Rayner John Blitz (born 25 March 1968 at

Watford Watford () is a town and non-metropolitan district with Borough status in the United Kingdom, borough status in Hertfordshire, England, northwest of Central London, on the banks of the River Colne, Hertfordshire, River Colne. Initially a smal ...

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 ...

), was a

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 five first-class matches and one

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 ...

match 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 ...

in 1986. A diminutive wicketkeeper and right-handed batsman who had played for

Essex Essex ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East of England, and one of the home counties. It is bordered by Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, the North Sea to the east, Kent across the Thames Estuary to the ...

's second eleven in 1985, Blitz was signed to cover for an injury to Trevor Gard, Somerset's regular wicketkeeper. He took eight catches in his five games and played for Somerset's second eleven across the summer. But the county was looking for a wicketkeeper who could make reliable runs as the long-term successor to Gard, and signed

Neil Burns Neil David Burns (born 19 September 1965) is a former English cricketer who played as a wicketkeeper/batsman at First-class and List A level for various clubs but spent the majority of his career at Leicestershire and Somerset. Burns was bor ...

from Essex for the 1987 season. Blitz was released by Somerset at the end of the 1986 season. Blitz did not play first-class cricket again, though he played for

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 ...

's second eleven and for

Dorset Dorset ( ; Archaism, archaically: Dorsetshire , ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by Somerset to the north-west, Wiltshire to the north and the north-east, Hampshire to the east, t ...

in the

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 ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Blitz, Rayner 1968 births Living people English cricketers Somerset cricketers Dorset cricketers Cricketers from Watford 20th-century English sportsmen