Les Ames
Encyclopedia
Leslie Ethelbert George Ames, CBE
(3 December 1905 in Elham
, Kent
– 27 February 1990 in Canterbury
, Kent) was an outstanding wicket-keeper
and batsman for the England cricket team and Kent County Cricket Club
. In his obituary, the Wisden
of 1991 described him as the greatest wicket-keeper-batsman of all time. He was a pupil at the Harvey Grammar School in Folkestone
.
, Ames played 47 matches, scoring 2,434 runs with a batting average
of 40.56, and taking 74 catches
, and 23 stumpings
. In first-class cricket
, he scored 37,248 runs at an average of 43.51, including 102 centuries and 176 fifties, and took 704 catches and 417 stumpings. Unusually for a wicket-keeper, he also bowled
over 200 overs
, taking 24 first-class wicket
s with a bowling average
of 33.37.
Ames was a Wisden
Cricketer of the Year in 1929. He holds a number of wicket-keeping and batting records:
He was the wicket-keeper for the infamous Bodyline
tour of Australia
in 1932-3. His cricketing career was interrupted by the Second World War. Ames served with the Royal Air Force
during, rising to the rank of Squadron Leader
, and returned to play as a batsman for Kent after the war.
In the Reliance ICC Test Player Batting Rankings , he was:
After his final playing season in 1951, Ames became a successful manager and administrator. He managed MCC tours to the West Indies in 1967–8 and Sri Lanka
and Pakistan
in 1968–9. He was also the first professional to be appointed as a selector in 1950, continuing until 1956 and serving again in 1958. He was the secretary and manager of Kent County Cricket Club, taking Kent to win the County Championship in 1970.
in 1931, making five appearances and scoring one goal, having earlier played for Clapton Orient
.
Order of the British Empire
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V of the United Kingdom. The Order comprises five classes in civil and military divisions...
(3 December 1905 in Elham
Elham
Elham is a village in East Kent situated approximately south of Canterbury and north east of Folkestone in the Elham Valley.-Toponomy:The origin of the village's name has always been a matter of argument. The village is listed in the Domesday Book of 1086 as Alham. This may have derived from...
, Kent
Kent
Kent is a county in southeast England, and is one of the home counties. It borders East Sussex, Surrey and Greater London and has a defined boundary with Essex in the middle of the Thames Estuary. The ceremonial county boundaries of Kent include the shire county of Kent and the unitary borough of...
– 27 February 1990 in Canterbury
Canterbury
Canterbury is a historic English cathedral city, which lies at the heart of the City of Canterbury, a district of Kent in South East England. It lies on the River Stour....
, Kent) was an outstanding wicket-keeper
Wicket-keeper
The wicket-keeper in the sport of cricket is the player on the fielding side who stands behind the wicket or stumps being guarded by the batsman currently on strike...
and batsman for the England cricket team and Kent County Cricket Club
Kent County Cricket Club
Kent County Cricket Club is one of the 18 first class county county cricket clubs which make up the English and Welsh national cricket structure, representing the county of Kent...
. In his obituary, the Wisden
Wisden Cricketers' Almanack
Wisden Cricketers' Almanack is a cricket reference book published annually in the United Kingdom...
of 1991 described him as the greatest wicket-keeper-batsman of all time. He was a pupil at the Harvey Grammar School in Folkestone
Folkestone
Folkestone is the principal town in the Shepway District of Kent, England. Its original site was in a valley in the sea cliffs and it developed through fishing and its closeness to the Continent as a landing place and trading port. The coming of the railways, the building of a ferry port, and its...
.
Cricket career
In Test cricketTest cricket
Test cricket is the longest form of the sport of cricket. Test matches are played between national representative teams with "Test status", as determined by the International Cricket Council , with four innings played between two teams of 11 players over a period of up to a maximum five days...
, Ames played 47 matches, scoring 2,434 runs with a batting 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 40.56, and taking 74 catches
Cricket statistics
Cricket is a sport that generates a large number of statistics.Statistics are recorded for each player during a match, and aggregated over a career. At the professional level, statistics for Test cricket, one-day internationals, and first-class cricket are recorded separately...
, and 23 stumpings
Stump (cricket)
Stump is a term used in the sport of cricket where it has three different meanings:# part of the wicket# a manner of dismissing a batsman# the end of the day's play .-Part of the wicket:...
. In first-class cricket
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...
, he scored 37,248 runs at an average of 43.51, including 102 centuries and 176 fifties, and took 704 catches and 417 stumpings. Unusually for a wicket-keeper, he also bowled
Bowling (cricket)
In the sport of cricket, bowling is the action of propelling the ball toward the wicket defended by a batsman. A player skilled at bowling is called a bowler; a bowler who is also a competent batsman is known as an all-rounder...
over 200 overs
Over (cricket)
In the sport of cricket, an over is a set of six consecutive balls bowled in succession. An over is normally bowled by a single bowler. However, in the event of injury preventing a bowler from completing an over, it is completed by a teammate....
, taking 24 first-class wicket
Wicket
In the sport of cricket the word wicket has several distinct meanings:-Definitions of wicket:Most of the time, the wicket is one of the two sets of three stumps and two bails at either end of the pitch...
s with a bowling 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 33.37.
Ames was a Wisden
Wisden
The Wisden Group was a group of companies formed by John Wisden & Co Ltd, publishers of Wisden Cricketers' Almanack. As well as John Wisden & Co, the group included the The Wisden Cricketer magazine, Cricinfo – the world's highest traffic cricket website – and the Hawk-Eye computerised...
Cricketer of the Year in 1929. He holds a number of wicket-keeping and batting records:
- the most dismissals in an English county cricketCounty cricketCounty cricket is the highest level of domestic cricket in England and Wales. For the 2010 season, see 2010 English cricket season.-First-class counties:...
season (127 in 1929); - the most stumpings in an English season (64 out of 104 dismissals in 1932);
- 1000 runs and 100 dismissals in each of three seasons (1928, 1929, 1932), a feat that has only been achieved once again in county cricket;
- the only wicket-keeper to score 100 first-class centuries;
- in 1935 he was the last Englishman to score 100 or more runs before lunch in a Test until Ian Bell did so seventy years later. Ames scored 123 runs in the session which is a record for most runs before lunch in Test cricket.
- centuries against every English first-class county, apart from his own county, Kent;
- the record 8th wicket partnership for England in Test cricket: 246 with Gubby AllenGubby AllenSir George Oswald Browning "Gubby" Allen, CBE was a cricketer who played for Middlesex, Cambridge University, MCC and England. Australian-born, Allen was a fast bowler and hard-hitting lower-order batsman, who captained England in eleven Test matches...
against New ZealandNew Zealand cricket teamThe New Zealand cricket team, nicknamed the Black Caps, are the national cricket team representing New Zealand. They played their first in 1930 against England in Christchurch, New Zealand, becoming the fifth country to play Test cricket. It took the team until 1955–56 to win a Test, against the...
at Lord's in 1931. This record was finally broken by Jonathon TrottJonathan TrottIan Jonathan Leonard Trott is a South African-born England Test cricketer. Domestically, he plays for Warwickshire and he has also played in South Africa and New Zealand...
and Stuart BroadStuart BroadStuart Christopher John Broad is a cricketer who plays Test and One Day International cricket for England and is currently the captain of their Twenty20 team...
on 28 August 2010 in the Fourth Test against Pakistan when they set the new record of 332 runs.
He was the wicket-keeper for the infamous Bodyline
Bodyline
Bodyline, also known as fast leg theory bowling, was a cricketing tactic devised by the English cricket team for their 1932–33 Ashes tour of Australia, specifically to combat the extraordinary batting skill of Australia's Don Bradman...
tour of Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
in 1932-3. His cricketing career was interrupted by the Second World War. Ames served with the Royal Air Force
Royal Air Force
The Royal Air Force is the aerial warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Formed on 1 April 1918, it is the oldest independent air force in the world...
during, rising to the rank of Squadron Leader
Squadron Leader
Squadron Leader is a commissioned rank in the Royal Air Force and the air forces of many countries which have historical British influence. It is also sometimes used as the English translation of an equivalent rank in countries which have a non-English air force-specific rank structure. In these...
, and returned to play as a batsman for Kent after the war.
In the Reliance ICC Test Player Batting Rankings , he was:
- Highest Rating - 619 on 6 July 1934 (v Australia, Old Trafford, 3rd Test)
- Highest Ranking - 7th on 14 March 1935 (v West Indies, Kingston, 4th Test)
After his final playing season in 1951, Ames became a successful manager and administrator. He managed MCC tours to the West Indies in 1967–8 and Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka is a country off the southern coast of the Indian subcontinent. Known until 1972 as Ceylon , Sri Lanka is an island surrounded by the Indian Ocean, the Gulf of Mannar and the Palk Strait, and lies in the vicinity of India and the...
and Pakistan
Pakistan
Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...
in 1968–9. He was also the first professional to be appointed as a selector in 1950, continuing until 1956 and serving again in 1958. He was the secretary and manager of Kent County Cricket Club, taking Kent to win the County Championship in 1970.
Outside cricket
Ames also briefly played association football for GillinghamGillingham F.C.
Gillingham Football Club is an English professional football club based in the town of Gillingham, Kent. The only Kent-based club in the Football League, they play their home matches at the Priestfield Stadium...
in 1931, making five appearances and scoring one goal, having earlier played for Clapton Orient
Leyton Orient F.C.
Leyton Orient F.C. are an English professional football club in East London. They currently play in Football League One and are known to their fans as the O's.Leyton Orient have spent one season in the top flight of English football, in 1962–63...
.