David Smith (Gloucestershire cricketer)

David Smith (5 October 1934^[1] – 17 December 2003) was an English cricketer, who played in five Tests for England in India in 1961–1962.

David Smith

Personal information
Full name	David Robert Smith
Born	(1934-10-05)5 October 1934 Fishponds, Bristol, England
Died	17 December 2003(2003-12-17) (aged 69) Bristol, England
Batting	Right-handed
Bowling	Right-arm medium-fast
International information
National side	England
Test debut	11 November 1961 v India
Last Test	10 January 1962 v India
Career statistics
Competition Test First-class Matches 5 386 Runs scored 38 4,966 Batting average 9.50 12.32 100s/50s 0/0 0/6 Top score 34 74 Balls bowled 972 72,581 Wickets 6 1,250 Bowling average 59.83 23.72 5 wickets in innings 0 51 10 wickets in match 0 6 Best bowling 2/60 7/20 Catches/stumpings 2/– 294/–
Source: CricInfo, 7 November 2022
Association football career Position(s) Left winger Senior career* Years Team Apps (Gls) 1953–1959 Bristol City 21 (1) 1959–1960 Millwall 13 (1) Total 34 (2) International career England youth * Club domestic league appearances and goals

He was one of a trio of pace bowlers, along with Alan Brown and Butch White, who were given their opportunity on the eight Test, five-month tour of India and Pakistan. However, his efforts in the heat and dust of the Indian subcontinent, did not do sufficient to earn him a chance to bowl in an England Test series at home.^[1]

Life and career

Smith was born in Fishponds, Bristol.

He was a lower-order right-handed batsman, and a medium-fast right-arm bowler, who played for Gloucestershire for fifteen seasons from 1956, usually opening the bowling in partnership with Tony Brown. He was a successful county bowler at slightly above medium-pace, able to move the ball off the seam in both directions, and in five seasons he took more than 100 wickets, with a best of 143 wickets in 1960. In a team that was packed with all-rounders, Smith tended to bat fairly low, but he occasionally made useful runs, often in a fairly forthright style.

Smith's only Test cricket came on the long, and by modern standards, arduous Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) tour that started in Pakistan, moved on to India, took in Sri Lanka and then returned to Pakistan, in 1961–62. Leading England fast bowlers such as Fred Trueman and Brian Statham opted out of the tour, and Smith was one of three seam bowlers whose only experience of Test cricket came on the tour. Smith played in only the five Indian Tests, missing the three in Pakistan, and took six wickets in a series dominated by spin bowling. The regular Test fast bowlers resumed their careers in the 1962 English season, and Smith was never selected again.^[1]

Smith was also a footballer who played at outside-left for Bristol City^[2] and Millwall.^[3][4]

David Smith died in Bristol in December 2003, at the age of 69.