Stephen Peter Coverdale (born 20 November 1954
) is an English retired
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 ...
er who played for
Cambridge University
The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209, the University of Cambridge is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, wo ...
from 1974 to 1977, 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 ...
from 1973 to 1980,
and then 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 ...
in 1987.
Coverdale was born in
York
York is a cathedral city in North Yorkshire, England, with Roman Britain, Roman origins, sited at the confluence of the rivers River Ouse, Yorkshire, Ouse and River Foss, Foss. It has many historic buildings and other structures, such as a Yor ...
, Yorkshire, England, and educated at
St Peter's School, York
St Peter's School is a mixed-sex education, co-educational Private schools in the United Kingdom, private boarding and day school (also referred to as a Public school (United Kingdom), public school), in the English City of York, with extensive ...
, and
Emmanuel College, Cambridge
Emmanuel College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college was founded in 1584 by Sir Walter Mildmay, Chancellor of the Exchequer to Elizabeth I. The site on which the college sits was once a priory for Dominican mo ...
.
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 ...
-
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 ...
, he won four
blues
Blues is a music genre and musical form that originated among African Americans in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues has incorporated spiritual (music), spirituals, work songs, field hollers, Ring shout, shouts, cha ...
at Cambridge, and made 46 first-class appearances, scoring 1,245 runs at 18.04, with a top score of 75. He took 41 catches and 10
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, and took a wicket in his only first-class over, which was also a
maiden
Virginity is a social construct that denotes the state of a person who has never engaged in sexual intercourse. As it is not an objective term with an operational definition, social definitions of what constitutes virginity, or the lack thereof ...
.
He had a distinguished career in cricket administration, before joining a hospitality firm, European Events, in 2005. A qualified
solicitor
A solicitor is a lawyer who traditionally deals with most of the legal matters in some jurisdictions. A person must have legally defined qualifications, which vary from one jurisdiction to another, to be described as a solicitor and enabled to p ...
, Coverdale joined the
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...
as a broadcaster and Head of department, before being appointed as chief executive of
Northamptonshire County Cricket Club
Northamptonshire County Cricket Club is one of eighteen first-class county clubs within the domestic cricket structure of England and Wales. It represents the historic county of Northamptonshire. Its limited overs team is called the Northa ...
in 1985, a post he held for a record nineteen years.
His broadcasting career included a spell during the early 80s as anchorman for the
BBC Radio Leeds
BBC Radio Leeds is the BBC's local radio station serving the county of West Yorkshire.
It broadcasts on FM, DAB, digital TV and via BBC Sounds from studios at St Peter's Square in Leeds.
According to RAJAR, the station has a weekly audienc ...
Saturday sports programme during the winter months.
He is the father of
Paul Coverdale, a cricketing
all-rounder
An all-rounder is a cricketer who regularly performs well at both batting and bowling. Although all bowlers must bat and quite a handful of batsmen do bowl occasionally, most players are skilled in only one of the two disciplines and are cons ...
who was, until 2007, on Northamptonshire's staff.
References
*
External links
Steve Coverdale
{{DEFAULTSORT:Coverdale, Stephen
People educated at St Peter's School, York
1954 births
Cambridge University cricketers
Northamptonshire cricketers
Yorkshire cricketers
English cricket administrators
Cricketers from York
Living people
English cricketers
Oxford and Cambridge Universities cricketers
Alumni of Emmanuel College, Cambridge
British Universities cricketers
English cricketers of 1969 to 2000
20th-century English sportsmen