Major Alfred Charles Leopold Bennett (31 December 1914 at

West Norwood West Norwood is a largely residential area of south London within the London Borough of Lambeth, located 5.4 miles (8.7 km) south south-east of Charing Cross. The centre of West Norwood sits in a bowl surrounded by hillsides on its east, ...

– 24 September 1971 in

Thames Ditton Thames Ditton is a suburban village on the River Thames, in the Elmbridge borough of Surrey, England. Apart from a large inhabited island in the river, it lies on the southern bank, centred south-west of Charing Cross in central London. Thame ...

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 ...

) was a

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 for

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 ...

for three seasons after the

Second World War 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 ...

. Bennett was a right-handed middle-order batsman who played for

's second eleven in 1937, and might have played more for Surrey but for a mistake at the start of the 1946 season. According to a published history of the county club, Surrey, casting around for an amateur captain to lead the side in the hastily arranged first season of first-class cricket after the war, alighted on the name "Major Bennett". The intention appears to have been to offer the job to Leo Bennett, but instead, another club cricketer, Major Nigel Harvie Bennett, who had also played a few second eleven matches pre-war, was asked and he accepted the job. Most of Leo Bennett's cricket was at club level, where he was a prominent player over many seasons and a frequent player and captain in the minor warm-up matches for the Club Cricket Conference against touring sides; he was also the captain for the

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

cricket team. During the Second World War, however, Bennett played alongside some bigger cricketing names in matches for, among others, the British Empire XI, although these games were not first-class. In 1947 and the following two seasons, he turned out in a total of 16 first-class matches for Northamptonshire, making useful runs in his first and last seasons. His best match came against

Nottinghamshire Nottinghamshire (; abbreviated ''Notts.'') is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands of England. The county is bordered by South Yorkshire to the north-west, Lincolnshire to the east, Leicestershire to the south, and Derbyshire to the west. Th ...

at Northampton in August 1947, when he scored 56 in the first innings and 68 in the second, his two highest first-class scores. Northamptonshire still lost the match by a large margin. His obituary in ''

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 ...

'' credits him with a book on club cricket, and he appears to have moved in exalted cricketing circles in his latter life. As late as 1962 and 1963, he was captaining

Lord's Taverners The Lord's Taverners is a UK youth cricket and disability sports charity. Its charitable objective is to empower and positively impact the lives of young people facing challenges of inequality. Lord's Taverners was founded in 1950 by a group ...

teams in less-than-serious matches 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 ...

: players who turned out under his captaincy included

Keith Miller Keith Ross Miller (28 November 1919 – 11 October 2004) was an Australian Test cricketer and a Royal Australian Air Force pilot during World War II. Miller is widely regarded as Australia's greatest ever all-rounder. His ability, irreverent m ...

David Sheppard David Stuart Sheppard, Baron Sheppard of Liverpool (6 March 1929 – 5 March 2005) was a Church of England bishop who played cricket for Sussex and England in his youth, before serving as Bishop of Liverpool from 1975 to 1997. Sheppard remains ...

and

Norman Wisdom Sir Norman Joseph Wisdom, (4 February 1915 – 4 October 2010), was an English actor, comedian, musician, and singer, best known for his series of comedy films produced between 1953 and 1966, in which he portrayed the endearingly inept charact ...

. Bennett was commissioned into the

Royal Fusiliers The Royal Fusiliers (City of London Regiment) was a line infantry regiment of the British Army in continuous existence for 283 years. It was known as the 7th Regiment of Foot until the Childers Reforms of 1881. The regiment served in many war ...

in June 1943, but later transferred to the

Worcestershire Regiment The Worcestershire Regiment was a line infantry regiment in the British Army, formed in 1881 under the Childers Reforms by the amalgamation of the 29th (Worcestershire) Regiment of Foot and the 36th (Herefordshire) Regiment of Foot. The regiment ...

. He was appointed

Member of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding valuable service in a wide range of useful activities. It comprises five classes of awards across both civil and military divisions, the most senior two o ...

(MBE) in 1945 for his war service.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Bennett, Leo 1914 births 1971 deaths English cricketers Northamptonshire cricketers Royal Fusiliers officers Worcestershire Regiment officers British Army personnel of World War II Members of the Order of the British Empire Cricketers from the London Borough of Lambeth 20th-century English sportsmen