Tail-ender
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Horace c1890, a horse of such exquisite sensibility that when Fred Morley, the invariable Notts last man, left the Trent Bridge pavilion, it sidled unobtrusively towards the roller. Carr's Dictionary of extra-ordinary English Cricketers [1]
Tail-ender is a cricketing term for the last batsmen in a team who are not technically proficient in the art of batting, and as a result, do not contribute many runs to their side's total. Such players are, most usually, extremely talented bowlers such as A.P "Tich" Freeman [2] or Jack Davey, "a Crown Prince of No. 11s" [3].
While still proudly present at amateur level [4], they are increasingly rare in the professional game[5]. A notable current tail-ender is the New Zealand bowler Chris Martin who has a Test match average of 2.46 over 55 innings, including 21 ducks.
[edit] References
- ^ 1977, Kettering, J.L.Carr ISBN 0274563739
- ^ "Tich" Freeman and the decline of the Leg-Break Bowler Lemmon, D (1982, London, George Allen and Unwin) ISBN 0047960558 Appendix p132
- ^ 1975 Wisden Easterbrook, B The Willing workhorses of First-Class Cricket p154 (1975, London, Sporting Handbooks Ltd ISBN 0850200482
- ^ Proudly self-titled
- ^ Their absence mourned
