Born On This Day: 27th December

William Charles Leonard (‘Len’) Creese, was born in the Transvaal, South Africa in 1907, Len Creese was a valuable all-rounder and a lively character in the Hampshire side of the 1930s, and one of many cricketers whose career was curtailed by the war, which came when he was just 31.

Creese came to England as a young man in the hope of establishing himself in the county game, from a family that was involved in the administration of cricket in Transvaal for many decades, although his father WH, was born in Monmouthshire and played Minor Counties cricket there before emigrating after which he played a couple of first-class games in South Africa.

Len Creese was a hard-hitting left-handed batsman who played in 278 first-class matches for Hampshire between 1928-1939 scoring six centuries, including 241 v Northamptonshire in that last year. There is some uncertainty about his bowling which was also left-handed, but in accounts varies from medium-slow to fast-medium; he did not generally take the new ball so perhaps bowled at a similar pace to Derek Underwood.

He took 401 wickets for Hampshire at 27.87, with a best of 8-37 v Lancashire at Southampton in 1936. That was his finest year as a bowler, taking 95 wickets at just under 23 each – and with 1,331 runs he was just five victims short of the ‘double’.

He scored over one thousand runs in four of his last five years - the exception was an injury-hit season in 1937. He was also a fine fielder, holding 190 catches for the county.

During the war, he played a number of matches for the Army and in 1946, represented them in two first-class matches. He played also for Dorset from 1949-1951.

Subsequently he was a coach at Sherborne School, and then groundsman at Hastings and Hove. His character often matched the exuberance of his batting, but in later years, following a family tragedy, life was less easy. He died in Kent in 1974.

Also today: Gareth Andrew (2016), James Kaye (1881), Brig Francis Quinton (1893-1900)