Vincent Roy Lumsden (born 19 July 1930) is a former cricketer who played

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 ...

for

Jamaica Jamaica (; ) is an island country situated in the Caribbean Sea. Spanning in area, it is the third-largest island of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean (after Cuba and Hispaniola). Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, and west of His ...

and

Cambridge University The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209 and granted a royal charter by Henry III of England, Henry III in 1231, Cambridge is the world' ...

from 1950 to 1960. After his cricket career he worked as an

agronomist An agriculturist, agriculturalist, agrologist, or agronomist (abbreviated as agr.), is a professional in the science, practice, and management of agriculture and agribusiness. It is a regulated profession in Canada, India, the Philippines, the ...

in Jamaica.

Cricket career

Lumsden was born at

Buff Bay Buff Bay is a settlement in Portland, Jamaica Jamaica (; ) is an island country situated in the Caribbean Sea. Spanning in area, it is the third-largest island of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean (after Cuba and Hispaniola). ...

Portland Parish Portland, with its capital town Port Antonio, is a parish located on Jamaica's northeast coast. It is situated to the north of St Thomas and to the east of St Mary in Surrey County. It is one of the rural areas of Jamaica, containing part ...

. A champion schoolboy cricketer, he attended Munro College in Jamaica on a scholarship from 1943 to 1949, and went to Emmanuel College, Cambridge in 1952 to study agronomy. He made his first-class debut for Jamaica in 1949-50, opening the batting and scoring 20 and 33. He scored 60 in the only match he played in 1950-51. He established himself in the Cambridge cricket team in 1953, batting in the middle order and scoring 449 runs at an average of 22.45. ''

Wisden ''Wisden Cricketers' Almanack'', or simply ''Wisden'', colloquially the Bible of Cricket, is a cricket reference book published annually in the United Kingdom. The description "bible of cricket" was first used in the 1930s by Alec Waugh in a ...

'' noted that he "could drive the ball very hard, but his lack of adequate defence and a sense of impetuosity often caused early failures. His fielding, however, was often of special value." He had his best season in 1954, scoring 701 runs at 35.05, top-scoring in each innings with 93 and 107 in the match against

Worcestershire Worcestershire ( , ; written abbreviation: Worcs) is a county in the West Midlands of England. The area that is now Worcestershire was absorbed into the unified Kingdom of England in 927, at which time it was constituted as a county (see H ...

, when he shared a fifth-wicket partnership of 176 in just over two hours with John Slack to help Cambridge to victory. His 47 in the second innings in the annual match against

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 ...

helped Cambridge salvage a draw. In 1955 he scored 99 in the match against Worcestershire, again top-scoring in a Cambridge victory, this time by an innings. He finished the season with 627 runs at 28.50. He also played a leading part in the victory over Sussex, top-scoring in each innings with 47 and 90, and taking three wickets with his off-spin. He played four

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 ...

matches for

Cambridgeshire Cambridgeshire (abbreviated Cambs.) is a county in the East of England, bordering Lincolnshire to the north, Norfolk to the north-east, Suffolk to the east, Essex and Hertfordshire to the south, and Bedfordshire and Northamptonshire to the ...

in 1955 but with little success. His form for Cambridge declined in 1956 (432 runs at 20.57, with a highest score of 47) and he was unable to play in a fourth consecutive match against Oxford owing to a finger injury. Lumsden returned to Jamaica and played a few more matches for the Jamaica team. In his first match he returned to the opening position and scored 91 as well as taking 4 for 20 and 2 for 32 in an innings victory over Leeward Islands in 1958.Jamaica v Leeward Islands 1958
/ref> His last match was against MCC in 1959-60.

Later life

Lumsden worked in Jamaica for the Banana Board before teaching Botany and Agronomy at the Jamaica School of Agriculture from 1963 to 1965. He worked for the

Jamaica Broadcasting Corporation The Jamaica Broadcasting Corporation (JBC) was a public broadcasting company in Jamaica founded in 1959 by premier Norman Manley with the aim of emulating the success of other national broadcasting companies such as the BBC and CBC.Thomas, Pradip ...

from 1965 to 1981, his work including commentary on horse racing. From 1981 to 1989 he was an agricultural adviser to the Minister of Agriculture. From 1990 he did private consultancy in agriculture and hosted a radio program, ''Farm Time''. He was also an operations steward for the Jamaica Racing Commission. Lumsden married during his last year at Cambridge. He and his wife have a daughter and four sons.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Lumsden, Vincent 1930 births Living people People educated at Munro College Alumni of Emmanuel College, Cambridge Jamaica cricketers Cambridge University cricketers Cambridgeshire cricketers Jamaican cricketers People from Portland Parish Agronomists Jamaican radio presenters