Les Jackson

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Les Jackson England (ENG)

Batting style	Right-hand bat
Bowling type	Right-arm fast
	Tests	First-class
Matches	2	418
Runs scored	15	2083
Batting average	15.00	6.19
100s/50s	-/-	-/-
Top score	8	39*
Balls bowled	498	83267
Wickets	7	1733
Bowling average	22.14	17.36
5 wickets in innings	-	115
10 wickets in match	-	20
Best bowling	2/26	9/17
Catches/stumpings	1/-	137/-
Test debut: 23 July 1949 Last Test: 6 July 1961 Source: [1]

Herbert Leslie Jackson, born 5 April 1921, was a cricketer who bowled at fast or fast-medium pace for more than a dozen years for Derbyshire and was regularly at or near the top of the English bowling averages.

Yet he played only two Test matches for England: one in 1949, his second full season after joining Derbyshire, the other 12 years later against the 1961 Australians, when he was 40 years old. The gap between appearances is the longest of any Test player with only two caps.

A former miner, Jackson formed formidable bowling partnerships for Derbyshire first with Cliff Gladwin, then with Harold Rhodes, both also England Test players. His strengths were accuracy and economy: in 1958, he took 143 wickets at the phenomenal average of 10.99 runs per wicket, an economy rate not seen since the days of S.F. Barnes before the First World War and not equalled by a regular first-class bowler since.

Jackson began his playing career for Whitwell Cricket Club, where he can still be found on the occasional Saturday watching them play.

He was a Wisden Cricketer of the Year in 1959.