Peter Willey

Personal information
Full name	Peter Willey
Born	6 December 1949 (1949-12-06) (age 60) Sedgefield, County Durham, England
Nickname	Will
Height	6 ft 1 in (1.85 m)
Batting style	Right-handed
Bowling style	Right arm off break
International information
National side	England
Test debut (cap 468)	22 July 1976 v West Indies
Last Test	29 July 1986 v New Zealand
ODI debut (cap 39)	2 June 1977 v Australia
Last ODI	31 March 1986 v West Indies
Domestic team information
Years	Team
1984 – 1991	Leicestershire
1982 – 1985	Eastern Province
1966 – 1983	Northamptonshire
Umpiring information
Tests umpired	25 (1996–2003)
ODIs umpired	34 (1996–2003)
Career statistics
Competition	Test	ODI	FC	LA
Matches	26	26	559	458
Runs scored	1,184	538	24,361	11,105
Batting average	26.90	23.39	30.56	28.25
100s/50s	2/5	0/5	44/101	10/67
Top score	102*	64	227	154
Balls bowled	1,091	1,031	58,635	18,520
Wickets	7	13	756	347
Bowling average	65.14	50.69	30.95	32.11
5 wickets in innings	0	0	26	0
10 wickets in match	–	n/a	3	n/a
Best bowling	2/73	3/33	7/37	4/17
Catches/stumpings	3/–	4/–	235/–	124/–
Source: Cricinfo, 17 November 2008

Peter Willey (born 6 December 1949 at Sedgefield, County Durham) is a former English cricketer, who played as a right-handed batsman and right-arm offbreak bowler. In and out of the England team, he interrupted his international career for three years by taking part in the first of the England players' South African rebel tours in 1982. After his playing career ended, he became a Test umpire. Although widely respected, he tired of the constant travelling, and decided to leave the international panel to spend more time with his family. His son David Willey has gone on to be a professional cricketer, making a half century on his debut for Northamptonshire County Cricket Club against Leicestershire County Cricket Club.

Contents 1 Career 2 Anecdotes 3 References 4 External links

[edit] Career

As his career developed, Willey became a leading exponent of the "open stance" style of batting, where the batsman looks squarely at the bowler, rather than the traditional "side-on" style, looking past his own shoulder at the bowler. Advocates of the MCC Coaching manual derided the stance for its "ugliness",^{[citation needed]} and asserted technical reasons why its exponents were doomed to fail,^{[citation needed]} but Willey persisted with the method and was not unsuccessful.

Thanks to his renowned mental and physical toughness,^{[citation needed]} he was constantly picked against the formidable West Indian pace attack, only to be dropped again for games against more gentle opposition. He scored two hundreds against the West Indies, although his overall Test batting average ended at under 27.

[edit] Anecdotes

According to an urban myth, it was during a Test match between the West Indies and England when Michael Holding was about to bowl to Willey, that the radio commentator Brian Johnston said: "The bowler's Holding, the batsman's Willey". While Wisden states that there is no record of Johnston or anyone else actually saying this,^[1] Johnston's co-commentator Henry Blofeld recalls the incident as having taken place at The Oval in 1976.^[2]

In 1979, Willey caught Dennis Lillee off the bowling of Graham Dilley, resulting in a scorecard entry of: "Lillee c Willey b Dilley".^[3]

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• CricInfo profile
• CricketArchive profile