George Cawthray (28 September 1913 – 5 January 2000) 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 four matches for

Yorkshire Yorkshire ( ; abbreviated Yorks), formally known as the County of York, is a Historic counties of England, historic county in northern England and by far the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its large area in comparison with other Eng ...

in a first-class career which spanned thirteen years. He appeared against

Warwickshire Warwickshire (; abbreviated Warks) is a county in the West Midlands region of England. The county town is Warwick, and the largest town is Nuneaton. The county is famous for being the birthplace of William Shakespeare at Stratford-upon-Avo ...

and

Essex Essex () is a Ceremonial counties of England, 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 Riv ...

in 1939, then reappeared against

Glamorgan , HQ = Cardiff , Government = Glamorgan County Council (1889–1974) , Origin= , Code = GLA , CodeName = Chapman code , Replace = * West Glamorgan * Mid Glamorgan * South Glamorgan , Mot ...

and

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 ...

in 1952. Born in

Selby Selby is a market town and civil parish in the Selby District of North Yorkshire, England, south of York on the River Ouse, with a population at the 2011 census of 14,731. The town was historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire until ...

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 ...

, Cawthray was a right-handed batsman, who scored 114 first-class runs at an average of 19.00, with a best of 30 against Glamorgan. He took four wickets with his right arm medium pace at 76.00 each, three of these coming in his last match against Derbyshire. He played for the Yorkshire Second XI in 1938 and 1939. He played for Brayton School from 1924 to 1927, once taking five wickets in five balls, and represented Selby Schools in the Yorkshire Shield. He played for Brayton village side from 1928, along with Cawood and Selby Londesborough, before joining Hull Cricket Club where, from 1938 to 1959, he scored 8,384 runs at 29.30, and took 872 wickets at 12.91. In 1946, he was appointed

groundsman Groundskeeping is the activity of tending an area of land for aesthetic or functional purposes, typically in an institutional setting. It includes mowing grass, trimming hedges, pulling weeds, planting flowers, etc. The U.S. Department of Labor e ...

/professional at Hull C.C., and took a similar post at

Headingley Headingley is a suburb of Leeds, West Yorkshire, England, approximately two miles out of the city centre, to the north west along the A660 road. Headingley is the location of the Beckett Park campus of Leeds Beckett University and Headingley ...

in 1964. He was stated to have scored 30,000 runs, and taken 3,000 wickets during a long successful career which was interrupted by

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

, during which he was a glider pilot. Early on 19 August 1975, Cawthray discovered that campaigners calling for the release from prison of George Davis, had dug holes in the pitch and poured oil over one end of the wicket. This led to the match between

and

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands. With an area of , Australia is the largest country by ...

being abandoned. The match was declared a draw, denying England of the chance to win back

the Ashes The Ashes is a Test cricket series played between England and Australia. The term originated in a satirical obituary published in a British newspaper, '' The Sporting Times'', immediately after Australia's 1882 victory at The Oval, its first ...

. He retired as groundsman at Headingley in 1978, aged 65, and died in January 2001, at the age of 87.

References

External links

Cricinfo Profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cawthray, George 1913 births 2000 deaths Yorkshire cricketers People from Selby English cricketers Sportspeople from Yorkshire