Arnold Townsend

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Arnold Townsend (March 29, 1912 — February 27, 1994) was an English cricketer. He was a right-handed batsman who played for Derbyshire. He was born in Long Eaton and died in Derby.

Townsend played his debut game in 1934, and, though he seemed to hit a good patch of form the following year, he played only twice during Derbyshire's Championship-winning 1936 season while Test cricketer Harry Elliott and Derbyshire's single-season player Samuel Hunt, both of whom made good accounts of themselves during the year, were preferred in this role.

In the wake of Derbyshire's winning season, Townsend was allowed more chances to prove himself within the team, playing more times during the following three seasons than at any other time in his career thus far. Townsend hit his first two half-century innings in 1938, even being given the chance to prove his ability as an opening batsman.

Townsend went to South Africa during the war and played one first-class match against a team of South Africans, playing for an Air Force XI, while he rejoined the Derbyshire team during the 1946 season. While for the first time in his career he became a first-choice batsman for the Derbyshire team, only one player who had played more games than him during the season could boast a better average, Townsend scored a century against the economical, penetrating bowling of Test player Eric Hollies.

Townsend scored two centuries and eight half-centuries during 1947, the most successful output of any Derbyshire player during the season. He only lasted two further seasons as a part of the Derbyshire first-team before losing his once secure place as opening batsman to new signing Arnold Hamer, rejoining the cricketing world in 1950 having played two first-class games for Yorkshire as much as twelve years previously.

At the end of his career, Townsend played twice in the Minor Counties Championship for Derbyshire. Townsend's brother, Leslie, was a four-time England Test player and a Wisden cricketer of the year in Arnold's debut season, while they played in the same Derbyshire team for six seasons prior to the outbreak of the Second World War.