Tom Pugh

This article is about the English cricketer. For the American politician, see Tom Pugh (Minnesota politician).

Charles Thomas Michael Pugh (13 March 1937 – 1 February 2016) was an English cricketer, who was, statistically, the most successful captain ever of Gloucestershire County Cricket Club. He was also arguably, for almost half a century, the best doubles rackets player in the world.

Cricket

Tom Pugh was educated at Eton and was a right-handed batsman who played in 80 first-class matches between 1959 and 1962, including 76 for Gloucestershire whom he captained in 1961 and 1962. He shared a record second-wicket stand for Gloucestershire of 256 with Tom Graveney versus Derbyshire at Chesterfield in 1960, scoring 137. In the 1960 season as a whole, he scored 1,011 runs at an average of 21.51.

At the end of the 1960 season, Pugh, whose batting according to The Daily Telegraph "hardly surpassed old Etonian standards"[1] was controversially appointed captain of Gloucestershire. Graveney, who he replaced promptly resigned from the county and joined Worcestershire. Pugh's first season as captain in 1961 was spoilt by injury: he broke his jaw and missed 18 games. He ducked into a full toss from David Larter and not only suffered a broken jaw but was also given out lbw for a duck.[2]

In April 1962, Pugh organised a tour to Bermuda during which the county played a soccer match against the island team with Stanley Matthews guesting for Gloucestershire. On the three-week tour the county team played ten cricket matches against local teams.[3]

Pugh played in every match in 1962, but his batting returns were modest, and he averaged only 15 in County Championship matches. He was surprisingly sacked from the captaincy at the end of the 1962 season despite the fact that Gloucestershire finished fourth in the table and won nine out of the last 15 matches. Gloucestershire won 14 matches under Pugh's captaincy in that season and have never won as many matches in a season since.

He is a nephew of a former Lancashire captain Peter Eckersley. He represented Middlesex Young Cricketers and was recommended to Gloucestershire by Percy Fender. On 1 February 2016, he died at the age of 78.[4]

Rackets

He won the Public Schools Doubles for Eton in 1955 with Lord Chelsea, and was runner up in the Amateur Singles in 1967 and 1970.

He won the Noel Bruce Cup (Old Boys Doubles) for Eton six times between 1962 and 1986 with James Leonard (1962, 1963 and 1965, David Norman (1965) and Willie Boone (1984 and 1986).

With Willie Boone he also won the Amateur Doubles in 1975, 1976 and 1977, having first won it with JR Thompson in 1966.

(Able Seaman) Tom Pugh won the Combined Services Past and Present Singles in 1959, 1961 and 1965, and dominated the doubles for many years, winning with Lieutenant Commander Peter Kershaw (1958/59), his brother Tim (1963/67/72), Geoffrey Atkins (1976, 1982, 1983 and 1984)

References

  1. ↑ "Tom Graveney, cricketer - obituary". The Daily Telegraph. 3 November 2015. Retrieved 3 November 2015.
  2. ↑ "The XI freakish dismissals | Cricket". ESPN Cricinfo. 2006-01-02. Retrieved 2016-02-08.
  3. ↑ "The Home of CricketArchive : Gloucestershire in Bermuda". Cricketarchive.com. Retrieved 2016-02-08.
  4. ↑ "Farewell Tom Pugh - 13 March 1937 to 1 February 2016". Tennis and Rackets Association. February 2016. Retrieved 7 February 2016.

External links


This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Monday, February 08, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.