Thomas Peter Bromley Smith (30 October 1908 − 4 August 1967) was an English

cricket Cricket is a Bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball game played between two Sports team, teams of eleven players on a cricket field, field, at the centre of which is a cricket pitch, pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two Bail (cr ...

er, who played for

Essex Essex ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East of England, and one of the home counties. It is bordered by Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, the North Sea to the east, Kent across the Thames Estuary to the ...

and

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

. Smith was one of the five

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

in 1947. An

all-rounder An all-rounder is a cricketer who regularly performs well at both batting and bowling. Although all bowlers must bat and quite a handful of batsmen do bowl occasionally, most players are skilled in only one of the two disciplines and are cons ...

, Smith played for Essex from 1929 to 1951. Peter Smith was a leg-break and googly bowler and a lower order hitter of some style. He holds the Essex records both for the number of wickets in a season (172 in 1947), and for wickets in a career (1,610 between 1929 and 1951). Smith originally turned up at

The Oval The Oval, currently named for sponsorship reasons as the Kia Oval, is an international cricket ground in Kennington, located in the borough of Lambeth, in south London. The Oval has been the home ground of Surrey County Cricket Club sinc ...

for the 1933 Test match against the

West Indies The West Indies is an island subregion of the Americas, surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea, which comprises 13 independent island country, island countries and 19 dependent territory, dependencies in thr ...

, only to find that the telegram he had received was a hoax. It was another thirteen years before he was really selected for his country. He was noted for keeping to a good length, even when

Hugh Bartlett Hugh Tryon Bartlett DFC (7 October 1914 – 26 June 1988) was an English cricketer who played as an attacking left-handed batsman for Sussex either side of World War II. Early years Bartlett was born in Balaghat, India, and moved to England a ...

smacked 28 off his six deliveries in the 1938 Gentlemen v. Players match at

Lord's Lord's Cricket Ground, commonly known as Lord's, is a cricket List of Test cricket grounds, venue in St John's Wood, Westminster. Named after its founder, Thomas Lord, it is owned by Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) and is the home of Middlesex C ...

. He served in

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, joining the

British Army The British Army is the principal Army, land warfare force of the United Kingdom. the British Army comprises 73,847 regular full-time personnel, 4,127 Brigade of Gurkhas, Gurkhas, 25,742 Army Reserve (United Kingdom), volunteer reserve perso ...

on 1 September 1939, where he was commissioned as a second lieutenant into the

Essex Regiment The Essex Regiment was a line infantry regiment of the British Army in existence from 1881 to 1958. The regiment served in many conflicts such as the Second Boer War and both World War I and World War II, serving with distinction in all three. ...

in June 1940. Posted to the 2/4th Battalion, he served there for nearly three years before being sent to the

Middle East The Middle East (term originally coined in English language) is a geopolitical region encompassing the Arabian Peninsula, the Levant, Turkey, Egypt, Iran, and Iraq. The term came into widespread usage by the United Kingdom and western Eur ...

in May 1943, becoming a

staff officer A military staff or general staff (also referred to as army staff, navy staff, or air staff within the individual services) is a group of officers, enlisted, and civilian staff who serve the commander of a division or other large milita ...

Combined Operations In current military use, combined operations are operations conducted by forces of two or more allied nations acting together for the accomplishment of a common strategy, a strategic and operational and sometimes tactical cooperation. Intera ...

HQ at

Alexandria Alexandria ( ; ) is the List of cities and towns in Egypt#Largest cities, second largest city in Egypt and the List of coastal settlements of the Mediterranean Sea, largest city on the Mediterranean coast. It lies at the western edge of the Nile ...

. While playing for Essex against

Derbyshire Derbyshire ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands of England. It borders Greater Manchester, West Yorkshire, and South Yorkshire to the north, Nottinghamshire to the east, Leicestershire to the south-east, Staffordshire to the south a ...

at Queen's Park, Chesterfield in 1947, he batted at number eleven, and came to the wicket with Essex 199 for 9 wickets. In two-and-a-half hours, Smith hit 163 runs, putting on 218 for the last wicket with Frank Vigar, who made an undefeated 114. Smith's 163 is the world record score for a number eleven batsman, and the partnership is one of only eleven of more than 200 runs for the last wicket in the whole of

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 of three or more days scheduled duration between two sides of eleven players each and is officially adju ...

. In that season of 1947, Smith achieved the

double Double, The Double or Dubble may refer to: Mathematics and computing * Multiplication by 2 * Double precision, a floating-point representation of numbers that is typically 64 bits in length * A double number of the form x+yj, where j^2=+1 * A ...

of 1,000 runs and 100 wickets, and also established the record for most runs conceded in a season: 4667.''Cricketer'', November 1975, p. 65. Smith played only four

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

for England: one in 1946 against

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

, two against Australia in the

1946–47 Ashes series The 1946–47 Ashes series consisted of five cricket Test cricket, Test matches, each of six days with five hours play each day and Over (cricket), eight ball overs. Unlike pre-war Tests in Australia, matches were not Timeless Test, timeless and p ...

and the last in New Zealand later on the tour. As a Test player, he was only modestly successful, but in taking 9/121 runs for the MCC against New South Wales he set the record for the best bowling return by an Englishman in Australia. Peter Smith died in

Hyères Hyères (), Provençal dialect, Provençal Occitan language, Occitan: ''Ieras'' in classical norm, or ''Iero'' in Mistralian norm) is a Communes of France, commune in the Var (département), Var Departments of France, department in the Provence-Al ...

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

from a

cerebral haemorrhage Intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH), also known as hemorrhagic stroke, is a sudden bleeding into the tissues of the brain (i.e. the parenchyma), into its ventricles, or into both. An ICH is a type of bleeding within the skull and one kind of stro ...

after a fall on holiday.

References

External links

1908 births 1967 deaths Cricketers from Ipswich English cricketers England Test cricketers Essex cricketers Essex Regiment officers Wisden Cricketers of the Year Marylebone Cricket Club cricketers Players cricketers North v South cricketers East of England cricketers English cricketers of 1919 to 1945 20th-century English sportsmen L. H. Tennyson's XI cricket team Over 30s v Under 30s cricketers T. N. Pearce's XI cricketers British Army personnel of World War II Military personnel from Ipswich {{England-cricket-bio-stub