Lindsay Tuckett is a former South Africa

South Africa

The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...

n 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 who played in 9 Tests

Test 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...

 from 1947 to 1949. He was born in Durban

Durban

Durban is the largest city in the South African province of KwaZulu-Natal and the third largest city in South Africa. It forms part of the eThekwini metropolitan municipality. Durban is famous for being the busiest port in South Africa. It is also seen as one of the major centres of tourism...

, Natal.

The son of one Test player, Len Tuckett

Len Tuckett

Lindsay Richard 'Len' Tuckett was a South African cricketer who played in one Test in 1914. He was the father of Lindsay who also played Test cricket. He played for the teams of South Africa, Natal, and Orange Free State....

, and the nephew of another, Joe Cox, Lindsay Tuckett was just a month past his 16th birthday when he made his 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...

 debut for Orange Free State

Orange Free State cricket team

The Free State cricket team is the first-class cricket team representing the province of Free State in South Africa....

 in March 1935. A lower-order right-handed batsman and a fast-medium right-arm bowler who specialised in in-swingers, he took regular wickets for one of the weaker provincial sides for the next 20 years, but had a much shorter career in Tests.

Picked for the 1947 South African tour of England

English cricket team

The England and Wales cricket team is a cricket team which represents England and Wales. Until 1992 it also represented Scotland. Since 1 January 1997 it has been governed by the England and Wales Cricket Board , having been previously governed by Marylebone Cricket Club from 1903 until the end...

, he began promisingly, and even though he strained a muscle in the first Test and was less effective afterwards, he was picked for all five Tests and finished with 15 wickets, the joint highest number for the side. In the first innings of the first match at Trent Bridge

Trent Bridge

Trent Bridge is a Test, One-day international and County cricket ground located in West Bridgford, Nottinghamshire, England and is also the headquarters of Nottinghamshire County Cricket Club. As well as International cricket and Nottinghamshire's home games, the ground has hosted the Finals Day of...

, he took five England wickets for 68 runs and it was a dropped catch off his bowling in the second innings that, according to the report in the 1948 Wisden

Wisden Cricketers' Almanack

Wisden Cricketers' Almanack is a cricket reference book published annually in the United Kingdom...

, allowed England to escape from the match with a draw after following on 325 runs behind. At Lord's in the second Test, he again took five wickets in the first innings, this time for 115 runs as England amassed 554 runs with centuries by Bill Edrich

Bill Edrich

William John "Bill" Edrich DFC was a distinguished cricketer who played for Middlesex, MCC, Norfolk and England.Edrich's three brothers, Brian, Eric and Geoff, and also his cousin, John, all played first-class cricket...

 and Denis Compton

Denis Compton

Denis Charles Scott Compton CBE was an English cricketer who played in 78 Test matches, and a footballer...

.

On the 1947 tour as a whole, Tuckett took 69 wickets at an average of 25 runs per wicket.

When the MCC

Marylebone Cricket Club

Marylebone Cricket Club is a cricket club in London founded in 1787. Its influence and longevity now witness it as a private members' club dedicated to the development of cricket. It owns, and is based at, Lord's Cricket Ground in St John's Wood, London NW8. MCC was formerly the governing body of...

 toured South Africa in the 1948-49 season, Tuckett was again chosen as an opening bowler in four out of the five Tests, but could not repeat his form of 18 months earlier. He took only four wickets in the series and did not play for South Africa again. In the first Test, he bowled the last possible over of the match, and on the eighth and final ball England's ninth wicket pair of Alec Bedser

Alec Bedser

Sir Alec Victor Bedser, CBE was a professional English cricketer. He was the chairman of selectors for the English national cricket team, and the president of Surrey County Cricket Club...

 and Cliff Gladwin

Cliff Gladwin

Clifford Gladwin was an English cricketer, who played for Derbyshire from 1939 to 1958, and in eight Tests for England from 1947 to 1949...

scrambled the single run that gave the touring side victory.