George Pope

Infobox Historic Cricketer


nationality = English
country = England
country abbrev = ENG
name = George Pope
picture = Cricket_no_pic.pngbatting style = Right-hand bat
bowling style = Right-arm fast-medium
tests = 1
test runs = 8
test bat avg = -
test 100s/50s = -/-
test top score = 8*
test balls = 218
test wickets = 1
test bowl avg = 85.00
test 5s = -
test 10s = -
test best bowling = 1/49
test catches/stumpings = -/-
FCs = 205
FC runs = 7518
FC bat avg = 28.05
FC 100s/50s = 8/43
FC top score = 207*
FC balls = 30781
FC wickets = 677
FC bowl avg = 19.92
FC 5s = 40
FC 10s = 7
FC best bowling = 8/38
FC catches/stumpings = 157/-
debut date = 21 June
debut year = 1947
last date = 21 June
last year = 1947
source = http://content-aus.cricinfo.com/ci/content/player/18572.html

George Henry Pope (January 27, 1911, Tibshelf, Derbyshire – October 29, 1993, Spital, Derbyshire) was an English cricketer who played in one Test in 1947.

A combative lower middle-order right-handed batsman and a right-arm fast-medium bowler, George Pope followed his older brother Alf Pope into the Derbyshire side in the mid-1930s, and had just established himself in a competitive side when a cartliage injury early in 1936 caused him to missed all but a handful of matches in the county's sole County Championship-winning side. He returned in 1937 and scored more than 1,000 runs with 92 wickets, and toured India with Lord Tennyson's XI in 1937-38.

He was Derbyshire's leading all-rounder in both 1938 and 1939, achieving the all-rounder's "double" of 1,000 runs and 100 wickets in 1938. He played League cricket in 1946, the first season after the Second World War, but returned to Derbyshire for 1947, when he took 114 wickets. He was back again in 1948, when he completed the second "double" of his career and made his highest score, an unbeaten 207 against Hampshire at Portsmouth, sharing an unbroken seventh wicket stand of 241 with Albert Rhodes that remained the county's record until 2000.

Pope's Test career had one false start. In 1938 he was picked in the party for the Trent Bridge match against Australia and then discarded from the final eleven. Finally, he played in the Lord's Test of 1947 against South Africa, but took only one tail-end wicket and was dropped.

At the end of the 1948 season, Pope announced his immediate retirement to move to the Channel Islands to look after his wife, who was ill. He returned to first-class cricket on the Commonwealth XI tour of India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka in 1949-50, but at the end of that he retired for good. From 1966 to 1974 he stood as a first-class umpire in English county matches, returning for one last match as umpire in 1976.