Tony Clarkson
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Tony Clarkson was a cricketer who played for Yorkshire County Cricket Club and Somerset County Cricket Club.
A right handed opening batsman and off break bowler, he was born on 5th September 1939 in Killinghall, Yorkshire and played his early cricket for the Harrogate Club, for whom he was soon opening both the batting and bowling. After first playing for the second XI in 1958 he made his debut for his native county in 1963, playing when the test stars were away. He moved for Somerset in 1966 and played until 1971, winning his Somerset cap in 1968. Cricket was in his blood as his father had been a league professional for Rothwell in the Leeds League before the Second World War.
In 110 matches he scored 4458 runs at 25.18 with 2 centuries and a best of 131 for an average of 25.18. He took 13 wickets at 28.25. He played 50 one day games, scoring 752 runs with a best of 102* at 16.93 and taking 2 wickets. He was the first player to score a century in the John Player league.
He played for several clubs as a professional until 1991, when he retired aged 51. He had five very successful years in the North Yorkshire-South Durham league, scoring more than 1000 runs each season and, in the Bradford League, playing for Windhill, he was second only to Vinoo Mankad in their aggregate run scores. After retiring from the field he became an umpire, joining the first class circuit in 1996.
Tony spent the 1980's in the Harrogate area employed as Customer Services Manager for Yorkshire Water. One of his colleagues was Peter Chadwick who played for Yorkshire with Tony in the 1960's.
