Alan Norris Nelson is a former Irish

Irish people

The Irish people are an ethnic group who originate in Ireland, an island in northwestern Europe. Ireland has been populated for around 9,000 years , with the Irish people's earliest ancestors recorded having legends of being descended from groups such as the Nemedians, Fomorians, Fir Bolg, Tuatha...

 cricket

Cricket

Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of 11 players on an oval-shaped field, at the centre of which is a rectangular 22-yard long pitch. One team bats, trying to score as many runs as possible while the other team bowls and fields, trying to dismiss the batsmen and thus limit the...

er. Nelson was a right-handed batsman who bowled right-arm fast-medium

Fast bowling

Fast bowling, sometimes known as pace bowling, is one of the two main approaches to bowling in the sport of cricket. The other is spin bowling...

. He was born at Banbridge

Banbridge

Banbridge is a town in County Down, Northern Ireland. It lies on the River Bann and the A1 road. It was named after a bridge built over the Bann in 1712. The town grew as a coaching stop on the road from Belfast to Dublin and thrived from Irish linen manufacturing...

, County Down

County Down

-Cities:*Belfast *Newry -Large towns:*Dundonald*Newtownards*Bangor-Medium towns:...

, Northern Ireland

Northern Ireland

Northern Ireland is one of the four countries of the United Kingdom. Situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, it shares a border with the Republic of Ireland to the south and west...

. He was educated at Banbridge Academy

Banbridge Academy

Banbridge Academy is a grammar school located in Banbridge, Northern Ireland. The school was founded in 1786.The current Principal is Mr Raymond Pollock OBE, who was previously a Vice Principal at Friends' School, Lisburn. Mr. Pollock was preceded by Mr. Charles Winston Breen , a graduate of...

.

Nelson made his first-class

First-class cricket

First-class cricket is a class of cricket that consists of matches of three or more days' scheduled duration, that are between two sides of eleven players and are officially adjudged first-class by virtue of the standard of the competing teams...

 debut for Ireland against Scotland in 1988. He made three further first-class appearances for Ireland between then and 1991, all of which came against Scotland. In his four first-class appearances, he took 14 wickets at an average

Bowling average

Bowling average is a statistic measuring the performance of bowlers in the sport of cricket.A bowler's bowling average is defined as the total number of runs conceded by the bowlers divided by the number of wickets taken by the bowler, so the lower the average the better. It is similar to earned...

 of 22.57, with best figures of 5/27. With the bat, he scored 56 runs at an average

Batting average

Batting average is a statistic in both cricket and baseball that measures the performance of cricket batsmen and baseball hitters. The two statistics are related in that baseball averages are directly descended from the concept of cricket averages.- Cricket :...

 of 18.66, with a high score of 23 not out

Not out

In cricket, a batsman will be not out if he comes out to bat in an innings and has not been dismissed by the end of the innings. One may similarly describe a batsman as not out while the innings is still in progress...

. He made his List A debut for Ireland against Gloucestershire

Gloucestershire County Cricket Club

Gloucestershire County Cricket Club is one of the 18 major county clubs which make up the English and Welsh national cricket structure, representing the historic county of Gloucestershire. Its limited overs team is called the Gloucestershire Gladiators....

 in the 1988 NatWest Trophy

1988 NatWest Trophy

The 1988 NatWest Trophy was the 8th NatWest Trophy. It was an English limited overs county cricket tournament which was held between 22 June and 3 September 1988...

. He made five further List A appearances, the last of which came against Yorkshire

Yorkshire County Cricket Club

Yorkshire County Cricket Club represents the historic county of Yorkshire as one of the 18 major county clubs which make up the English and Welsh domestic cricket structure....

 in the 1993 NatWest Trophy

1993 NatWest Trophy

The 1993 NatWest Trophy was the 13th NatWest Trophy. It was an English limited overs county cricket tournament which was held between 22 June and 4 September 1993...

. In his six List A matches, he took just 4 wickets at an average of 48.50, with best figures of 2/19. While with the bat, he scored 20 runs at a average of 10.00, with a high score of 9 not out. He also made six appearances for Ireland in the 1994 ICC Trophy

1994 ICC Trophy

The ABN-AMRO 1994 ICC Trophy was a cricket tournament that took place in Kenya in February/March 1994. It was the qualifying tournament for the 1996 Cricket World Cup. The UAE defeated the host nation Kenya in the final and the Netherlands finished 3rd with all 3 sides qualifing for their first...

 in Kenya

Kenya

Kenya , officially known as the Republic of Kenya, is a country in East Africa that lies on the equator, with the Indian Ocean to its south-east...

.

His brother, Noel, played a single first-class match for Ireland, while his son, Liam, has played Youth One Day Internationals for Ireland Under-19s. Outside of cricket, Nelson works as a despatch clerk.

External links

• Alan Nelson at ESPNcricinfo
• Alan Nelson at CricketArchive
  CricketArchive
  CricketArchive is a website that aims to provide a comprehensive archive of records relating to the sport of cricket. It claims to be the most comprehensive cricket database on the internet, including scorecards for all matches of first-class cricket , List A cricket , Women's Test cricket and...