Famous Cricketers No 51 - Don Kenyon

1967 10. Gillette Cup - Worcestershire v Sussex, Worcester, April 29 (Sussex won by two wickets) c A.S.M.Oakman b J.A.Snow 0 115 119-8 SEASON’S AVERAGES Batting and Fielding M I NO Runs HS Ave 100 50 Ct Gillette Cup 1 1 0 0 0 0.00 - - - Career Gillette Cup 10 10 0 118 42 11.80 - - 1 First-Class Cricketers and Other Sportsmen From the Black Country The Black Country is an area in the Midlands to the west of Birmingham. It covers Wolverhampton in the north-west, Walsall in the north-east, Stourbridge in the south-west and Smethwick in the south-east with Dudley being the unofficial capital. In the early part of the 19th century, and for many years afterwards, it was an area of mines and steelworks but since the Thatcher era the area is no longer as black as it was in the past. Kenyon lived all his life in the Black Country and it is the birthplace of some fine cricketers including Alf Bakewell (Walsall), Jack Bannister (Wolver- hampton), Sydney Barnes (Smethwick), Dennis Breakwell and his father, Jack (Brierley Hill), David Brown (Walsall), Jack Flavell (Wall Heath), Gavin Haynes (Wordsley), Dean Headley (Stourbridge), Eric Hollies (Old Hill), Stuart Lampitt (Wolverhampton), Phil Oliver (West Bromwich), Charlie Palmer (Old Hill), Martin Speight (Walsall), Ian Thompson (Walsall), Fred Wheldon (Langley) and Norman Whiting (Wollaston). I found 76 first-class cricketers born within this unofficial boundary in the second edition of Bailey, Thorn and Wynne-Thomas’s second edition of Who’s Who of Cricketers (Hamlyn, 1993) to add to the likes of Tiptonians Jack Holden, marathon runner supreme, William Perry the ‘Tipton Slasher’, champion bare-fist prize fighter between 1850 and 1857 and the ledgendary long-jumper Joe Darby, who jumped local canals from a standing start. Soccer is the main sport in the area and a few names which come to mind are Sam Allardyce (Dudley), Billy Bassett (West Bromwich), ‘Pat’ Beasley (Stourbridge), Steve Bull MBE (Tipton), David Burrows (West Bromwich), Alan Clarke and his brothers (Willenhall), Norman Deeley (Wednesbury), Duncan Edwards (Dudley), Alan Hinton (Wednesbury), Don Howe (Wolverhampton), Eddie Lowe (Halesowen), Johnny Nicholls (Wolverhampton), Phil Parkes (Sedgley), brothers Arthur and Jack Rowley (Wolverhampton), Lee Sharpe (Halesowen), Bill Shorthouse (Bilston), Derek Statham (Wolverhampton), Billy Walker (Wednesbury) and Bert Williams (Bilston). In the first F.A. Cup final that I saw on television Reg Lewis (Bilston) scored twice for an Arsenal side, including Dennis and Leslie Compton, that beat Liverpool 2-0 at Wembley in 1950. 62