Keith Robert Dollery (9 December 1924 – 18 August 2013) was an

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 ...

cricketer 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 ...

who 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

Queensland Queensland ( , commonly abbreviated as Qld) is a States and territories of Australia, state in northeastern Australia, and is the second-largest and third-most populous state in Australia. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Austr ...

and

Tasmania Tasmania (; palawa kani: ''Lutruwita'') is an island States and territories of Australia, state of Australia. It is located to the south of the Mainland Australia, Australian mainland, and is separated from it by the Bass Strait. The sta ...

in his native country, for

Auckland Auckland ( ; ) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. It has an urban population of about It is located in the greater Auckland Region, the area governed by Auckland Council, which includes outlying rural areas and ...

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, and, most successfully, for

Warwickshire Warwickshire (; abbreviated Warks) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the West Midlands (region), West Midlands of England. It is bordered by Staffordshire and Leicestershire to the north, Northamptonshire to the east, Ox ...

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 1951 and 1956. He was born in

Cooroy Cooroy is a rural town and locality in the Shire of Noosa, Queensland, Australia. In the , the locality of Cooroy had a population of 4,801 people. Geography Cooroy is inland from the northern Sunshine Coast hinterland about west of Noosa ...

and died at

Gerringong Gerringong () is a town located about ten minutes drive south of Kiama, New South Wales, Kiama, and about twenty minutes north of Nowra, New South Wales, Nowra in the Illawarra, New South Wales, Illawarra region of New South Wales, Australia in ...

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 ...

. He was no relation to Tom Dollery, his captain at Warwickshire. Dollery was a right-arm fast-medium bowler and a right-handed lower order batsman. He took a long time to establish himself in first-class cricket, playing without success in two first-class matches for Queensland in 1947–48 and in two further games in New Zealand for Auckland in 1949–50. He finally took his first wickets in his fifth game, played for Tasmania against

Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Queen Victoria (1819–1901), Queen of the United Kingdom and Empress of India * Victoria (state), a state of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, a provincial capital * Victoria, Seychelles, the capi ...

in what was traditionally a first-class match, although Tasmania was at that stage not included in regular first-class fixtures with other Australian state teams: having taken two wickets in the first innings, in the second innings of this match Dollery took five for 60. That same Tasmanian season, he played twice against the English touring team, which included senior Warwickshire professional

Eric Hollies William Eric Hollies (5 June 1912 – 16 April 1981) was an English cricketer, who is mainly remembered for dismissing Donald Bradman for a duck in Bradman's final Test match innings, in which he needed only four runs for a Test average of 100 ...

, and from the start of the 1951 English cricket season Dollery began the residential qualification period for Warwickshire. He also played for

Stockport Stockport is a town in Greater Manchester, England, south-east of Manchester, south-west of Ashton-under-Lyne and north of Macclesfield. The River Goyt, Rivers Goyt and River Tame, Greater Manchester, Tame merge to create the River Mersey he ...

in the

Central Lancashire 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 ...

. Dollery was limited to second eleven fixtures and single first-class games against the touring sides in both 1951 and 1952, and his full-time cricket career did not begin in earnest until the 1953 season. Warwickshire's fast bowling was in transition, with Charles Grove past the age of 40 and

Tom Pritchard Thomas Leslie Pritchard (10 March 1917 – 22 August 2017) was a New Zealand cricketer who played most of his first-class cricket in England. Pritchard was a genuinely fast right-arm bowler and a useful lower order right-handed batsman who pla ...

in his late 30s, and Dollery was one of a group of younger players that included

Jack Bannister John David Bannister (23 August 1930 – 23 January 2016) was an English cricket commentator and former first-class cricketer who played for Warwickshire County Cricket Club. He was, for many years, a BBC television cricket commentator and late ...

and

Roly Thompson Roland George Thompson (26 September 1932 – 16 May 2003), generally known as "Roly Thompson", was an English cricketer who played first-class cricket for Warwickshire between 1949 and 1962. He was a right-handed tail-end batsman and a right-ar ...

, and others, though some were not always available because of

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 ...

; Dollery enjoyed a good run in the first team in the first half of the 1953 season, and took 74 wickets at the respectable

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 ...

of 21.86 runs per wicket. His best return came in the match against

Gloucestershire Gloucestershire ( , ; abbreviated Glos.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by Herefordshire to the north-west, Worcestershire to the north, Warwickshire to the north-east, Oxfordshire ...

when he took six wickets for 38 runs in the first innings and then, bowling unchanged with Bannister, a further four for 22 in the second innings when Gloucestershire collapsed to 56 all out, Dollery taking the last three wickets in three balls, a

hat-trick A hat-trick or hat trick is the achievement of a generally positive feat three times in a match, or another achievement based on the number three. Origin The term first appeared in 1858 in cricket, to describe H. H. Stephenson taking three Wick ...

. Dollery's record in the 1954 season was similar, with 72 wickets at a slightly higher average of 24.75 and, again, most of his regular cricket played in the first half of the season. 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 this season. In the match against

Sussex Sussex (Help:IPA/English, /ˈsʌsɪks/; from the Old English ''Sūþseaxe''; lit. 'South Saxons'; 'Sussex') is an area within South East England that was historically a kingdom of Sussex, kingdom and, later, a Historic counties of England, ...

, he took eight first-innings wickets for 42 runs, the best return of his career, with five of his victims clean-bowled. From 1955, however, Dollery's career with Warwickshire took a downward turn. Picked for only about half the first-team matches in 1955 and overtaken by both Bannister and Thompson, he took only 38 wickets and his average was more than 30 runs per wicket, high for this period of English cricket. In 1956, there were days of individual triumph: against Gloucestershire, he took five wickets for 77 runs; against

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 ...

he again took three wickets in three balls, a second

. But by mid-July he was out of the team and this time he did not return, not being re-engaged by the county at the end of the 1956 season, although he made a single second eleven appearance in 1957.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dollery, Keith 1924 births 2013 deaths Australian cricketers Queensland cricketers Tasmania cricketers Auckland cricketers Warwickshire cricketers Australian expatriate cricketers in England People from Cooroy, Queensland 20th-century Australian sportsmen

See also

References