Famous Cricketers No 91 - J.C.Laker

After his retirement from the game Jim kept his association with cricket going both as an author and a highly respected television commentator with the B.B.C. for whom he started commentating in 1968. He also was much in demand as an after-dinner speaker and wrote on a regular basis for the Daily Express . It came as a tragic shock when Jim died, after a sudden illness, on 23rd April 1986. He was 64 years old. Jim married his wife, Lilly, on 27th March 1951. They had two daughters, Fiona and Angela. 1946 Laker’s first-class career started at Kennington Oval on Wednesday July 17th 1946, when he was selected to play for Surrey against a Combined Services team. His first wicket was that of Don Kenyon who was caught by a man who was to help Laker snare many victims, that outstanding Surrey wicket-keeper Arthur McIntyre. Laker dismissed Kenyon twice in this match and also took the wicket, in both innings, of his future colleague in the Surrey side, Bernard Constable. He took six wickets for 121 in his debut match. Later in the season he played in a friendly County game against Hampshire at Kingston-upon-Thames taking two wickets. He also played against the Combined Services at the same venue, a match ruined by rain with the first and third days washed out. Own Team O M R W Opp Ct Total Total 1. Surrey v Combined Services, Kennington Oval, July 17, 18, 19 (Surrey won by six wickets) b D.B.Carr 3 318 22 3 78 3 D.Kenyon c A.J.W.McIntyre 288 B.Constable c E.A.Watts W.Barber b did not bat - 96-4 20 6 43 3 D.Kenyon b 125 1 B.Constable c A.J.W.McIntyre R.T.D.Perks c E.A.Bedser 2. Surrey v Hampshire (non-Championship), Kingston-upon-Thames, August 31, September 2, (3) (Match drawn) not out 0 195 8 1 26 1 R.N.Exton c A.R.Gover 234 10 2 22 1 J.Bailey c G.S.Mobey 136-3 3. Surrey v Combined Services, Kingston-upon-Thames, September (4), 5, (6) (Match drawn) c and b D.B.Carr 0 132 - - - - 12-1 SEASON’S AVERAGES Batting and Fielding M I NO Runs HS Ave 100 50 Ct Other Surrey matches 3 3 1 3 3 1.50 - - 1 Bowling O M R W BB Ave 5i 10m Strike RunR Other Surrey matches 60 12 169 8 3-43 21.12 - - 45.00 46.94 1947 Laker made a significant advance in 1947 playing in fourteen Championship matches and heading the Surrey bowling averages with 66 wickets at an average of 16.65. Altogether that season he took 79 wickets at 17.97, figures that earned him seventh place in the national averages. Against Hampshire at Portsmouth he took eight wickets for 69, three times taking wickets with consecutive deliveries. He took five wickets in an innings on three other occasions for Surrey and, when chosen to play in a representative match at Hastings for Sir Pelham Warner’s XI against the South of England, he took six for 109 in the South’s second innings. He scored 408 runs in the season at an average of 18.54 which included an innings of sixty against Middlesex at Lord’s. A game he was probably glad to have missed was the match against Middlesex at Kennington Oval when the visitors knocked up 537 for 2 declared in just 118 overs. At the end of the season Laker was invited to tour the West Indies in the winter of 1947/48 with the MCC team. 6