Allan White

Allan White

Allan White and Don Bradman at Worcester in 1948
Cricket information
Batting style	Right-handed batsman
Bowling style	unknown
International information
National side	English
Career statistics
Competition First-class Matches 142 Runs scored 5,035 Batting average 21.89 100s/50s 0/26 Top score 95 Balls bowled 22 Wickets 0 Bowling average - 5 wickets in innings 0 10 wickets in match 0 Best bowling - Catches/stumpings 46/0
Source: CricInfo

Allan Frederick Tinsdale White (5 September 1915 – 16 March 1993) was an English cricketer: a right-handed batsman who played for both Warwickshire and Worcestershire, captaining the latter county between 1947 and 1949, though sharing the captaincy with Bob Wyatt in the last of those three seasons. He also played for Cambridge University, as well as making a single appearance for Free Foresters. Curiously, he passed fifty 26 times without ever going on to score a century.

Early life and education

Born in Earlsdon, Coventry, White made his first-class debut for Cambridge University against Sussex in May 1936, scoring 93 (which was to remain his highest score for the university) before being out lbw to the bowling of Charles Oakes. He won his blue that season, playing in the Varsity Match at Lord's but making only 19 and 5, and also played seven games with reasonable success for Warwickshire, usually getting a good start though never going on to a really big score.

Career as professional cricketer

In 1937 White continued to play for Cambridge, though without winning another blue, and also made a further two appearances for Warwickshire, though those four innings totalled just 14 runs. He was then out of first-class cricket for a while before moving to Worcestershire in 1939, and although his record was mediocre (386 runs at 13.78, with a top score of only 47) he was kept on by the county when cricket resumed after World War II, enjoying his most successful season in 1946 with 1,179 first-class runs and a career-best 95 against the Combined Services.

In 1947 White was made captain by the county, proving to be a good choice - his obituary in Wisden called him "a popular and enterprising leader",^[1] - and he again passed a thousand runs for the season, albeit from 54 innings, the most he was ever to play in a single summer. From 1948 onwards his attentions were increasingly taken up by his off-field activities as a mushroom farmer^[1] and after a final season in 1949, a successful year for Worcestershire in which they came third in the County Championship, he retired from first-class cricket, though he did play on for several years for the county's Second XI.

Death

White died in Worcester at the age of 77.

References

1. Obituaries in 1993. Wisden Cricketers' Almanack, 1994.

External links

• Player profile: Allan White from ESPNcricinfo
• Statistical summary from CricketArchive