Neil Priestley (born 23 June 1961) is a former English

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. Priestley was a left-handed

batsman In cricket, batting is the act or skill of hitting the cricket ball, ball with a cricket bat, bat to score runs (cricket), runs and prevent the dismissal (cricket), loss of one's wicket. Any player who is currently batting is, since Septembe ...

who fielded as a

wicket-keeper In cricket, the wicket-keeper is the Cricket player, player on the fielding (cricket), fielding side who stands behind the wicket, ready to stop Delivery (cricket), deliveries that pass the batsman, and take a Caught, catch, Stumped, stump the ...

. He was born in Blyborough,

Lincolnshire Lincolnshire (), abbreviated ''Lincs'', is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East Midlands and Yorkshire and the Humber regions of England. It is bordered by the East Riding of Yorkshire across the Humber estuary to th ...

Early life

From the John Leggott College in August 1979 he gained A-levels in Economics, Statistics, and Pure Mathematics, where his brother David also went. His family lived in

Epworth, Lincolnshire Epworth is a market town and civil parish on the Isle of Axholme, in the North Lincolnshire unitary authority of Lincolnshire, England.OS Explorer Map 280: Isle of Axholme, Scunthorpe and Gainsborough: (1:25,000) : The town lies on the A161 ro ...

in the 1980s.

Career

Priestley made a single first-class appearance 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 ...

against the touring

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in 1981. He batted once in this match, scoring 20

not out In cricket, a batsman is not out if they come out to bat in an innings and have not been dismissed by the end of an innings. The batsman is also ''not out'' while their innings is still in progress. Occurrence At least one batter is not out at ...

in Northamptonshire's first-innings, while behind the

stumps In cricket, the stumps are the three vertical posts that support the bails and form the wicket. '' Stumping'' or ''being stumped'' is a method of dismissing a batsman. The umpire ''calling stumps'' means the play is over for the day. Part of ...

he took a single catches and made 2

stumping Stumped is a method of Dismissal (cricket), dismissing a batter (cricket), batter in cricket, in which the wicket-keeper put down the wicket, puts down the wicket of the Glossary_of_cricket_terms#S, striker while the striker is out of their Bat ...

s. He made no further appearances for Northamptonshire. He later made his debut for

in the 1983

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 ...

against

Hertfordshire Hertfordshire ( or ; often abbreviated Herts) is a ceremonial county in the East of England and one of the home counties. It borders Bedfordshire to the north-west, Cambridgeshire to the north-east, Essex to the east, Greater London to the ...

. He played

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 for Lincolnshire from 1983 to 1990, which included 57 Minor Counties Championship appearances and 13 MCCA Knockout Trophy matches. He made his

List A List A cricket is a classification of the Limited overs cricket, limited-overs (one-day) form of the sport of cricket, with games lasting up to eight hours. List A cricket includes One Day International (ODI) matches and various domestic competit ...

debut against

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 ...

in the 1983 NatWest Trophy. He made a further List A appearance for Lincolnshire, 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 ...

in the 1990 NatWest Trophy. In his 2 List A matches for the county, he scored 78 runs at an average of 39.00, with a high score of 54. This score, which would be his only List A fifty, came in the match against Gloucestershire. It was however for the Minor Counties cricket team that Priestley made the majority of his List A appearances for, debuting for the team in the 1986 Benson & Hedges Cup against Northamptonshire. He made 5 further appearances for the team, the last of which came against

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 ...

in the 1989 Benson & Hedges Cup. In these 6 List A matches, he scored 95 runs at an average of 15.83, with a high score of 37. Behind the stumps he took 4 catches and made 2 stumpings. Neil Played club cricket for Scunthorpe Town cricket club for several years, making his debut for their premier league 1st XI side in 1979. In 1980 the family made local headlines when Scunthorpe Town became the first county league side to play 4 members of the same family in a game. Neil played alongside father Geoff, and his two brothers Mark (Born 1959) and David (Born 1964). His brothers both went on to both have trials at Somerset, organised by Ian Botham, who lived at Epworth at the time and was a friend of the family.Epworth Bells 25/07/1980, page 20, Title "Future looks bright for Cricketing Brothers"

References

External links

Neil Priestley
at

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Neil Priestley
at CricketArchive {{DEFAULTSORT:Priestley, Neil 1961 births Living people People from Epworth, Lincolnshire People from West Lindsey District English cricketers Northamptonshire cricketers Lincolnshire cricketers Minor Counties cricketers Cricketers from Lincolnshire 20th-century English sportsmen