Regular Player
The following season, he played regularly for Cambridge and won his blue. He headed the Cambridge bowling averages with 26 wickets at a cost of only 13.30 each and made 259 runs in the lower order, without reaching 50. In the second half of the season, he played again for Somerset, making only a few runs and failing to take a single wicket as the county relied for off-spin on the established Brian Langford.
The 1964 season was Kerslake's best in first-class cricket. The honorary secretary at Cambridge (and captain in one match in the absence of regular captain Mike Brearley), he finished second in both batting and bowling averages, with 576 runs at 32 runs per innings and 36 wickets. Against the Australians he featured in an eighth wicket stand of 109 in 85 minutes. And against Surrey at The Oval he made 80, which remained the highest score of his career. His career-best bowling performance was also for Cambridge University in this season: six for 77 against Worcestershire in the first first-class match ever played at Halesowen.
In the second half of the 1964 season, Kerslake again appeared regularly for Somerset. His batting was not successful, but he took 39 wickets with his off-spin, including his best county return, six for 83 against Hampshire at Bournemouth. His full season figures were 757 runs and 75 wickets.
Read more about this topic: Roy Kerslake
Famous quotes containing the words regular and/or player:
“The solid and well-defined fir-tops, like sharp and regular spearheads, black against the sky, gave a peculiar, dark, and sombre look to the forest.”
—Henry David Thoreau (18171862)
“The best chess-player in Christendom may be little more than the best player of chess; but proficiency in whist implies capacity for success in all these more important undertakings where mind struggles with mind.”
—Edgar Allan Poe (18091845)