Robert Leiper was an English

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 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. He was a left-handed batsman and a right-arm medium-pace bowler who played for Essex

Essex County Cricket Club

Essex 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 Essex. Its limited overs team is called the Essex Eagles, their team colours this season are blue.The club plays most of its home games...

. He was born in Woodford Green

Woodford Green

Woodford Green, formerly in the county of Essex, is part of the North East London suburb of Woodford, on the edge of Epping Forest, mostly within the London Borough of Redbridge with a small part on the western side of the green within the London Borough of Waltham Forest .-History:Woodford Green...

.

Leiper made three Youth Test appearances for England Young Cricketers in 1980, scoring an average of 17 from six innings. The following year, he was signed by Essex, and made his first of two first-class appearances during the 1981 season, against a team of touring Australians. Despite making just one run in his first innings, he scored 49 in his second, backed up by Alan Lilley

Alan Lilley

Alan William Lilley is a first class cricketer. He was born in Ilford on 8 May 1959 and played for Essex from 1978 to 1990 during the most successful period in their history. A right-handed opening batsman, he scored 4495 runs in 120 first class matches with a best of 113* and a further 2800 in one...

. His second and final first-class appearance came during the 1982 County Championship, in a game against Surrey

Surrey County Cricket Club

Surrey County Cricket Club is one of the 18 professional county clubs which make up the English and Welsh domestic cricket structure, representing the historic county of Surrey. Its limited overs team is called the Surrey Lions...

. Leiper made just three runs in this game, being caught out by Alan Butcher

Alan Butcher

Alan Raymond Butcher is a former English cricketer who is part of a family known for its strong cricketing connections. Although only selected to play for England on one occasion, he was lauded for his skills in first-class cricket and was named a Wisden Cricketer of the Year in 1991...

 in the second innings for a duck.

Leiper was an upper-order batsman during his short — and contrasting — first-class career. Leiper's father, Jack

Jack Leiper

John Morton Leiper , or more commonly known as Jack Leiper, was an English cricketer. He was a left-handed batsman and a right-arm fast-medium bowler and wicket-keeper who played for Essex...

, made two first-class appearances during 1950 - and in fact had very similar career statistics to his son.

External links

• Robert Leiper at Cricket Archive