Ted Lester

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Ted Lester England (Eng)

Batting style	Right-handed batsman (RHB)
Bowling type	Right-arm off-break
	First-class	List A
Matches	232	1
Runs scored	10912	0
Batting average	34.20	0.00
100s/50s	25/50	0/0
Top score	186	0
Balls bowled	330	-
Wickets	3	-
Bowling average	53.33	-
5 wickets in innings	-	-
10 wickets in match	-	N/A
Best bowling	1-7	-
Catches/stumpings	108/0	0/0
Debut: 29 August 1945 Last appearance: 27 May 1964 Source: CricketArchive

Edward Ibson Lester, born at Scarborough on February 18, 1923, was a cricketer who played for Yorkshire.

Ted Lester had a first-class cricket career lasting just 10 years for Yorkshire, but has remained a significant influence in the county cricket club's fortunes as scorer and committee man. He made his debut as an amateur right-handed middle-order batsman immediately after the Second World War, and in 1947 he made three centuries in 11 innings, which left him third in the English national averages behind Denis Compton and Bill Edrich in their year of unparalleled success.

For 1948, Lester joined the Yorkshire staff, and for next seven seasons he made more than 1,000 runs each year except 1951. His best years were 1949, when he scored 1801 runs, and 1952 when, with 1786 at an average little short of 50 runs an innings, he was fourth in the national averages. After further good seasons in 1953 and 1954, though, his batting fell away badly in 1955, and at the end of July he was dropped from the first team. Apart from one match against Scotland in 1956, he never regained his place.

Lester continued, however, to play for Yorkshire's second eleven for the next six seasons, often captaining the side and acting as the senior player alongside a talented group of young players, including John Hampshire, Geoffrey Boycott, Philip Sharpe and Brian Bolus. And there was brief codicil to his first-class career: in 1964, John Hampshire fell ill just before the Gillette Cup one-day match against Middlesex at Lord's and Lester, acting as scorer, was drafted into the side. But Yorkshire lost and Lester, batting at No 9, failed to score.

Thereafter, he became Yorkshire's regular scorer until his retirement in 1988 and an often forthright champion against what he perceived as the undeserved neglect of the scorer's role in cricket competitions.