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. October 19 is the 291st day of the year (292nd in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 1914 is a common year starting on Thursday. ... Bicknoller is a village in the Quantock Hills in west Somerset, England. ... Somerset is a county in the south-west of England. ... March 30 is the 89th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (90th in Leap years). ... 1978 was a common year starting on Sunday (the link is to a full 1978 calendar). ... Dorset (pronounced Dorsit, sometimes in the past called Dorsetshire) is a county in the southwest of England, on the English Channel coast. ... Cricket is a team sport played between two groups of eleven players each. ... Somerset County Cricket Club is a county cricket club with headquarters at Taunton. ... Royal motto: Dieu et mon droit (French: God and my right) Englands location within the UK Official language English de facto Capital London de facto Largest city London Area  - Total Ranked 1st UK 130,395 km² Population  - Total (2001)  - Density Ranked 1st UK 49,138,831 377/km² Ethnicity...

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. Wikipedia does not yet have an article with this exact name. ... Essex County Cricket Club is a county cricket club based at Chelmsford, though with grounds elsewhere. ... Frome (pronounced Froom) is a small town in Somerset, England, near the Mendip Hills. ...

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. Test cricket is the longest form of the sport of cricket. ... See: Ashes: novel (1902 – 1903) by the Polish novelist Stefan Żeromski. ... The Caribbean or the West Indies is a group of islands in the Caribbean Sea. ... A view towards the new William Clarke stand during a Test match, August 2003 Trent Bridge is a Test cricket ground located in West Bridgford, Nottingham, England and is also the headquarters of Nottinghamshire County Cricket Club. ...

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. Mushroom cloud from the nuclear explosion over Nagasaki rising 18 km into the air. ... Sussex field against Derbyshire at Hove on 24 April 2005 The Arthur Gilligan stand at Hove The Pavilion at Hove Crowd leaves the County Ground at Hove Sussex County Cricket Club is one of the 18 major counties which make up the English domestic cricket structure, representing the historic county... Bold text:For other places called Eastbourne, see Eastbourne (disambiguation). ...

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. In the UK, County cricket is the domestic form of the sport of cricket that is considered to be first-class cricket. ...

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

External Links

• Cricinfo page on Gimblett