Born On This Day: 20th November

Ray Flood, was born in Southampton in 1935, but spent much of his life in the New Forest, and was a member of a sporting family, including his brother John who played football for Southampton FC. Ray Flood was a batsman who first played in the two matches of the Portsmouth week in August 1956, against Essex with Trevor Bailey and Northamptonshire with Frank Tyson.

In the very wet summer of 1958, he played just once at the end of the season, scoring 7 & 0 but in 1959, with sunshine and experimental covered pitches he seemed to have made his breakthrough. Despite the arrival of Dennis Baldry and Danny Livingstone, he played in 20 matches, scoring 780 runs at 25.16, including 138 v Sussex at Hove – his one first-class century, which was shown live on Southern Television.

Sadly, he then struggled with injury, and having top-scored with 72 opening the batting v Oxford University in 1960, his county career came to an end, age just 24. He played club and representative cricket in the New Forest area for some years and died in Lyndhurst on 13 March 2014.

Also today: William Lipscomb (1866-1880)