David Charles Humphrey Townsend (20 April 1912 – 27 January 1997) was an English

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 in three

Test matches Test match in some sports refers to a sporting contest between national representative teams and may refer to: * Test cricket * Indoor cricket, Test match (indoor cricket) * Test match (rugby union) * Test match (rugby league) * Test match (associa ...

in 1935. Born in

Norton, County Durham Norton, also known as Norton-on-Tees, is a market town in the Borough of Stockton-on-Tees, in County Durham, England. The suburbs of Roseworth and Ragworth are notable areas of the town. Billingham Beck is to the east of the town, the beck flo ...

, David Townsend was educated at

Winchester College Winchester College is an English Public school (United Kingdom), public school (a long-established fee-charging boarding school for pupils aged 13–18) with some provision for day school, day attendees, in Winchester, Hampshire, England. It wa ...

and

New College, Oxford New College is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1379 by Bishop William of Wykeham in conjunction with Winchester College as New College's feeder school, New College was one of the first col ...

. He was a right-handed

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 ...

, sometimes used as an opener, who holds the record of being the last cricketer to have played Test cricket 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 ...

without playing for one of the first-class English counties. Townsend's first-class cricket was principally for

Oxford University The University of Oxford is a collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the second-oldest continuously operating u ...

and he won his

Blue Blue is one of the three primary colours in the RYB color model, RYB colour model (traditional colour theory), as well as in the RGB color model, RGB (additive) colour model. It lies between Violet (color), violet and cyan on the optical spe ...

in the

University match The University Match is an annual cricket fixture between Oxford University Cricket Club and Cambridge University Cricket Club. First played in 1827, it is the oldest varsity match in the world. Until 2001, when first-class cricket was reorga ...

in 1933 and 1934. But his other cricket was mainly for

Durham Durham most commonly refers to: *Durham, England, a cathedral city in north east England **County Durham, a ceremonial county which includes Durham *Durham, North Carolina, a city in North Carolina, United States Durham may also refer to: Places ...

, which was at that time one of the

Minor Counties The National Counties, known as the Minor Counties before 2020, are the cricketing counties of England and Wales that do not have first-class status. The game is administered by the National Counties Cricket Association (NCCA), which comes unde ...

. After two good university seasons, Townsend was picked for a rather makeshift

Marylebone Cricket Club The Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) is a cricket club founded in 1787 and based since 1814 at Lord's, Lord's Cricket Ground, which it owns, in St John's Wood, London, England. The club was the governing body of cricket from 1788 to 1989 and retain ...

(MCC) side that toured 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 ...

in 1934-35 under

Bob Wyatt Robert Elliott Storey Wyatt (2 May 1901 – 20 April 1995) was an English cricketer who played for Warwickshire, Worcestershire and England in a career lasting nearly thirty years from 1923 to 1951. He was born at Milford Heath House in Surrey ...

. He opened in three of the four Tests but was not a success, and the series as a whole was won by the West Indian cricket team, the side's first series victory. Townsend played little first-class cricket after this tour, though his final match was not until 1948. Townsend was the son of Charles Townsend, also an England Test player, and his own son, Jonathan, played first-class cricket for Oxford University in the 1960s. David Townsend died at age 84 in Norton, County Durham.

References

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 ...

, 1934, 1935 and 1936 editions. * ''Who's Who of Cricketers'', by

Philip Bailey Philip James Bailey (born May 8, 1951) is an American singer, songwriter and percussionist, best known as an early member and one of the two lead singers (along with group founder Maurice White) of the band Earth, Wind & Fire. Noted for his fo ...

, Philip Thorn and

Peter Wynne-Thomas Peter Wynne-Thomas BEM (30 July 1934 – 15 July 2021) was an English cricket writer, historian and statistician who was for many years the archivist and librarian of Nottinghamshire CCC.Francis, Tony.Facts and figures are food and drink; Far Pa ...

External links

*
Gene genie
{{DEFAULTSORT:Townsend, David England Test cricketers English cricketers Oxford University cricketers Durham cricketers Free Foresters cricketers 1912 births 1997 deaths People from Norton, County Durham Cricketers from County Durham Minor Counties cricketers Marylebone Cricket Club cricketers Durham cricket captains Cricketers from Yorkshire People educated at Winchester College Alumni of New College, Oxford English cricketers of 1919 to 1945 20th-century English sportsmen Marylebone Cricket Club West Indian Touring Team cricketers