Harold Gimblett

Infobox Historic Cricketer


nationality = English
country = England
country abbrev = ENG
name = Harold Gimblett
picture = Cricket_no_pic.pngbatting style = Right-hand bat
bowling style = Right-arm medium
tests = 3
test runs = 129
test bat avg = 32.25
test 100s/50s = -/1
test top score = 67*
test balls = -
test wickets = -
test bowl avg = -
test 5s = -
test 10s = -
test best bowling = -
test catches/stumpings = 1/-
FCs = 368
FC runs = 23007
FC bat avg = 36.17
FC 100s/50s = 50/122
FC top score = 310
FC balls = 3949
FC wickets = 41
FC bowl avg = 51.80
FC 5s = -
FC 10s = -
FC best bowling = 4/10
FC catches/stumpings = 247/1
debut date = 27 June
debut year = 1936
last date = 24 June
last year = 1939
source = http://content-aus.cricinfo.com/ci/content/player/13379.html

Harold Gimblett (October 19, 1914, Bicknoller, Somerset, - March 30, 1978, Dewlands Park, Verwood, Dorset) was a strokeplayer who played cricket for Somerset and England.

His entry into first-class cricket in May 1935 was the stuff of legend. Called into the county team at short notice for a match against Essex at Frome, he came to the wicket with Somerset six wickets down for only 107 runs. He raced to a century in just 63 minutes, the fastest century of the season, and finished with 123 out of 175 in 80 minutes, with three sixes and 17 fours. [There is a chapter devoted to an account of this innings in "Ten Great Innings" by Ralph Barker, Chatto & Windus, 1964.] Somerset won the match with an innings to spare.

Within a year he was in the Test team that played India, but he was not picked for the Ashes tour of Australia and New Zealand in 1936-37, and in fact made only one other Test appearance, against the West Indies in 1939, though as late as 1950 he was called up for a Test at Nottingham, illness preventing him from playing.

In the years immediately before the Second World War and for eight seasons after it Gimblett was the mainstay of the Somerset batting, regularly scoring up to 2,000 runs a season and hitting the county's then-highest score, 310, against Sussex at Eastbourne in 1948. Normally opening the innings, he continued to score at a very fast rate throughout his career. He was a Wisden Cricketer of the Year in 1953.

But by the early 1950s, as the one class batsman in a poor team, Gimblett was shouldering a huge responsibility. If he failed, the Somerset team tended to fold all too easily. In contrast to his brash batting, Gimblett's personality was inclined to be morose and depressive, and there is evidence that he considered leaving the game several times in 1952 and 1953, when the county finished bottom of the County Championship. In the end, he left just before the start of the 1954 season and though rumoured several times across the 1950s to be pondering a comeback, never appeared again in first-class cricket. He suffered from major bouts of depression in his later years.

Gimblett died at his home in Verwood, Dorset after taking an overdose of prescription drugs.

His life is the subject of an outstanding cricket biography by the sports writer David Foot.

Notes

External links

* [http://content.cricinfo.com/cricketer/content/player/13379.html Cricinfo page on Gimblett]
* [http://content-www.cricinfo.com/england/content/story/129485.html David Foot, "Tale of a tormented genius"]
* [http://reverseswing.co.uk/?page_id=65 Gimblett at the Frome Showground 1935-53]