Ted Lester
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Edward Ibson Lester (18 February 1923 – 23 March 2015) was an English
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
Yorkshire County Cricket Club Yorkshire County Cricket Club is a professional Cricket club based in Yorkshire, England. The team competes in the County Championship, the top tier of English First-class cricket. Nicknamed "Vikings". Yorkshire also competes in T20 Blast, O ...
. He was born and died at
Scarborough Scarborough or Scarboro may refer to: People * Scarborough (surname) * Earl of Scarbrough Places Australia * Scarborough, Western Australia, suburb of Perth * Scarborough, New South Wales, suburb of Wollongong * Scarborough, Queensland, sub ...
,
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 ...
, England. Lester had a first-class cricket career lasting from 1945 to 1956 for Yorkshire, but remained a significant influence in the county cricket club's fortunes as
scorer In cricket, a scorer is someone appointed to record all runs scored, all wickets taken and, where appropriate, the number of overs bowled. In professional games, in compliance with Law 3 of the ''Laws of Cricket'', two scorers are appointed, ...
and committee man. He made his debut as an
amateur An amateur () is generally considered a person who pursues an avocation independent from their source of income. Amateurs and their pursuits are also described as popular, informal, autodidacticism, self-taught, user-generated, do it yourself, DI ...
right-handed middle-order batsman immediately after
World War II 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 in 1947 he made three centuries in eleven innings, which left him third in the English national averages behind
Denis Compton Denis Charles Scott Compton (23 May 1918 – 23 April 1997) was an English multi-sportsman. As a cricketer he played in 78 Test matches and spent his whole career with Middlesex. As a footballer, he played as a winger and spent most of his ca ...
and
Bill Edrich William John Edrich (26 March 1916 – 24 April 1986) was a first-class cricketer who played for Middlesex, Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC), Norfolk and England. Edrich's three brothers, Brian, Eric and Geoff, and also his cousin, John, all play ...
in their year of unparalleled success. For 1948, Lester joined the Yorkshire staff, and for next seven seasons he made more than 1,000 runs each year except 1951. His best years were
1949 Events January * January 1 – A United Nations-sponsored ceasefire brings an end to the Indo-Pakistani War of 1947. The war results in a stalemate and the division of Kashmir, which still continues as of 2025 * January 2 – Luis ...
, when he scored 1,801 runs, and
1952 Events January–February * January 26 – Cairo Fire, Black Saturday in Kingdom of Egypt, Egypt: Rioters burn Cairo's central business district, targeting British and upper-class Egyptian businesses. * February 6 ** Princess Elizabeth, ...
when, with 1,786 at an average little short of 50 runs an innings, he was fourth in the national averages. After further good seasons in 1953 and 1954, though, his batting fell away badly in 1955, and at the end of July he was dropped from the first team. Apart from one match against
Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...
in 1956, he never regained his place. Lester continued, however, to play for Yorkshire's Second XI for the next six seasons, often captaining the side and acting as the senior player alongside the younger players, including
John Hampshire John Harry Hampshire (10 February 1941 – 1 March 2017), also known as Jack Hampshire, was an English cricketer and umpire, who played eight Tests and three One Day Internationals (ODIs) for England between 1969 and 1975. He played first-class ...
,
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 ...
, Philip Sharpe and
Brian Bolus John Brian Bolus (31 January 1934 – 7 May 2020) was an English cricketer who played in seven Test matches from 1963 to 1964. Cricket commentator Colin Bateman stated, "Bolus was essentially an accumulator, dependably totting up 25,000 run ...
. There was a brief codicil to his playing career: in 1964, John Hampshire fell ill just before the Gillette Cup one day match against
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 ...
at
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 ...
and Lester, acting as scorer, was drafted into the side. But Yorkshire lost and Lester, batting at number nine, failed to score. Lester also played
football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...
as a
goalkeeper In many team sports that involve scoring goal (sport), goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie, or keeper) is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by blocking or i ...
for
Scarborough F.C. Scarborough Football Club was a football club based in the seaside resort of Scarborough, North Yorkshire. They were one of the oldest football clubs in England, formed in 1879, before they were wound up on 20 June 2007, with debts of £2.5&nb ...
Thereafter, he became Yorkshire's regular scorer until his retirement in 1988. He was an often forthright champion against what he perceived as the undeserved neglect of the scorer's role in cricket competitions.


References


External links

* ''
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 ...
'', 1946 to 1965 editions {{DEFAULTSORT:Lester, Ted 1923 births 2015 deaths English cricketers Yorkshire cricketers Cricket scorers Cricketers from Scarborough, North Yorkshire Scarborough F.C. players Men's association football goalkeepers H. D. G. Leveson Gower's XI cricketers North v South cricketers T. N. Pearce's XI cricketers English men's footballers 20th-century English sportsmen