Famous Cricketers No 91 - J.C.Laker

did not bat - 151-4 28 10 50 5 J.R.Gray b 150 J.R.Bridger b L.Harrison b E.D.R.Eagar c G.A.R.Lock D.Shackleton c G.A.R.Lock 185. Surrey v Northamptonshire, Kennington Oval, August 27, 28, 29 (Match drawn) not out 2 383-8d 37 13 73 5 N.Oldfield c W.S.Surridge 283 1 D.W.Barrick b F.R.Brown c W.S.Surridge G.E.Tribe c A.J.W.McIntyre A.E.Nutter lbw did not bat - 181-5d 8 0 31 0 191-6 186. Surrey v Leicestershire, Leicester, August 30, September 1, 2 (Match drawn) c J.Firth b V.S.Munden 5 428 22.4 10 33 2 G.Lester lbw 236 C.T.Spencer c P.B.H.May 9 0 19 0 351-6 187. An England XI v Indians, Hastings, September 3, 4, 5 (Match drawn) did not bat - 257-6d 4 2 6 0 222 did not bat - 194-7 6 1 17 0 241-7d 188. South v Rest of England, Hastings, September 6, 8, (9) (Match drawn) c G.A.R.Lock b R.O.Jenkins 26 239 - - - - 316 - - - - 106-7 SEASON’S AVERAGES Batting and Fielding M I NO Runs HS Ave 100 50 Ct Test matches 4 4 2 44 23* 22.00 - - 3 Players v Gentlemen 1 1 0 5 5 5.00 - - 1 Championship 18 22 3 190 23 10.00 - - 8 Other Surrey matches 3 4 0 12 8 3.00 - - 2 Other matches 4 3 0 59 26 19.66 - - 1 Season 30 34 5 310 26 10.68 - - 15 Career 188 252 42 3770 100 17.95 1 11 126 Bowling O M R W BB Ave 5i 10m Strike RunR Test matches 90.3 33 189 8 4/39 23.62 - - 67.87 34.80 Players 56.1 17 120 8 6/48 15.00 1 - 42.12 35.60 Championship 730.2 247 1451 86 7/57 16.87 7 - 50.95 33.11 Other Surrey matches 95 18 231 16 6/64 14.43 1 1 35.62 40.52 Other matches 99 27 228 7 3/44 32.57 - - 84.85 38.38 Season 1071 342 2219 125 7/57 17.75 9 1 51.40 34.53 Career 7601.1 2417 16289 849 8/2 19.18 60 13 53.71 35.71 1953 1953 was Coronation year and also, as every cricket fan knows, the year in which England finally regained “The Ashes” which Australia had held since 1934. Laker played a significant part in this triumph, playing in the last three Tests. At Kennington Oval he took four for 75 in Australia’s second innings to help set up the England victory but more important still was the 48 he scored in the second innings of the Fourth Test at Headingley when he stayed in for an hour and fifty minutes and helped Trevor Bailey add 57 for the seventh wicket. Australia failed to win the match by only thirty runs. For Surrey Laker took ninety-three wickets at an average of 16.72 including ten for 105 against Yorkshire and six for 25 against Leicestershire, both at Kennington Oval. Surrey won the Championship again with four bowlers averaging under 17 runs per wicket. As a batsman Laker scored 81 against Hampshire at Kennington Oval and, altogether, he hit 502 runs at an average of 16.19 per innings. He finished eleventh in the national bowling averages with 135 wickets in all matches at 17.52. He took twenty-five catches. 30