William Eric Russell (born 3 July 1936) is a Scottish 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. He was an opening batsman who played for

Middlesex County Cricket Club Middlesex County Cricket Club is one of eighteen first-class county clubs within the domestic cricket structure of England and Wales. It represents the historic county of Middlesex which has effectively been subsumed within the ceremonial ...

from 1956 to 1972, and played in ten

Test matches Test match in some sports refers to a sporting contest between national representative teams and may refer to: * Test cricket * Test match (indoor cricket) * Test match (rugby union) * Test match (rugby league) * Test match (association football) ...

for

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

between 1961 and 1967. The cricket correspondent, Colin Bateman, commented, "a smooth, assured opening batsman, Eric Russell suffered from never getting a settled sequence in the England team. His 10 Tests were spread over seven series and five countries, and two half-centuries in 18 innings did not do his ability justice."

Life and career

Russell was a stylish right-hander, whose international appearances were limited by injury and the dominance of

Geoff 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 ...

and

John Edrich John Hugh Edrich, (21 June 1937 – 23 December 2020) was an English first-class cricketer who, during a career that ran from 1956 to 1978, was considered one of the best batsmen of his generation. Born in Blofield, Norfolk, Edrich came from a ...

.Eric Russell

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 2022-02-03. He played ten Tests against six countries and toured three times, but could never establish himself in the England side. He joined Middlesex in 1956 at the age of 20, and played over 400 games for them, recording over 25,000 first-class runs with 41 centuries, and a career best of 193 against

Hampshire Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants) is a ceremonial county, ceremonial and non-metropolitan county, non-metropolitan counties of England, county in western South East England on the coast of the English Channel. Home to two major English citi ...

Bournemouth Bournemouth () is a coastal resort town in the Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole council area of Dorset, England. At the 2011 census, the town had a population of 183,491, making it the largest town in Dorset. It is situated on the Southern ...

in 1964. He scored 1,000 runs in a season 13 times, a testament to his reliability, and topped 2,000 on three occasions, his best return being his 2,343 at 45.92 in 1964. He also took 22 wickets with his occasional medium pacers and held 304 catches.Eric Russell
CricketArchive. Retrieved 2022-02-03. After leaving Middlesex, Russell taught at

Shiplake College ("The Example Teaches") , established = 1959 , type = Public schoolIndependent day and boarding , religious_affiliation = Church of England , head_label = Headmaster , head ...

, played

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

Berkshire Berkshire ( ; in the 17th century sometimes spelt phonetically as Barkeshire; abbreviated Berks.) is a historic county in South East England. One of the home counties, Berkshire was recognised by Queen Elizabeth II as the Royal County of Berk ...

and later played a role in the development of MCC's Shenley cricket centre.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Russell, Eric 1936 births Living people England Test cricketers Sportspeople from Dumbarton Scottish cricketers Middlesex cricketers Berkshire cricketers International Cavaliers cricketers Players cricketers D. H. Robins' XI cricketers

Life and career

See also

References

External links