Geoffrey Smith (30 November 1925 – 8 November 2016), known as Geoff Smith, was an English amateur

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

Kent County Cricket Club Kent County Cricket Club is one of the eighteen first-class county clubs within the domestic cricket structure of England and Wales. It represents the historic county of Kent. A club representing the county was first founded in 1842 but Ken ...

between 1951 and 1958. He made 42 appearances in

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 county, playing in his holidays, and professionally worked on engineering projects around the world.

Early life

Smith was born at

Huddersfield Huddersfield is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Kirklees in West Yorkshire, England. It is the administrative centre and largest settlement in the Kirklees district. The town is in the foothills of the Pennines. The River Holme's confl ...

in 1925.Geoffrey Smith

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 2018-12-16. He was educated at

Christ's Hospital Christ's Hospital is a Public school (United Kingdom), public school (English Private schools in the United Kingdom, fee-charging boarding school for pupils aged 11–18) with a royal charter, located to the south of Horsham in West Sussex. T ...

, a private school in

West Sussex West Sussex is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Surrey to the north, East Sussex to the east, the English Channel to the south, and Hampshire to the west. The largest settlement is Cr ...

.Carlaw D (2017) Geoffrey Smith, Deaths in 2016, ''Kent County Cricket Club Annual 2017'', pp.245–246. Canterbury:

.Smith, Geoffrey
Obituaries in 2016, ''

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 ...

'', 2017. Retrieved 2018-12-16. He played cricket at school, captaining the Christ's Hospital side in 1944, and was described as an "excellent allrounder" as a schoolboy.Cartwright GHM (1944) The Public Schools, 1943, ''

'', 1944. pp.224–225.
Available online
Retrieved 2018-12-16.) He played for The Rest against Lord's Schools in 1944,Lord's Schools v The Rest, ''

'', 1945, pp.99–100.
Available online
Retrieved 2018-12-16.) a season in which he led the Christ's Hospital school batting and bowling averages, scoring 276 runs and taking 40 wickets.''Wisden'' 1945, p.266. After leaving school, Smith played two one-day war-time matches for

Surrey Surrey () is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Greater London to the northeast, Kent to the east, East Sussex, East and West Sussex to the south, and Hampshire and Berkshire to the wes ...

in 1945 before undertaking his

National Service National service is a system of compulsory or voluntary government service, usually military service. Conscription is mandatory national service. The term ''national service'' comes from the United Kingdom's National Service (Armed Forces) Act ...

, after which he returned to play for Surrey Club and Ground, appearing for Surrey's Second XI in the

Minor Counties Championship The NCCA 3 Day Championship or National County Championship is a season-long competition in England and Wales that is contested by the members of the National Counties Cricket Association (NCCA), the so-called national counties (previously ca ...

in 1948 and 1949. Smith also played club cricket for teams such as Old Blues and played several times for the Club Cricket Conference (CCC) in 1949 and 1950, including against touring sides from

New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...

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 ...

.Geoff Smith
CricketArchive. Retrieved 2018-12-16. He was capped by the CCC in 1949.Club Cricket Conference Numbered Caps List
Club Cricket Conference. Retrieved 2018-12-16.

First-class cricket at Kent

Smith had moved to live in

Kent Kent is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Essex across the Thames Estuary to the north, the Strait of Dover to the south-east, East Sussex to the south-west, Surrey to the west, and Gr ...

by 1950 and played for Ashford Cricket Club. He impressed in matches against

's Club and Ground sides and made his Kent First XI debut in June 1951, playing against

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 ...

Canterbury Canterbury (, ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and UNESCO World Heritage Site, in the county of Kent, England; it was a county borough until 1974. It lies on the River Stour, Kent, River Stour. The city has a mild oceanic climat ...

. He took five wickets on his

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 ...

debut the following season and played for the county each season until 1958, taking time away from his job to do so as an amateur. He also played for the Second XI occasionally, making a major contribution with 42 wickets as Kent won the 1956 Minor Counties Championship. 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 1953 after taking 31 wickets in six matches that summer, and in 1957 led the county's

bowling average In cricket, a player's bowling average is the number of runs they have conceded per wicket taken. The lower the bowling average is, the better the bowler is performing. It is one of a number of statistics used to compare bowlers, commonly use ...

s with 57 wickets at an average of 16.19 runs per wicket from 11 matches, including his best bowling figures of 8/110.Moore D (1988) ''The History of Kent County Cricket Club'', pp.133–134. London: Christopher Helm. In 1958 Smith played only once for the Kent First XI as a heart condition began to restrict his ability to play effectively. He had managed to play with an irregular heart beat throughout his career, to the extent that he was known to collapse whilst bowling. He did not play again for the county, although he was able to play club cricket for a variety of sides. As a cricketer he was described by ''

Wisden ''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 ...

'' as "an energetic fast bowler" and by Derek Ufton, who he played with at Kent, as a "quick" bowler who "moved the ball both ways and bowled tight line and length".Quoted in ''Annual 2017'' ''op. cit.''. He made all of his 42 first-class appearances for Kent, taking 165 wickets.

Later life

Smith worked for the Haden Group and rose to become the company's Overseas Managing Director. He worked as a heating and ventilating engineer on projects such as the

Sydney Opera House The Sydney Opera House is a multi-venue Performing arts center, performing arts centre in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Located on the foreshore of Sydney Harbour, it is widely regarded as one of the world's most famous and distinctive b ...

and the

Shell Centre The Shell Centre in London is the global headquarters of oil major Shell plc. It is located on Belvedere Road in the London Borough of Lambeth. It is a prominent feature on the South Bank of the River Thames near County Hall, and now forms th ...

. He died at

Heathfield, East Sussex Heathfield is a market town and former civil parish, now in the parish of Heathfield and Waldron, in the Wealden District of East Sussex, England. The town had a population of 7,667 in 2021. Locals know it by "Heffle". Location Heathfield lies ...

in November 2016 aged 91. At the time of his death he was Kent's oldest living capped player.Former Kent bowler Geoff Smith dies aged 90

, 2016-11-29. Retrieved 2018-12-16.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Smith, Geoff 1925 births 2016 deaths English cricketers Kent cricketers People educated at Christ's Hospital Cricketers from Huddersfield 20th-century English sportsmen