi-boarding is available to a limited ...

, and is Master in Charge of Cricket. In 2013, Tom made the move to Merchant Taylors' School and was Director of Cricket there. Currently he is Director of Sport at Wells Cathedral School in Somerset and has held the position since September 2018. He is an ECB Level 4 Master Coach and has completed a Masters Degree (MSc) in Elite Coaching.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Webley, Tom 1983 births Alumni of Anglia Ruskin University Dorset cricketers English cricketers Leicestershire cricketers Living people Northamptonshire cricketers People educated at King's College, Taunton Somerset Cricket Board cricketers Somerset cricketers Cricketers from Bristol Suffolk cricketers Cambridge MCCU cricketers