Cyril Poole

He had succeeded at Test level the previous winter, making two half-centuries on debut (a comparatively rare feat) at Calcutta, having missed earlier matches because of a broken finger. He managed only 19 at Kanpur and 15 and 3 at Madras, where India beat England for the first time, and thus finished with a Test average of 40.25. He was second to Graveney in the tour averages with 44.64.

Born near Mansfield on March 13, 1921, Cyril John Poole played for the local colliery, and first made a name as a footballer, Mansfield Town signing him when he was only 15. He later played for Gillingham, and had a winter with Wolves.

After wartime appearances for Notts, he made his debut in 1948, and was capped in 1949. His fielding, usually away from the bat, was always top-class, and he was to reach 1000 runs in 12 seasons, the best being 1961, when, at 40, he made 1860 at 33.21. He could be patient and he could go after the bowling. In 1949, he sped to a century in an hour in a run-chase against Leicestershire, piling up 251 in 97 minutes in company with Reg Simpson. Occasionally he filled in as wicketkeeper, and once in a while bowled left-arm medium. But his middle-order batting and his fielding remained the prime assets. And he was well content with his three Test appearances, particularly the first of them, when he helped Allan Watkins put on 107 crucial runs for the fifth wicket in front of an Eden Gardens crowd of over 30,000 in the first innings, and then indulged himself in a few shots in the second innings, against the bowling of Phadkar, Divecha, Amarnath and Mankad, before Nigel Howard declared. Cyril Poole's benefit, in 1960, returned him £1302.

David Frith

ALEX PICKER, aged 14, writes: I went to see Mr Poole in Balderton about five weeks before his death. He was not able to get out as he suffered from Parkinson's Disease. He still kept in touch with the game through television. He wstill received requests for autographs, but he had little in the ay of memorabilia, and among his photographs was one of him proudly wearing his MCC blazer. He and his wife were so hospitable.

Freddie Stocks

A cheerful character, Yorkshire-born Stocks was Nottinghamshire's first postwar signing, and in his first first-class match – against Kent at Trent Bridge in 1946– the left-hander hit 15 fours in his 114, which helped Notts recover from 66 for 5 to 341. His seventh match was a Test Trial: playing for The Rest at Lord's, Stocks made 19 ( Len Hutton scored 82 and

 Joe Hardstaffjunior 115 for ` England').

A right-arm medium-pacer, Stocks did not get on to bowl until his 11th match, later in 1946 at Old Trafford, whereupon he dismissed Lancashire's future England opener, Winston Place, with his first ball to complete an unusual double.

In 1948 he made 166 in 6¾ hours against Northants (for whom his father, also Frederick, played two matches in 1906), sharing a third-wicket stand of 227 with Reg Simpson at Trent Bridge. He seemed to relish the Northants bowling, for in 1951 came an innings of 151, again at home, largely made in concert with Hardstaff, who made 247: the pair put on 263 for the fourth wicket. That year saw Stocks pass 1000 runs for the first time: with the aid of four centuries, he made 1396 (34.05) in all first-class matches. He reached 1000 four more times, lastly in 1956. That was his benefit season – he received £2000 – and he started it in fine style when, in his first innings, he made a career-best 171 against the touring Australians, whose attack included Archer, Benaud, Davidson and MacKay. Notts, replying to the tourists' 547 for 8 dec, made 345: Stocks batted for 340 minutes, 135 of them used up in moving from 64 to 100.

With Notts trying out younger players Stocks faded from the scene, playing only 11 matches in 1957 and none after that. In all he scored 11,397 runs (29.60) with 13 centuries. A useful change bowler, he took 223 wickets (43.91), with a best return of 6 for 37 against Essex a Trent Bridge in 1950. A good fieldsman, he took 158 catches.

Steven Lynch

Bob Hurst

 Robert John Hurst looked likely to succeed Jack Young as Middlesex's slow left-armer when the older man's knees began to fail in the mid-1950s, and indeed Wisden noted a `considerable advance' for Hurst in 1956, when he took 61 Championship wickets at 22.36. This best bowling figures came that year in The Parks, when his 8 for 65 included the scalp of that year's Oxford captain, M. J. K. Smith. In 1957, Hurst took 11 for 80 in the match against Gloucestershire a Lord's, but although he was awarded his county cap that year he never again approached such riches, his problems compounded by the fact that the Lord's pitches of his time were more conducive to the faster bowlers.

Although Hurst took 36 wickets in 1959, by now Wisden was lamenting ominously that'a good legspinner or slow left-hander could well transform Middlesex into a strong side'. Perhaps taking the hint, after a few appearances in 1960 and 1961 Hurst returned to club cricket, notably with Teddington. In all first-class cricket he took 255 wickets at 24.27: he also scored 721 runs (10.01), with a highest score of 62, made after going in as nightwatchman against Sussex at Hove in 1956.

Ray Smith

Born in Boreham on Aug 10, 1914, Ray Smith attended King Edward VI School, Chelmsford. The war took some of his best years, but he did play charity matches for the British Empire XI, and took over 300 wickets in those matches. His full worth was displayed in the post-war summers, and when he smashed a 63-minute century against Derbyshire at Colchester in 1948, it might hardly have been guessed that this was the first of three times that he was to hit the fastest century of a season: the thunderbolt display against the 1951 tourists followed, and in 1955 he despatched Northants for a 73-minute hundred at Wellingborough.

It was a source of pride and amusement to him that his 125 wickets in 1947 came at the highest cost ever (37.26) for a bowler taking 100 wickets in an English season. His one representative tour was in 1949–50, with a Commonwealth side to India, Pakistan and Ceylon ( Sri Lanka), when he performed moderately in his four `unofficial Tests' (he missed the other through injury) but whacked a century against North Zone in Patiala, adding to those scored by `Buddy' Oldfield and Frank Worrell. Essex granted him a benefit in 1951 (£3600) and a testimonial in 1955 (£1288), and after retirement in 1956 he coached at Felsted and became a restaurateur in Warwickshire. His action (and that of cousin Peter) was depicted in an MCC coaching booklet, Bowling, issued 1952 and extracted from a film made by Realist Film Unit.

A colourful figure, Ray Smith was memorably described by Essex captain Dough Insole: `His Marilyn Monroe walk and his straighter-than-straight back were a delight to bobbysoxers. He swung the ball more than any other bowler I have seen – and he was as strong as a horse… he retired when his sports-jacket and his bowling trousers fell to pieces.'

David Frith

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