David Allen (cricketer)

This article is about the English cricketer. For the West Indian cricketer, see David Allan (cricketer).

David Allen

Personal information
Full name	David Arthur Allen
Born	29 October 1935 (1935-10-29) (age 76) Horfield, Bristol, England
Batting style	Right-handed batsman
Bowling style	Right arm offbreak
International information
National side	English
Career statistics
Competition	Tests	First-class
Matches	39	456
Runs scored	918	9,291
Batting average	25.50	18.80
100s/50s	–/5	1/29
Top score	88	121*
Balls bowled	11,297	77,619
Wickets	122	1,209
Bowling average	30.97	23.64
5 wickets in innings	4	56
10 wickets in match	–	8
Best bowling	5/30	8/34
Catches/stumpings	10/–	252/–
Source: [1],

David Arthur Allen (born 29 October 1935, Horfield, Bristol, England)^[1] is a former English cricketer, who played first-class cricket for Gloucestershire between 1953 and 1972. He also played 39 Test matches for England.

Life and career

Allen was first selected for England in 1959 and in 1960 was selected as the Cricket Writers' Club Young Cricketer of the Year. Allen toured all the then-current Test-playing nations. He was a decent bat, his Test average was higher than the all rounders Fred Titmus amd Ray Illingworth - and in the 1963 Lord's Test against the West Indies, he notably played out the final two balls of Wes Hall's last over for a draw. Allen had protected Colin Cowdrey at the other end, who was pressed into bat with his broken arm in plaster.^[1] In the 1965-66 Ashes series Allen made 50 not out in the Third Test at Sydney, adding 93 for the last wicket adn took 4/47 as England won by an inninmgs and 93 runs.

Allen was also famous for being taken off against Australia. In the decisive Fourth Test at Old Trafford in 1961 he took three quick wickets to have Australia nine wickets down, but Allan Davidson hit him for 20 runs in an over and Peter May took him off. Davidson added 98 for the last wicket and Australia won by 54 runs. In the equally decisve Third Test at Headingley Ted Dexter removed him after he had taken three wickets to reduce Australia to 187/7, still 81 runs behind England. Dexter took the new ball and gave it to Fred Trueman who bowled a series of bouncers which Peter Burge hooked and pulled to 160, hoisting Australia to 389 and a 7-wicket win. Nevertheless, in six winters, Allen completed the set of playing against all the other Test playing nations of the time.^[1] In India and Pakistan in 1961-62, he bowled 482 overs in the Test series alone.^[1]

A right-arm off-break bowler, using a very short run, Allen came close to developing into an all-rounder on the level of Fred Titmus. Playing fairly regularly for England throughout the first half of the 1960s, after 1966 he found it increasingly difficult to score enough runs or get enough bowling at county level as trends changed. Gloucestershire used three spin bowlers from the 1950s onwards but by the end of the 1960s Mike Bissex and Allen were effectively doing the work of one bowler. Though Bissex lost form, the advent of Sadiq Mohammed, a useful leg spinner, saw Allen fade away from the county side in 1972. Cricket commentator, Colin Bateman, noted that "towards the end of his 20 summers at Bristol his relationship with skipper Tony Brown, with whom he had grown up on a cricket field, became strained. Allen even found himself left out of his own benefit match".^[1]

In later years, Allen was a member of the Gloucestershire County Cricket Club committee, and was elected club president in 2011.

References

1. ^ ^{a b c d e} Bateman, Colin (1993). If The Cap Fits. Tony Williams Publications. p. 9. ISBN 1-869833-21-X. 

• Cricinfo page on David Allen
• CricketArchive page on David Allen

Persondata
Name	Allen, David Arthur
Alternative names
Short description	Cricketer
Date of birth	29 October 1935
Place of birth	Horfield, England
Date of death
Place of death