Leonard "Jock" Livingston (3 May 1920 – 16 January 1998) was an Australian

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 most of his

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 ...

in England.

Cricket career

Livingston was a hard-hitting left-handed batsman and an occasional wicketkeeper. He played five times for

New South Wales New South Wales (commonly abbreviated as NSW) is a States and territories of Australia, state on the Eastern states of Australia, east coast of :Australia. It borders Queensland to the north, Victoria (state), Victoria to the south, and South ...

with some success, but was not picked for the all-conquering 1948

Australian Australian(s) may refer to: Australia * Australia, a country * Australians, citizens of the Commonwealth of Australia ** European Australians ** Anglo-Celtic Australians, Australians descended principally from British colonists ** Aboriginal Aus ...

tour to England, and turned instead to

Central Lancashire Cricket League The Central Lancashire Cricket League (CLCL) was a fifteen team cricket league, traditionally based in Lancashire and the West Riding of Yorkshire. It was then based in Greater Manchester and West Yorkshire. The league ran competitions at First T ...

cricket, where he played for Royton Cricket Club, marrying a local girl while there. In 1949–50, when

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) declined to tour India, the former

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 ...

wicketkeeper George Duckworth assembled a Commonwealth side consisting of Lancashire League players plus a handful of English and West Indian cricketers. Livingston captained the side, which included

Bill Alley William Edward Alley (3 February 1919 – 26 November 2004) was a cricketer who played 400 first-class matches for New South Wales, Somerset and a Commonwealth XI. After retiring as a cricketer, Alley continued as a cricket umpire for many yea ...

George Tribe George Edward Tribe (4 October 1920 – 5 April 2009) was an Australian cricketer who played in three Test matches from 1946 to 1947, as well as an Australian rules footballer with the Footscray Football Club in the VFL. Cricket career Tri ...

and

Frank Worrell Sir Frank Mortimer Maglinne Worrell (1 August 1924 – 13 March 1967), sometimes referred to by his nickname of Tae, was a Barbadian West Indies cricketer and Jamaican senator. A stylish right-handed batsman and useful left-arm seam bowler, ...

. The tour was a big success and the side played five unofficial "Tests" against full Indian Test sides. At the end of the tour, Livingston was signed as a batsman by

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 ...

as part of the county's policy to import talented cricketers, a policy that brought in the England captain Freddie Brown from

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 ...

. Livingston was an immediate success, scoring 1966 runs in his first season, and over the next eight years he was often near the top of the English batting averages. In the three seasons from 1954, he scored more than 2000 runs per season, with a best performance of 2269 runs in 1954 at an average of more than 55 runs per innings. He had a less successful season in 1957 when the county side finished second in the

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 ...

, its highest ever placing, and he retired at the end of that season, reappearing in just a couple of later less serious matches, the last in 1964. Livingston's value was not just in the runs that he scored, but also the style in which he scored them: in a period when defensive batting was commonplace, he hit the ball hard and often, and was no respecter of reputations. His presence at Northamptonshire also attracted other talented players, including fellow Australians Tribe and Jack Manning and the wicketkeeper Keith Andrew.

Rugby league

Livingston was also a talented

rugby league Rugby league football, commonly known as rugby league in English-speaking countries and rugby 13/XIII in non-Anglophone Europe, is a contact sport, full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular Rugby league playin ...

player and spent three seasons playing with South Sydney in the

NSWRL The New South Wales Rugby League Ltd (NSWRL) is an Australian rugby league football competition operator in New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory and is a member of the Australian Rugby League Commission.It was registered on 21 ...

from 1941 to 1943.

Personal and later life

In retirement, he worked for the bat-making company Gray-Nicolls. He was

Jewish Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...

References

External links

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 ...

1951 to 1958 editions
CricketArchive: Jock Livingston
{{DEFAULTSORT:Livingston, Jock 1920 births 1998 deaths Australian cricketers Australian rugby league players Commonwealth XI cricketers Cricketers from Sydney Jewish Australian sportspeople Jewish cricketers Jewish rugby league players Marylebone Cricket Club cricketers New South Wales cricketers North v South cricketers Northamptonshire cricketers Australian expatriate cricketers in England Rugby league players from Sydney South Sydney Rabbitohs players 20th-century Australian sportsmen

Cricket career

Rugby league

Personal and later life

See also

References

External links