| Personal information | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Stephen George Wilkinson | |||
| Born | 12 January 1949 Hounslow, Middlesex, England |
|||
| Batting style | Right-handed | |||
| Bowling style | Slow left-arm orthodox spin | |||
| Role | Batsman | |||
| Relations | Cousin, Phil Bainbridge | |||
| Domestic team information | ||||
| Years | Team | |||
| 1971–74 | Somerset | |||
| First-class cricket debut | 24 May 1972 Somerset v Yorkshire | |||
| Last First-class cricket | 28 May 1974 Somerset v Gloucestershire | |||
| List A cricket debut | 16 May 1971 Somerset v Derbyshire | |||
| Last List A cricket | 19 May 1974 Somerset v Sussex | |||
| Career statistics | ||||
| Competition | First-class | List A | ||
| Matches | 18 | 25 | ||
| Runs scored | 452 | 327 | ||
| Batting average | 20.54 | 16.35 | ||
| 100s/50s | –/2 | –/1 | ||
| Top score | 69 | 70 | ||
| Balls bowled | 12 | – | ||
| Wickets | – | – | ||
| Bowling average | – | – | ||
| 5 wickets in innings | – | – | ||
| 10 wickets in match | – | – | ||
| Best bowling | 0/9 | – | ||
| Catches/stumpings | 11/– | 6/– | ||
| Source: CricketArchive, 14 May 2011 | ||||
Stephen George Wilkinson (born 12 January 1949) is a former cricketer who played first-class and List A cricket for Somerset between 1971 and 1974.[1] He was born at Hounslow, then in Middlesex, now in London.
Wilkinson played as a right-handed opening or middle-order batsman. He appeared in second eleven matches for Middlesex in 1967 and then for Somerset in Minor Counties second eleven games in 1971. After one limited-overs appearance for the Somerset first team in 1971, he played nine first-class matches in 1972, batting mostly at No 3. He scored consistently but not prolifically, and passed 50 only twice in all of his 18 first-class matches, both times in his first season. In his second match, he made 69 against Surrey at The Oval, putting on 157 for the second wicket with Roy Virgin.[2] In his next match he made 50 against Essex.[3] But thereafter his highest first-class score was only 33. He was out of form in first-class cricket in 1973, though made his highest limited-overs score, 70, in the match against Gloucestershire at Somerset's ground in Bristol, the Imperial Athletic Ground, that year.[4] He played only a handful of matches in 1974 and left the Somerset staff at the end of the season.
Wilkinson's batting style was upright, orthodox and technically correct – too correct for his captain, Brian Close: according to one report, Close told him "You play too straight lad", though that was after a straight drive from Wilkinson had got Close run out at the bowler's end.[5]