Kenneth Richard Davidson (24 December 1905 – 25 December 1954) was an English

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 ...

er, who played thirty matches for

Yorkshire County Cricket Club Yorkshire County Cricket Club is a professional Cricket club based in Yorkshire, England. The team competes in the County Championship, the top tier of English First-class cricket. Nicknamed "Vikings". Yorkshire also competes in T20 Blast, O ...

from 1933 to 1935, and one game for

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

against Yorkshire in 1938. Slightly unusually for someone who played comparatively little, 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 1935. He was an

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 ...

until after the 1933 season, but turned professional and scored 1,241 runs. He ultimately thought he was too old for a professional career in cricket. Born in Leeds,

Yorkshire Yorkshire ( ) is an area of Northern England which was History of Yorkshire, historically a county. Despite no longer being used for administration, Yorkshire retains a strong regional identity. The county was named after its county town, the ...

, and before he played county cricket, he turned out for Bingley and Leeds, whom he captained for a period. He also played

badminton Badminton is a racquet sport played using racket (sports equipment), racquets to hit a shuttlecock across a net (device), net. Although it may be played with larger teams, the most common forms of the game are "singles" (with one player per s ...

, a sport which he helped to promote in the United States. A right-handed batsman, he scored 1,355 runs in all first-class cricket at an average of 31.51, and a highest score of 128 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 ...

. His other century, 101*, came against the

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) and he made seven scores of 50 or over. He bowled just five balls, which went for four runs. Having just celebrated his forty-ninth birthday the previous day, Davidson was tragically killed on Christmas Day 1954, at Prestwick Aerodrome,

Ayrshire Ayrshire (, ) is a Counties of Scotland, historic county and registration county, in south-west Scotland, located on the shores of the Firth of Clyde. The lieutenancy areas of Scotland, lieutenancy area of Ayrshire and Arran covers the entirety ...

, Scotland, in an air accident.

References

External links

Cricket Archive Statistics
{{DEFAULTSORT:Davidson, Kenneth Yorkshire cricketers 1905 births 1954 deaths Cricketers from Leeds English cricketers Victims of aviation accidents or incidents in Scotland Victims of aviation accidents or incidents in 1954 Scotland cricketers 20th-century English sportsmen