Harold Gimblett

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

Related Topics:
October 19 - 1914 - Bicknoller - Somerset - March 30 - 1978 - Dorset - Cricket - Somerset - England

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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. Somerset won the match with an innings to spare.

Related Topics:
First-class cricket - Essex - Frome

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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.

Related Topics:
Test - India - Ashes - Australia - New Zealand - West Indies - Nottingham

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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 not out, against Sussex at Eastbourne in 1948. Normally opening the innings, he continued to score at a very fast rate throughout his career.

Related Topics:
Second World War - Sussex - Eastbourne

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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.

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

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