Robert Kenworthy Platt (born 26 December 1932) is an English former professional

cricket Cricket is a Bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball game played between two Sports team, teams of eleven players on a cricket field, field, at the centre of which is a cricket pitch, pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two Bail (cr ...

er who played for

Yorkshire County Cricket Club Yorkshire County Cricket Club is a professional Cricket club based in Yorkshire, England. The team competes in the County Championship, the top tier of English First-class cricket. Nicknamed "Vikings". Yorkshire also competes in T20 Blast, O ...

from 1955 to 1963. He also played two first-class matches for the

Combined Services The Combined Services cricket team represents the British Armed Forces. The team played at first-class level in England for more than forty years in the mid-twentieth century. Their first first-class match was against Gentlemen of England at Lo ...

in 1956 and three for

Northamptonshire Northamptonshire ( ; abbreviated Northants.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East Midlands of England. It is bordered by Leicestershire, Rutland and Lincolnshire to the north, Cambridgeshire to the east, Bedfordshi ...

in 1964. He was born in

Holmfirth Holmfirth () is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Kirklees, West Yorkshire, England. It is located south of Huddersfield and west of Barnsley; the boundary of the Peak District National Park is to the south-west. The town is sited on t ...

. Platt was a right-arm fast-medium bowler who took 301

wicket In the sport of cricket, the term wicket has several meanings: * It is either of the two sets of three Stump (cricket), stumps and two Bail (cricket), bails at each end of the Cricket pitch, pitch. The Fielding (cricket), fielding team's playe ...

s in 101

first-class matches First class (or 1st class, Firstclass) generally implies a high level of service, importance or quality. Specific uses of the term include: Books and comics * ''First Class'', a comic strip in ''The Dandy'' (1983-1998) * ''X-Men: First Class' ...

at an average of 22.58 runs per wicket. He took five wickets in an

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 ...

ten times with best figures of 7/40. He achieved ten wickets in a match three times with a best return of WW/RRR. A right-handed tail-end batsman, he scored 424 career runs with a highest score of 57 *. He was generally an

outfielder An outfielder is a person playing in one of the three defensive positions in baseball or softball, farthest from the batter. These defenders are the left fielder, the center fielder, and the right fielder. As an outfielder, their duty is to catch ...

and completed 38

catches Catch may refer to: In sports * Catch (game), children's game * Catch (baseball), a maneuver in baseball * Catch (cricket), a mode of dismissal in cricket * Catch or reception (gridiron football) * Catch, part of a rowing stroke * Catch wrestlin ...

Career

Platt played in 96 matches for Yorkshire from 1955 to 1963. He was awarded his

county cap In sport, a cap is a player's appearance in a game at international level. The term dates from the practice in the United Kingdom of awarding a cap to every player in an international match of rugby football and association football. In the e ...

in 1959. Platt, a right arm fast medium bowler, took 301 wickets at an average of 22.58, with a best return of 7 for 40 against

Gloucestershire Gloucestershire ( , ; abbreviated Glos.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by Herefordshire to the north-west, Worcestershire to the north, Warwickshire to the north-east, Oxfordshire ...

in 1956. Also in 1956, he took 7 for 70 against

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, ...

while four years later claimed 6 for 33 against

Middlesex Middlesex (; abbreviation: Middx) is a Historic counties of England, former county in South East England, now mainly within Greater London. Its boundaries largely followed three rivers: the River Thames, Thames in the south, the River Lea, Le ...

Lord's Lord's Cricket Ground, commonly known as Lord's, is a cricket List of Test cricket grounds, venue in St John's Wood, Westminster. Named after its founder, Thomas Lord, it is owned by Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) and is the home of Middlesex C ...

. A right-handed tail end batsman, he scored 424 runs at 7.31 with a highest score of 57 *. That was his sole half-century, scored against

Derbyshire Derbyshire ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands of England. It borders Greater Manchester, West Yorkshire, and South Yorkshire to the north, Nottinghamshire to the east, Leicestershire to the south-east, Staffordshire to the south a ...

Queen's Park, Chesterfield Queen's Park is a county cricket ground located in Chesterfield, Derbyshire, England and lies within a park in the centre of the town established for the Golden Jubilee of Queen Victoria in 1887. It has a small pavilion and is surrounded by ma ...

in 1959. In other matches, he played for the Yorkshire Second XI between 1955 and 1971; the RAF in 1956; Northamptonshire Second XI in 1964 and 1965; and, in 1966, for both the

International Cavaliers The International Cavaliers were an ''ad hoc'' cricket team made up of famous cricketers in order to encourage local cricket. Their teams included many prominent cricketers from the 1940s, 1950s, 1960s and 1970s as many retired veterans and talented ...

and a Roses XI. Platt often opened the Yorkshire bowling in combination with

Fred Trueman Frederick Sewards Trueman, (6 February 1931 – 1 July 2006) was an English cricketer who played for Yorkshire County Cricket Club and the England cricket team. He had professional status and later became an author and broadcaster. Acknowled ...

. Journalist Chris Waters wrote a biography of Trueman and, as part of his research, calculated that Trueman had opened Yorkshire's bowling in 802 innings with 28 "new ball partners". Platt is fourth in this list with 98, behind Tony Nicholson (188), Mel Ryan (126) and

Bob Appleyard Robert Appleyard (27 June 1924 – 17 March 2015) was a Yorkshire and England first-class cricketer. He was one of the best English bowlers of the 1950s, a decade which saw England develop its strongest bowling attack of the twentieth century. ...

(101). Waters recounted how Trueman overheard Platt boasting about being his opening partner and interrupted him by saying: "Aye, one of f**king twenty-eight, Platty!"Waters, p. 156.

References

Sources

* ''

Playfair Cricket Annual ''Playfair Cricket Annual'' is a compact annual about cricket that is published in the United Kingdom each April, just before the English cricket season is due to begin. It has been published every year since 1948. Its main purposes are to revie ...

'', 8th to 16th editions, editor Gordon Ross, Playfair Books, 1955–1963 *

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Platt, Bob 1932 births Living people English cricketers Yorkshire cricketers Combined Services cricketers International Cavaliers cricketers Northamptonshire cricketers Sportspeople from Holmfirth Cricketers from West Yorkshire 20th-century English sportsmen