William Oates

William Farrand Oates was a first-class cricketer who played for Derbyshire and Yorkshire between 1956 and 1965.

Oates played three matches for Yorkshire in 1956, including one against the touring Australians, but failed to cement a first team place and moved to Derbyshire in 1959 where he played for the rest of his career.

In 124 first class matches this right-handed batsman scored 4588 runs at 22.94 with two centuries – 101 against Somerset and a best of 148* against Sussex. His two best seasons were 1961 and 1962 a d he passed 1,000 runs for the second in each year, not missing that mark by much in 1963 and 1964. In 1965 he was much less successful and he left the Derbyshire staff at the end of the season. In all first-class matches, he took 54 catches and 13 wickets at 44.38 with a mixture of right-arm medium pace and offbreaks, including a remarkable performance of 6 for 47 against Oxford University. He also played in 5 one-day matches, scoring 50 runs at 10.

Born on June 11, 1929 in Aston, Sheffield he emigrated to Canada after his retirement from the game, dying there on the May 15, 2001.

References

* [http://content-www.cricinfo.com/england/content/player/18300.html Cricinfo Profile]
* [http://www.cricketarchive.com/Archive/Players/31/31781/31781.html Cricket Archive Statistics]