Kenneth Cranston (20 October 1917 – 8 January 2007) was an English

amateur An amateur () is generally considered a person who pursues an avocation independent from their source of income. Amateurs and their pursuits are also described as popular, informal, autodidacticism, self-taught, user-generated, do it yourself, DI ...

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

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

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated ''Lancs'') is a ceremonial county in North West England. It is bordered by Cumbria to the north, North Yorkshire and West Yorkshire to the east, Greater Manchester and Merseyside to the south, and the Irish Sea to ...

and eight times 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 ...

, in 1947 and 1948. He retired from playing cricket to concentrate on his career as a dentist.

Life and career

Early life

Cranston was born in

Aigburth Aigburth () is a suburb of Liverpool, England. Located to the south of the city, it is bordered by Toxteth and Dingle to the north, Mossley Hill to the east, and Garston to the south, with the River Mersey forming its western boundary. Desc ...

, Liverpool, where his father Henry Selby Cranston was a dentist. He and his elder brother Ronald were educated at

Liverpool College Liverpool College is a coeducational day and boarding school in Mossley Hill, Liverpool, England. It was one of the thirteen founding members of the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference, Headmasters' Conference. History Liverpool Coll ...

, but Ronald died aged 23 after showing early cricketing talent. Ken Cranston played for the Lancashire 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 ...

before

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. He served as a dental officer in the

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the naval warfare force of the United Kingdom. It is a component of His Majesty's Naval Service, and its officers hold their commissions from the King of the United Kingdom, King. Although warships were used by Kingdom ...

during the war. He played cricket for the Royal Navy and Combined Services, and played

club cricket Club cricket is a mainly amateur, but still formal form of the sport of cricket, usually involving teams playing in competitions at weekends or in the evening. There is a great deal of variation in game format although the Laws of Cricket are obse ...

in Lancashire after the war. He also played

hockey ''Hockey'' is a family of List of stick sports, stick sports where two opposing teams use hockey sticks to propel a ball or disk into a goal. There are many types of hockey, and the individual sports vary in rules, numbers of players, apparel, ...

for the county.

Cricket career

Cranston was appointed

captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader or highest rank officer of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police depa ...

of Lancashire in 1947, replacing acting captain Jack Fallows. He was an

all-rounder An all-rounder is a cricketer who regularly performs well at both batting and bowling. Although all bowlers must bat and quite a handful of batsmen do bowl occasionally, most players are skilled in only one of the two disciplines and are cons ...

who bowled fast-medium and batted in the middle of the batting order. He made his first-class debut on 14 May as captain of Lancashire, in the match against

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 ...

. He was immediately successful in first-class cricket, and made his

Test cricket Test cricket is a Forms of cricket, format of the sport of cricket, considered the game’s most prestigious and traditional form. Often referred to as the "ultimate test" of a cricketer's skill, endurance, and temperament, it is a format of i ...

debut in the Third Test against

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

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on 5 July, less than eight weeks after his first-class debut. In the Fourth Test at

Headingley Headingley is a suburb of Leeds, West Yorkshire, England, approximately two miles out of the city centre, to the north west along the A660 road. Headingley is the location of the Beckett Park campus of Leeds Beckett University and Headingley ...

, he took four wickets in six balls (w.w.ww) to end the South African second innings. He was selected as vice-captain of the relatively weak

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 West Indies in 1947–48. He captained England once, in the first Test against 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 ...

at Bridgetown, as

Gubby Allen Sir George Oswald Browning "Gubby" Allen CBE (31 July 190229 November 1989) was a cricketer who captained England in eleven Test matches. In first-class matches, he played for Middlesex and Cambridge University. A fast bowler and hard-hit ...

had pulled a muscle on board the boat carrying them there. The match was drawn, but England ended up losing the four-match series 2–0. He was dropped from the Test side at the start of the following summer, but played one final Test later in 1948, when he was selected for the Fourth Test in

the Ashes The Ashes is a Test cricket series played biennially between England and Australia. The term originated in a satirical obituary published in a British newspaper, '' The Sporting Times'', immediately after Australia's 1882 victory at The Oval, ...

series against Australia's Invincibles, in which the tourists scored 404 on the final day to win the match. Cranston led Lancashire to third place 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 ...

in 1947, with the team losing only one match. The team was fifth in 1948. Cranston himself scored over 1,000 runs in each year, and took 84 and then 79 wickets. He also played in two

Gentlemen v Players Gentlemen v Players was a long-running series of cricket matches that began in July 1806 and was abolished in January 1963. It was a match between a team consisting of amateurs (the Gentlemen) and a team consisting of professionals (the Players ...

matches in 1947, at

Lord's Lord's Cricket Ground, commonly known as Lord's, is a cricket List of Test cricket grounds, venue in St John's Wood, Westminster. Named after its founder, Thomas Lord, it is owned by Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) and is the home of Middlesex C ...

and

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, and again at Lord's in 1948. He resigned as captain of Lancashire at the end of his second season to concentrate on his dental practice in Liverpool. He played for the North of England against the South in 1947, 1949 and 1950, and played his last first-class match in 1950.

Later life

Cranston practised as a dentist in Aigburth until 1990. He was president of Lancashire County Cricket Club in 1993–94, and was a president of the Lancashire Former Players' Association. He married twice. He first married Mary Joyce Harrison in 1942. They had a daughter and a son, but were divorced in 1964. He married Joanne Legg later that year; they had a son. He became the oldest living former English Test cricketer on 28 December 2006, on the death of Norman 'Mandy' Mitchell-Innes. Following his own death eleven days later in

Southport Southport is a seaside resort, seaside town in the Metropolitan Borough of Sefton in Merseyside, England. It lies on the West Lancashire Coastal Plain, West Lancashire coastal plain and the east coast of the Irish Sea, approximately north of ...

, that distinction passed to Arthur McIntyre.

References

*
England's oldest surviving Test cricketer dies

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, 9 January 2007
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'', 10 January 2007
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The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...

'', 23 January 2007
Obituary
''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British Newspaper#Daily, daily Newspaper#National, national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its modern name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its si ...

'', 27 January 2007
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''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'', 13 March 2007 {{DEFAULTSORT:Cranston, Ken England Test cricketers England Test cricket captains English cricketers English dentists Royal Navy officers of World War II Lancashire cricketers Lancashire cricket captains 1917 births 2007 deaths People educated at Liverpool College Cricketers from Liverpool Marylebone Cricket Club cricketers Gentlemen cricketers North v South cricketers H. D. G. Leveson Gower's XI cricketers 20th-century British dentists 20th-century English sportsmen