Reggie Ingle - Early Life and Cricket Career

Early Life and Cricket Career

Ingle went to Oundle School, heading the school batting averages in 1921. He made his first-class debut for Somerset in a rain-ruined match against Essex at Taunton in August 1923. He made 54 in his first innings, one of only two Somerset players to make more than seven in a total of 189, and put on 97 for the sixth wicket with Jack MacBryan, who made 101.

Ingle was at Cambridge University for the 1923 to 1926 seasons, but made little impact on cricket there. He did not play at all in 1923, was tried five times in 1924 and then fleetingly again in both 1925 and 1926, but in 15 innings for Cambridge he made only 138 runs, and was not picked for the University matches against Oxford. In each season, though, once the university term was over he returned to play fairly regularly for Somerset.

Ingle's development as a batsman was slow and his batting average hovered around the mid teens for the whole of the mid 1920s. In 1926, he made his first century, an unbeaten 119 against Essex at Taunton in which he shared four 50-run partnerships over the course of four hours. But without that century, his batting average for the season, including a couple of games for Cambridge, would have been less than 12. The innings remained the highest of his career, although he hit nine other first-class centuries.