Lives in Cricket No 3 - George Duckworth

He contrived to bowl in only four matches – 0 for 73 was his final first-class return. His longest spell was six overs, 0-37, against Somerset at Taunton in the county’s last Championship match of 1936. According to Bill Andrews’ autobiography, this helped R.J.O.Meyer to reach the only double century of his career, after he had promised to give a fiver to Jack Iddon’s benefit fund. It seems like a reasonable bargain. All eleven Lancashire players bowled, the only time by the county has seen fit to call up all its team members for such duties. As for batting, George Duckworth did provide some stubborn support for the top order. All in all, right-handed, he made 4,176 runs for the county (4,947 in all first-class matches), with 424, twice, in 1929 and 1937, being his most productive years, and 14.65 his overall county average. He made a handful of fifties, with 75 in 1929 against Leicestershire at Old Trafford, being his The Cricket 33 A rarity. George Duckworth, bowling round the wicket, at an apparently brisk medium pace, against Western Australia in Perth in March, 1929.