Miles Coope (28 November 1916 – 5 July 1974) was an English cricketer 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 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 ...

for

Somerset Somerset ( , ), Archaism, archaically Somersetshire ( , , ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by the Bristol Channel, Gloucestershire, and Bristol to the north, Wiltshire to the east ...

. A right-handed middle-order batsman sometimes used as an opener and an occasional

leg-break Leg spin is a type of spin bowling in cricket. A bowler who uses this technique is called a leg spinner. Leg spinners bowl with their right-arm and a wrist spin action. The leg spinner's normal delivery is called a leg break, which spins fr ...

bowler, Coope played for

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 ...

's second eleven in

Minor Counties The National Counties, known as the Minor Counties before 2020, are the cricketing counties of England and Wales that do not have first-class status. The game is administered by the National Counties Cricket Association (NCCA), which comes unde ...

cricket before the war. He was also prominent in

Bradford League The Bradford League was a football competition based in Bradford, West Yorkshire, England. It sat at level 14 of the English football league system. The league was a feeder to the West Riding County Amateur Football League – in 2006 Dudley Hill ...

cricket, and he followed another leading Bradford League cricketer, Johnny Lawrence, to Somerset after the war, arriving for the 1947 season. Coope made 20 and 58 in his first match, the

Whitsun Whitsun (also Whitsunday or Whit Sunday) is the name used in Britain, and other countries among Anglicans and Methodists, for the Christian holy day of Pentecost. It falls on the seventh Sunday after Easter and commemorates the descent of the H ...

1947

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 ...

game 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 ...

. After this, he played regularly for the rest of the season and less than two months after making his debut, he scored 113, his first century and the highest score of his career, as Somerset beat the 1947 season's County Champions,

Middlesex Middlesex (; abbreviation: Middx) is a Historic counties of England, former county in South East England, now mainly within Greater London. Its boundaries largely followed three rivers: the River Thames, Thames in the south, the River Lea, Le ...

for the second time in the season – Middlesex were, however, lacking the prolific

Denis Compton Denis Charles Scott Compton (23 May 1918 – 23 April 1997) was an English multi-sportsman. As a cricketer he played in 78 Test matches and spent his whole career with Middlesex. As a footballer, he played as a winger and spent most of his ca ...

Bill Edrich William John Edrich (26 March 1916 – 24 April 1986) was a first-class cricketer who played for Middlesex, Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC), Norfolk and England. Edrich's three brothers, Brian, Eric and Geoff, and also his cousin, John, all play ...

and Jack Robertson, all of whom were playing in the

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 ...

match. The century brought Coope his county cap. By the end of his first season in first-class cricket, Coope had scored 791 runs at an average of 20.81. In the 1948 season, Coope played in every single match played by Somerset and topped 1,000 runs for the county, finishing with 1172 runs for the season at the average of 22.11 runs per innings. He did not make a century, his highest being 89 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, ...

at Eastbourne, when he put on 209 for the fifth wicket with

Harold Gimblett Harold Gimblett (19 October 1914 – 30 March 1978) was a cricketer who played for Somerset and England. He was known for his fast scoring as an opening batsman and for the much-repeated story of his debut. In a book first published in 1982 ...

, who made the then highest-ever score for Somerset, 310.

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 ...

noted that Coope "gave some attractive displays but inclined to inconsistency". In 1949, Coope began the season well and in the match against

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 ...

Old Trafford Old Trafford () is a football stadium in Old Trafford, Greater Manchester, England, and is the home of Manchester United. With a capacity of 74,197, it is the largest club football stadium (and second-largest football stadium overall after W ...

in mid May he hit an unbeaten 102, his second century of his career, out of a Somerset total of 190. But his batting fell away and when Somerset's usual band of August amateurs became available, he lost his place and did not regain it. At the end of the season, he was not re-engaged and returned to League cricket in Yorkshire. In just three seasons of first-class cricket, Coope had made 2789 runs at an average of 21.12. But the reputation for inconsistency, first aired in Wisden, remains.

David Foot David K. Foot is a Canadian economist and demographer. Foot did his undergraduate work at the University of Western Australia and his graduate work in economics at Harvard University, where he was supervised by Martin Feldstein. Following his ...

, the historian of Somerset cricket, wrote of Coope: "As a batsman his range of shots was ambitious and he had one of the most delicate late cuts ever paraded in the West. There were two centuries from him but he was also a luxury, never quite consistent or disciplined enough with his repertoire to make a successful county cricketer."

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Coope, Miles 1916 births 1974 deaths English cricketers Somerset cricketers North v South cricketers Cricketers from Leeds 20th-century English sportsmen