David Myrton Archer (20 August 1931 – 24 October 1992) was a West Indian

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 and

umpire An umpire is an official in a variety of sports and competition, responsible for enforcing the rules of the sport, including sportsmanship decisions such as ejection. The term derives from the Old French , , and , : (as evidenced in cricke ...

. He played

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 ...

for the

Windward Islands The Windward Islands are the southern, generally larger islands of the Lesser Antilles of the Caribbean islands or the West Indies. Located approximately between latitudes 10° and 16° N and longitudes 60° and 62° W, they extend from D ...

but is best known for officiating in 28

Test Test(s), testing, or TEST may refer to: * Test (assessment), an educational assessment intended to measure the respondents' knowledge or other abilities Arts and entertainment * ''Test'' (2013 film), an American film * ''Test'' (2014 film) ...

matches in the West Indies from 1981 to 1992.

Career

Born in

Barbados Barbados, officially the Republic of Barbados, is an island country in the Atlantic Ocean. It is part of the Lesser Antilles of the West Indies and the easternmost island of the Caribbean region. It lies on the boundary of the South American ...

, Archer was a right-hand

batsman In cricket, batting is the act or skill of hitting the cricket ball, ball with a cricket bat, bat to score runs (cricket), runs and prevent the dismissal (cricket), loss of one's wicket. Any player who is currently batting is, since Septembe ...

and slow left-arm bowler. He is famous for taking 17 wickets in a club match in Barbados, including all ten in one innings. He made three first-class appearances for the Windward Islands. The first came against the touring Australians of 1964–65, when batting at number eleven he scored 11

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 ...

and bowled 10 wicketless overs conceding 50 runs. He played a single match in each of the following two seasons without great success. Archer took up umpiring, and in February 1976 umpired his maiden first-class game, between

and

Jamaica Jamaica is an island country in the Caribbean Sea and the West Indies. At , it is the third-largest island—after Cuba and Hispaniola—of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean. Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, west of Hispaniola (the is ...

. Five years later he made the step up to international level in a

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 ...

between

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 ...

and 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 ...

. Later on during England's tour he stood in his first Test. As well as umpiring in West Indian domestic cricket, Archer also umpired ten matches in England during the 1982

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 ...

. Archer was selected as the West Indian representative for the 1987 World Cup staged in Asia. He stood in five matches in the tournament, which was the first major trial of neutral umpires.Obituaries in 1992

Wisden Cricketers' Almanack ''Wisden Cricketers' Almanack'', or simply ''Wisden'', colloquially the Bible of Cricket, is a cricket reference book published annually in the United Kingdom. The description "Bible of cricket" (or variations thereof) has been applied to ''Wi ...

, retrieved on 18 January 2009. His final international umpiring appearance came in April 1992 when he stood in South Africa's first Test back after re-admission, which was also the first-ever Test between South Africa and the West Indies.West Indies v South Africa, South Africa in West Indies 1991/92
CricketArchive, retrieved on 18 January 2009. Archer was also a

publican The (Latin ; Greek τελώνης ''telōnēs'') were public contractors in the Roman Republic and Empire. In their official capacity, they often supplied the Roman legions and military, managed the collection of port duties, and oversaw pub ...

who ran the Umpires Inn in Barbados. He died in a hospital in Barbados after a short illness six months after his last Test match.

References

External links

Cricinfo Profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Archer, David 1931 births 1992 deaths Windward Islands cricketers Barbadian cricket umpires Barbadian cricketers West Indian Test cricket umpires West Indian One Day International cricket umpires