John Norman Graham (born 8 May 1943) is a former English professional

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 for

Kent County Cricket Club Kent County Cricket Club is one of the eighteen first-class county clubs within the domestic cricket structure of England and Wales. It represents the historic county of Kent. A club representing the county was first founded in 1842 but Ken ...

during the 1960s and 1970s. He was born at

Hexham Hexham ( ) is a market town and civil parish in Northumberland, England, on the south bank of the River Tyne, formed by the confluence of the North Tyne and the South Tyne at Warden nearby, and close to Hadrian's Wall. Hexham was the administra ...

Northumberland Northumberland ( ) is a ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in North East England, on the Anglo-Scottish border, border with Scotland. It is bordered by the North Sea to the east, Tyne and Wear and County Durham to the south, Cumb ...

. Graham was a very tall medium-fast right-arm seam bowler.Coney S (2014
Where Are They Now? Kent’s 1970 Champions
''The Cricket Paper'', 2014-04-09. Retrieved 2017-10-15. He made his

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 ...

debut for Kent in 1964. Having played a few matches for Kent in each season from 1964, he took 104 first-class wickets in the 1967 season at an average of 13.90, including dismissing

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 ...

opening batsman

Geoffrey Boycott Sir Geoffrey Boycott (born 21 October 1940) is a former Test cricketer, who played cricket for Yorkshire and England. In a prolific and sometimes controversial playing career from 1962 to 1986, Boycott established himself as one of England's m ...

for the only pair of his career.Lynch S (2011
Century stands in low totals, and Boycs' golden pair

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, 2011-08-02. Retrieved 2017-10-15. Kent finished as runners-up 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 ...

and won the 1967 Gillette Cup.Williamson M
Norm Graham

. Retrieved 2017-10-15. Although technically a medium pace bowler, Graham was able to use his height – – to produce bounce and lateral movement normally associated with faster bowlers. In 1968, he was picked for

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) match 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 ...

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 ...

. Graham was never again to reproduce the kind of form he displayed in 1967, but he remained a useful county performer for Kent for a further nine seasons, taking more than 70 wickets in 1968, 1969 and 1971 and played a part in Kent's 1970 County Championship winning side and in the sides which won six one-day cup competitions between 1970 and 1976. In 1969, he took eight Essex wickets for 20 runs in the match at Brentwood as the home side was dismissed for just 34 runs in their second innings.Webb
1969: Essex v Kent
Brentwood Cricket Club. Retrieved 2017-10-15. He also became a highly effective bowler in one-day cricket in the early 1970s. He won his county cap in 1967 and remained with Kent until the end of the 1977 season, his benefit season, during which the team shared the 1977 County Championship title with

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 ...

.Fissler N (2015
Where are they now? Kent – Joint County Championship winners 1977
''The Cricket Paper'', 2015-11-09. Retrieved 2017-10-15.
CricketArchive. Retrieved 2017-10-15. Graham was a number 11 batsman throughout his career. His highest score in first-class cricket was 23 and his total of first-class wickets comfortably exceeded his total of first-class runs. He was also generally considered a poor fielder, his ground fielding being described as "often entertainingly poor". After retiring from first-class cricket he played

Minor Counties cricket 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 ...

for his native

, retiring to Hexham where he worked in the financial services industry. Graham's father Jack played for Northumberland either side of 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 ...

and his cousin, Peter Graham, also played for Northumberland and for Yorkshire Cricket Board.John Graham
CricketArchive. Retrieved 2017-10-15.
CricketArchive. Retrieved 2017-10-15.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Graham, Norman 1943 births Living people English cricketers Kent cricketers Northumberland cricketers Cricketers from Hexham Marylebone Cricket Club cricketers D. H. Robins' XI cricketers T. N. Pearce's XI cricketers 20th-century English sportsmen