Donald Bryce Carr OBE (28 December 1926 – 12 June 2016) was an English cricketer who played for

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 ...

from 1946 to 1967, for

Oxford University Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to th ...

from 1948 to 1951, and twice 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 ...

in 1951/52. He captained Derbyshire between 1955 and 1962, and scored over 10,000 runs for the county. His cricket administration roles included twelve years as assistant secretary to 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), taking over as secretary of the fledgling

Test and County Cricket Board The Test and County Cricket Board (TCCB) was the governing body for Test and county cricket in Great Britain between 1968 and 1996. The TCCB was established in 1968 to replace the functions of the Board of Control for Test Matches (established ...

in 1976. In his ten years in that role, cricket writer, Colin Bateman noted that Carr "mixed diplomacy with a sense of justice as first the Packer Affair, and then the first rebel tour to South Africa, threatened to split the world game".

Life and career

Carr was the son of John Carr, an officer of the

Royal Berkshire Regiment The Royal Berkshire Regiment (Princess Charlotte of Wales's) was a line infantry regiment of the British Army in existence from 1881 until 1959. The regiment was created in 1881, as the Princess Charlotte of Wales's (Royal Berkshire Regiment), b ...

, who was serving with the

British Army of the Rhine There have been two formations named British Army of the Rhine (BAOR). Both were originally occupation forces in Germany, one after the First World War and the other after the Second World War. Both formations had areas of responsibility located ...

in Germany. He went to Forres Boarding School in Swanage (the headmaster, R. M. Chadwick, a former opening bat for Dorset Minor Counties 1st XI, coached him) and then to

Repton School Repton School is a 13–18 co-educational, independent, day and boarding school in the English public school tradition, in Repton, Derbyshire, England. Sir John Port of Etwall, on his death in 1557, left funds to create a grammar school whi ...

, where his father had taken the post of bursar. Already an above average boy cricketer, he developed into one of the best young all-rounders under the coaching of Lionel Blaxland and

Garnet Lee Garnet Morley Lee (7 June 1887 – 29 February 1976) was an English cricketer who played first-class cricket for Nottinghamshire between 1910 and 1922 and for Derbyshire between 1925 and 1933. He scored nearly 15,000 runs in his first-class ca ...

. In 1944 his last year at Repton, he captained The Rest against the Lord's Schools and the Public Schools' side against a Lord's XI.Wisden Cricketer of the Year 1960 – Donald Carr
/ref> Carr joined the

Army An army (from Old French ''armee'', itself derived from the Latin verb ''armāre'', meaning "to arm", and related to the Latin noun ''arma'', meaning "arms" or "weapons"), ground force or land force is a fighting force that fights primarily on ...

on 1 January 1945, and was sent to Northern Ireland, where he had little scope to play serious cricket. In the summer he went to

Wrotham Wrotham ( ) is a village on the Pilgrims' Way in Kent, England, at the foot of the North Downs. It is north of Borough Green and approximately east of Sevenoaks. It is between the M20 and M26 motorways. History The name first occurs as ''U ...

for a training course and was chosen, on the withdrawal of George Pope, for England in the third Victory Test match against the

Australian Services XI The Australian Services XI was a cricket team comprising solely military service personnel during World War II. They became active in May 1945 after the defeat of Nazi Germany. The team played matches against English cricket sides of both milita ...

at Lord's. He went to the

Royal Military College, Sandhurst The Royal Military College (RMC), founded in 1801 and established in 1802 at Great Marlow and High Wycombe in Buckinghamshire, England, but moved in October 1812 to Sandhurst, Berkshire, was a British Army military academy for training infant ...

, and gained a Commission in the

in February 1946. In the 1946 season he first played for Derbyshire in 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 ...

. He made his debut against

Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...

, when he scored a duck in his only innings in a drawn match, but took two wickets. He also played for

Combined Services The Combined Services cricket team represents the British Armed Forces. The team played at first-class level in England for more than forty years in the mid-twentieth century. Their first first-class match was against Gentlemen of England at Lo ...

. Carr did not play

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 1947, as he was serving in

Burma Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John Wells explai ...

, but left the army in April 1948 and went to Worcester College, Oxford. He played in the County Championship for Derbyshire in the 1948 season and, in 1949, made the Oxford University team. He also finished off the season playing for Derbyshire in the 1949 season when he scored 1,210 runs and hit three centuries, with his career top score 170 for Oxford University against Leicestershire. In 1950, he captained Oxford, and took six for 39 against

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated Lancs) is the name of a historic county, ceremonial county, and non-metropolitan county in North West England. The boundaries of these three areas differ significantly. The non-metropolitan county of Lancash ...

. In his final year at Oxford his 34 and 50 helped defeat

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 ...

by 21 runs in the

Varsity match A varsity match is a fixture (especially of a sporting event or team) between two university teams, particularly Oxford and Cambridge. The Scottish Varsity rugby match between the University of St Andrews and the University of Edinburgh at Murrayf ...

, and he also headed the Derbyshire Championship averages in the 1951 season. After university, Carr went to work for a Midlands brewery, but before starting he was given permission to tour as vice-captain to

Nigel Howard Nigel David Howard (18 May 1925 – 31 May 1979) was an English cricketer, who played for Lancashire and England. Born in Gee Cross, Hyde, Cheshire, he captained England on the tour to India in 1951-52. In the only four Test matches he playe ...

in the

(MCC) team in India, Pakistan and Ceylon. He played in two

Test match 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) ...

es against

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

in 1951–52. In the first, at

Delhi Delhi, officially the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, is a city and a union territory of India containing New Delhi, the capital of India. Straddling the Yamuna river, primarily its western or right bank, Delhi shares borders ...

, England were in a desperate situation until he and Allan Watkins stayed together for just over five hours and added 158 to save the game. He was captain in Howard's absence in the fifth Test, which was the first time England lost to India, leaving the series drawn at 1–1. In his Test career he played four innings in two matches at an average of 33.75, and a highest score of 76. He took two Test wickets for the loss of 140 runs. He captained an MCC "A" side in Pakistan in 1955-56. He had been in the same Oxford side in 1949 as his opposing captain,

Abdul Hafeez Kardar Abdul Hafeez Kardar PP, HI ( ur, ) (17 January 1925 – 21 April 1996) was a Pakistani cricketer, politician and diplomat. He was the first captain of the Pakistan cricket team. He is one of the only three players to have played Test cric ...

. He upset Kardar by joking that his nickname at Oxford, "the Mystic of the East", had been mistranslated as "the Mistake of the East". During the third unofficial Test at

Peshawar Peshawar (; ps, پېښور ; hnd, ; ; ur, ) is the sixth most populous city in Pakistan, with a population of over 2.3 million. It is situated in the north-west of the country, close to the International border with Afghanistan. It is ...

, Carr and two other England players carried out a prank on the umpire Idris Baig, who had given several decisions that the England side regarded as poor, soaking him with water. Baig took this good-naturedly, but Hafeez decided to treat it as an insult to the pride of Pakistan. MCC offered to cancel the tour and subsequently held Carr responsible for the incident, something that he had already accepted. Carr scored 2,292 runs at an average of more than 44 runs an innings in the 1959 season, and was named

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 1960. Carr played 745 innings on 446 first-class matches, with an average of 28.61 and a top score of 170. He took 328 first-class wickets at an average of 34.74, and a best performance of 7 for 53.Donald Carr at Cricket Archive
/ref> Carr represented

at football, and played in the FA Amateur Cup final twice for the winning Pegasus side in 1951 and 1953. Carr later became an ICC match referee. After his retirement, he became assistant secretary of the MCC from 1963 to 1976, and then secretary to the Cricket Council and the Test and County Cricket Board – both forerunners of the

England and Wales Cricket Board The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) is the national governing body of cricket in England and Wales. It was formed on 1 January 1997 as a single governing body to combine the roles formerly fulfilled by the Test and County Cricket Board, ...

(ECB) – for ten years after that. He also managed several MCC tours in the 1960s and 1970s. Carr's son

John John is a common English name and surname: * John (given name) * John (surname) John may also refer to: New Testament Works * Gospel of John, a title often shortened to John * First Epistle of John, often shortened to 1 John * Secon ...

played for

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 ...

References

External links

*
Donald Carr, cricketer – obituary
from ''

The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally. It was f ...

'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Carr, Donald 1926 births 2016 deaths Derbyshire cricket captains England Test cricketers England Test cricket captains English cricketers People educated at Repton School Combined Services cricketers Alumni of Worcester College, Oxford Oxford University cricketers Oxford University A.F.C. players Free Foresters cricketers Wisden Cricketers of the Year Marylebone Cricket Club cricketers Graduates of the Royal Military College, Sandhurst Gentlemen cricketers Gentlemen of England cricketers Officers of the Order of the British Empire Royal Berkshire Regiment officers Association footballers not categorized by position Footballers from Hesse Sportspeople from Wiesbaden A. E. R. Gilligan's XI cricketers English footballers British Army personnel of World War II

Life and career

See also

References

External links