Alan Stanley Myles Oakman (20 April 1930 – 6 September 2018) was an English

first-class cricket First-class cricket, along with List A cricket and Twenty20 cricket, is one of the highest-standard forms of cricket. A first-class match is of three or more days scheduled duration between two sides of eleven players each and is officially adju ...

er. He had a long career for

Sussex Sussex (Help:IPA/English, /ˈsʌsɪks/; from the Old English ''Sūþseaxe''; lit. 'South Saxons'; 'Sussex') is an area within South East England that was historically a kingdom of Sussex, kingdom and, later, a Historic counties of England, ...

, playing 538 first-class matches over a 21-year period, and played two Test matches for

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

. He also umpired one

One Day International One Day International (ODI) is a format of cricket, played between two teams with international status, in which each team faces a fixed number of fifty overs, with the game lasting up to 7 hours. The World Cup, generally held every four yea ...

after his retirement as a player.

Life and career

A former

Welsh Guards The Welsh Guards (WLSH GDS; ), part of the Guards and Parachute Division, Guards Division, is one of the Foot guards, Foot Guards regiments of the British Army. It was founded in 1915 as a single-battalion regiment, during the World War I, First ...

man, and a more than dependable county

all-rounder An all-rounder is a cricketer who regularly performs well at both batting and bowling. Although all bowlers must bat and quite a handful of batsmen do bowl occasionally, most players are skilled in only one of the two disciplines and are cons ...

, Oakman used his unusual height () to gain bounce for his

off-spin Off spin is a type of spin bowling in cricket. A bowler who uses this technique is called an off spinner. Off spinners bowl with their right-arm and a finger spin action. Their normal delivery is called an off break, which spins from left to ...

ners, and got well forward to drive while at the batting crease. He passed a thousand runs in a season on nine occasions, took 99 wickets in 1954 and his telescopic skill as a close fielder snared him five catches in

Jim Laker James Charles Laker (9 February 1922 – 23 April 1986) was an English professional cricketer who played for Surrey County Cricket Club from 1946 to 1959 and represented England in 46 Test matches. He was born in Shipley, West Riding of Yorks ...

's famous 19 wicket haul at

Old Trafford Old Trafford () is a football stadium in Old Trafford, Greater Manchester, England, and is the home of Manchester United. With a capacity of 74,197, it is the largest club football stadium (and second-largest football stadium overall after W ...

, and totalled 594 catches in his career. Although both his Test appearances in the home Ashes series of 1956 ended in victories, he was called upon for just eight overs at Old Trafford, whilst Tony Lock and Laker bowled over 130 between them. He played a key role in the Old Trafford match taking five catches from Australia's two

innings An innings is one of the divisions of a cricket match during which one team takes its turn to bat. Innings also means the period in which an individual player bats (acts as either striker or nonstriker). In cricket and rounders, "innings" is ...

. England's wealth of off-spinners during this period which included Laker, Illingworth and Titmus, meant his international career was brief. A stalwart for Sussex for two decades from 1947 to 1968, his value to the team was belied by his comparatively modest

batting average Batting average is a statistic in cricket, baseball, and softball that measures the performance of batters. The development of the baseball statistic was influenced by the cricket statistic. Cricket In cricket, a player's batting average is ...

, but he still stands eleventh in the list of all time run-scorers for his county. He took five wickets in an innings 31 times, with a best of 7 for 39 against Glamorgan in 1954 (10 for 58 in the match). He scored 22 centuries, with a highest score of 229

not out In cricket, a batsman is not out if they come out to bat in an innings and have not been dismissed by the end of an innings. The batsman is also ''not out'' while their innings is still in progress. Occurrence At least one batter is not out at ...

against Nottinghamshire in 1961 (off 105 overs), a season in which he made his highest tally of 2307 runs. Oakman became coach of

Warwickshire Warwickshire (; abbreviated Warks) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the West Midlands (region), West Midlands of England. It is bordered by Staffordshire and Leicestershire to the north, Northamptonshire to the east, Ox ...

in 1970 and led them to the

County Championship The County Championship, currently known for sponsorship reasons as the Rothesay County Championship, is the only domestic first-class cricket competition in England and Wales. Established in 1890, it is organised by the England and Wales Cri ...

title in 1972. After this he moved away from the pitch, becoming the club's Assistant Secretary for Cricket Administration. Oakman turned to umpiring for a brief spell after retiring, replacing Arthur Fagg for one over at the 1973 Edgbaston Test when Fagg staged a protest at the

West Indies The West Indies is an island subregion of the Americas, surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea, which comprises 13 independent island country, island countries and 19 dependent territory, dependencies in thr ...

attitude in the field, but then became Warwickshire's coach between 1970 and 1987. Oakman continued to play cricket until almost seventy, making appearances for Warwickshire's Over-50s side and inspiring the founding of the Sussex Cricket Society. Oakman died on 6 September 2018, as a mark of respect the Sussex flag was flown at half mast for their championship game against

Leicestershire Leicestershire ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East Midlands of England. It is bordered by Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire and Lincolnshire to the north, Rutland to the east, Northamptonshire to the south-east, Warw ...

at the

County Cricket Ground, Hove The County Cricket Ground, known for sponsorship reasons as The 1st Central County Ground, is a cricket venue in Hove, in the city of Brighton and Hove, East Sussex, England. The County Ground is the home of Sussex County Cricket Club, where m ...

References

External links

* 1930 births 2018 deaths English cricketers England Test cricketers English cricket coaches Sussex cricketers Combined Services cricketers Commonwealth XI cricketers International Cavaliers cricketers Marylebone Cricket Club cricketers Players cricketers English One Day International cricket umpires People educated at Hastings Grammar School North v South cricketers A. E. R. Gilligan's XI cricketers Cricketers from Hastings E. W. Swanton's XI cricketers 20th-century English sportsmen {{England-cricket-bio-stub

Life and career

See also

References

External links