Michael Earls-Davis, English cricketer, Died at 95

  Sports

Michael Richard Gratwicke Earls-Davis was born on February 21, 1921, Hampstead, London and died on April 5, 2016.

He was an English cricketer.

Micheal played for Cambridge University in 1947 and for Somerset in 1950.

Educated at Sherborne School, Earls-Davis went up to Cambridge University but, like many students of his time, then joined the armed forces during World War II.

He also served as an officer in the Irish Guards and was wounded in action in 1944.

He had reached the age of 26 by the time he started his first-class cricket career as a lower-order left-handed batsman and a right-arm fast medium bowler at Cambridge in 1947.

The first game was against Worcestershire, Michael took five wickets in the match, including Don Kenyon twice in that game.

During the next match against Gloucestershire, Michael took four wickets for 87 in the county’s first innings, and these proved to be the best bowling figures of his career.

However, Michael Earls-Davis did not support this form and dropped out of the team before the University Match, and therefore did not win a Blue.

During that time non-first-class matches, Earls-Davis had played for Sussex and he appeared in a second eleven match in 1947, scoring 58 as a middle-order batsman.

And by 1949, Earls-Davis was playing non-first-class matches for Somerset and in 1950, when the Somerset captaincy was a matter for discussion following the retirement of the 1949 captain, George Woodhouse, Earls-Davis was one of several amateurs mentioned as potentially available.

During that the event, he played only once, making four runs and bowling five wicket-less overs on a spinners’ wicket at Worcester.

Michael Earls-Davis passed away at 95 yrs old.