John Victor Wilson (17 January 1921 – 5 June 2008) 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 officiall ...

er, who played for and captained

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 in

Scampston Scampston is a village and civil parish in the Ryedale district of North Yorkshire, England. Until 1974, the village lay in the historic county boundaries of the East Riding of Yorkshire. It lies close to the A64 road, approximately east of M ...

near

Norton-on-Derwent Norton-on-Derwent, commonly referred to as simply Norton, is a town and civil parish in the Ryedale district of North Yorkshire, England. Norton borders the market town of Malton, and is separated from it by the River Derwent. The 2001 Censu ...

in the

East Riding of Yorkshire The East Riding of Yorkshire, or simply East Riding or East Yorkshire, is a ceremonial county and unitary authority area in the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England. It borders North Yorkshire to the north and west, South Yorkshire to t ...

(now in

North Yorkshire North Yorkshire is the largest ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county (lieutenancy area) in England, covering an area of . Around 40% of the county is covered by National parks of the United Kingdom, national parks, including most of ...

). retrieved 6 June 2008 Wilson made his first-class debut for Yorkshire in 1946, as a left-handed batsman, and a very occasional right-arm medium pace bowler. He was also an occasional

wicket-keeper The wicket-keeper in the sport of cricket is the player on the fielding side who stands behind the wicket or stumps being watchful of the batsman and ready to take a catch, stump the batsman out and run out a batsman when occasion arises. Th ...

and a talented fielder close to the bat. In 1954-55, he was a surprise selection for the

Marylebone Cricket Club Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) is a cricket club founded in 1787 and based since 1814 at Lord's Cricket Ground, which it owns, in St John's Wood, London. The club was formerly the governing body of cricket retaining considerable global influence ...

(MCC) tour to

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

and

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

under

Leonard Hutton Sir Leonard Hutton (23 June 1916 – 6 September 1990) was an English cricketer. He played as an opening batsman for Yorkshire County Cricket Club from 1934 to 1955 and for England in 79 Test matches between 1937 and 1955. ''Wisden Cricketer ...

, but he never adjusted to the fast pace of Australian pitches, and was not picked for any of the Test matches. He also represented MCC at home in 1962 and 1963. Though he was by then far from guaranteed a place in the first team, Wilson survived the purge of Yorkshire's playing staff in 1958 which saw

Johnny Wardle Johnny Wardle (8 January 1923 – 23 July 1985) was an English spin bowling cricketer whose Test Match career lasted between 1948 and 1957. His Test bowling average of 20.39 is the lowest in Test cricket by any recognised spin bowler since ...

Bob Appleyard Robert Appleyard (27 June 1924 – 17 March 2015) was a Yorkshire and England first-class cricketer. He was one of the best English bowlers of the 1950s, a decade which saw England develop its strongest bowling attack of the twentieth centu ...

and

Frank Lowson Frank Anderson Lowson (1 July 1925 – 8 September 1984) was an English cricketer, who played in seven Tests for England from 1951 to 1955. In first-class cricket, Lowson amassed 15,321 runs at an average of over 37, but had drifted away from ...

leave the staff and a new young team take shape under the captaincy of Ronnie Burnet. After Burnet retired, Wilson was appointed as the first professional county captain of Yorkshire in 1960. He had a successful tenure, leading the club to the

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 ...

title in 1960 and 1962. He retired in 1962, and was succeeded by

Brian Close Dennis Brian Close, (24 February 1931 – 13 September 2015) was an English first-class cricketer. He was picked to play against New Zealand in July 1949, when he was 18 years old. Close went on to play 22 Test matches for England, ...

for the 1963 season. Wilson was a

Wisden Cricketer of the Year The ''Wisden'' Cricketers of the Year are cricketers selected for the honour by the annual publication ''Wisden Cricketers' Almanack'', based primarily on their "influence on the previous English season". The award began in 1889 with the naming ...

in 1961. Wilson died in his home in

Yedingham Yedingham is a village and former civil parish halfway between West Knapton and Allerston, nine miles north-east of Malton. It is now in the parish of Ebberston and Yedingham, in the Ryedale district of North Yorkshire, but was historicall ...

, near Malton, on 5 June 2008, aged 87.''Vic Wilson dies aged 87''
from

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 ...

retrieved 6 June 2008

References

External links

*
Obituary: ''Telegraph''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wilson, Vic 1921 births 2008 deaths Yorkshire cricketers Yorkshire cricket captains Wisden Cricketers of the Year People from Norton-on-Derwent English cricketers Marylebone Cricket Club cricketers Lincolnshire cricketers Players cricketers North v South cricketers T. N. Pearce's XI cricketers