Raymond Walter Charles Pitman (21 February 1933 — 5 June 1998) was an English first-class

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. Pitman was born in February 1933 at

Bartley, Hampshire Bartley is a village in Hampshire, England, within the boundaries of the New Forest National Park, west of Southampton. Overview Bartley is in the civil parish of Copythorne (where the 2011 census was included). Surrounding villages are Copyt ...

. Having spent four years playing for

Hampshire Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Berkshire to the north, Surrey and West Sussex to the east, the Isle of Wight across the Solent to the south, ...

second team, Pitman made his debut in

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 the Hampshire first team against

Oxford University The University of Oxford is a collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the second-oldest continuously operating u ...

Oxford Oxford () is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and non-metropolitan district in Oxfordshire, England, of which it is the county town. The city is home to the University of Oxford, the List of oldest universities in continuou ...

in 1954. Later that season he made three appearances 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 ...

, but did not feature for Hampshire the following season. He became a more established figure in the Hampshire team from 1956 to 1958, making 43 first-class appearances between those seasons and played most regularly in 1958, making 24 appearances. He recorded his only half century during that season, making a score of 77 against

Derbyshire Derbyshire ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands of England. It borders Greater Manchester, West Yorkshire, and South Yorkshire to the north, Nottinghamshire to the east, Leicestershire to the south-east, Staffordshire to the south a ...

in Hampshire's last match of the

1958 County Championship The 1958 County Championship was the 59th officially organised running of the County Championship. Surrey won the Championship title for the seventh successive year. Table *12 points for a win *6 points to side still batting in the fourth innin ...

. He made just three first-class appearances in 1959, before a broken finger 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 ...

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 ...

ruled him out for three-weeks; this match subsequently turned out to be his last for Hampshire. He was described by ''

Wisden ''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 ...

'' as an "aggressive batsman", though it was also suggested by the same publication that as a cricketer he never quite made the grade. In exactly fifty first-class matches, he scored 926 runs at an

average In colloquial, ordinary language, an average is a single number or value that best represents a set of data. The type of average taken as most typically representative of a list of numbers is the arithmetic mean the sum of the numbers divided by ...

of 13.61. Following his retirement from

county cricket Inter-county cricket matches have been played since the early 18th century, involving teams that are representative of the historic counties of England and Wales. Two county championship competitions have existed since the late 19th century at ...

, he played

club cricket Club cricket is a mainly amateur, but still formal form of the sport of cricket, usually involving teams playing in competitions at weekends or in the evening. There is a great deal of variation in game format although the Laws of Cricket are obse ...

in Scotland. Pitman later held a coaching and administrative post at Rydal Penrhos School at

Colwyn Bay Colwyn Bay () is a town, Community (Wales), community and seaside resort in Conwy County Borough on the north coast of Wales overlooking the Irish Sea. It lies within the historic counties of Wales, historic county boundaries of Denbighshire (h ...

in Wales. Shortly after Pitman's retirement at the age of 65, he was diagnosed with

cancer Cancer is a group of diseases involving Cell growth#Disorders, abnormal cell growth with the potential to Invasion (cancer), invade or Metastasis, spread to other parts of the body. These contrast with benign tumors, which do not spread. Po ...

and subsequently died in June 1998 at Rhos-on-Sea, Denbighshire.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Pitman, Raymond 1933 births 1998 deaths Cricketers from Hampshire People from New Forest District English cricketers Hampshire cricketers English cricket coaches Deaths from cancer in Wales 20th-century English sportsmen