William Eric Russell (born 3 July 1936) is a Scottish former
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. He was an opening batsman who played for
Middlesex County Cricket Club
Middlesex County Cricket Club is one of eighteen first-class county clubs within the domestic cricket structure of England and Wales. It represents the historic county of Middlesex which has effectively been subsumed within the ceremonial ...
from 1956 to 1972, and played in ten
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)
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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 ...
between 1961 and 1967.
The cricket correspondent, Colin Bateman, commented, "a smooth, assured opening batsman, Eric Russell suffered from never getting a settled sequence in the England team. His 10 Tests were spread over seven series and five countries, and two half-centuries in 18 innings did not do his ability justice."
Life and career
Russell was a stylish right-hander, whose international appearances were limited by injury and the dominance of Geoff Boycott and
John Edrich
John Hugh Edrich, (21 June 1937 – 23 December 2020) was an English first-class cricketer who, during a career that ran from 1956 to 1978, was considered one of the best batsmen of his generation. Born in Blofield, Norfolk, Edrich came from ...
CricInfo
ESPNcricinfo (formerly known as Cricinfo or CricInfo) is a Sports journalism, sports news website exclusively for the game of cricket. The site features news, articles, live coverage of cricket matches (including Liveblogging, liveblogs and sco ...
. Retrieved 2022-02-03. He played ten Tests against six countries and toured three times, but could never establish himself in the England side.
He joined Middlesex in 1956 at the age of 20, and played over 400 games for them, recording over 25,000 first-class runs with 41 centuries, and a career best of 193 against
Hampshire
Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Berkshire to the north, Surrey and West Sussex to the east, the Isle of Wight across the Solent to the south, ...
at
Bournemouth
Bournemouth ( ) is a coastal resort town in the Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole unitary authority area, in the ceremonial county of Dorset, England. At the 2021 census, the built-up area had a population of 196,455, making it the largest ...
in 1964. He scored 1,000 runs in a season 13 times, a testament to his reliability, and topped 2,000 on three occasions, his best return being his 2,343 at 45.92 in 1964. He also took 22 wickets with his occasional medium pacers and held 304 catches.Eric Russell CricketArchive. Retrieved 2022-02-03.
After leaving Middlesex, Russell coached at
Shiplake College
Shiplake College is a Private schools in the United Kingdom, private boarding and day school in Shiplake, by the River Thames, just outside Henley-on-Thames, England. The school, with 540 pupils, takes girls and boys from 11–18. Originally boys ...
, played
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 ...
cricket for
Berkshire
Berkshire ( ; abbreviated ), officially the Royal County of Berkshire, is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Oxfordshire to the north, Buckinghamshire to the north-east, Greater London ...
and later played a role in the development of MCC's Shenley cricket centre.