Phil Bainbridge

Philip Bainbridge, born on 16 April 1958 at Sneyd Green, Stoke-on-Trent, was a cricketer who played for Gloucestershire and Durham.^[1]

A right-handed middle order batsman and a right-arm medium pace bowler, Bainbridge was an important member of the Gloucestershire team throughout the 1980s, contributing useful runs, initially at No 5 or 6, and bowling deceptively innocuous-looking medium pace seamers. A determined cricketer, he seemed to make runs and take wickets when most needed.

Bainbridge came into the Gloucestershire side in 1977, and won a regular place in 1981. In that season, he passed 1,000 runs for the first time at an average of over 40 runs per innings and made the first of what would be 24 first-class centuries. He passed 1,000 runs in each of the next three seasons, but in 1985, he was moved up the batting order to No 4 and his batting moved up a notch. He made 1,644 runs at an average of more than 56 runs per innings as Gloucestershire rose from the bottom of the County Championship table to challenge for the title. Bainbridge was named as a Wisden Cricketer of the Year in 1986, but he had a less successful season and talk of him as a potential Test player subsided.

After four more years, Bainbridge retired from Gloucestershire after the 1990 season to go into business, and became involved in the marketing side of the development of Durham as a first-class county. Having missed the entire 1991 season, he played in most of Durham's first-class games in their two inaugural seasons and he topped both batting and bowling averages in 1993. He was then made captain for 1994, and the side finished 16th, the first time it had not been bottom in the County Championship. But Bainbridge's own form suffered, and he was replaced as captain for 1995 and retired finally from first-class cricket the following year.

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