Tom Pugh, English cricketer and rackets player, Died at 78

  Sports

Charles Thomas Michael Pugh was born on March 13, 1937, and died January 30, 2016.

He was an English cricketer.

Statistically, he was the most successful captain ever of Gloucestershire County Cricket Club.

And for almost half a century the best doubles rackets player in the world.

Tom received his educated at Eton and was a right-handed batsman.

The cricketer played in 80 first-class matches between 1959 and 1962, including 76 for Gloucestershire whom he captained in 1961 and 1962.

Charles partake a record second-wicket stand for Gloucestershire of 256 with Tom Graveney versus Derbyshire at Chesterfield in 1960, scoring 137.

During the 1960 season as a whole, he scored 1,011 runs at an average of 21.51.

Approaching the end of the 1960 season, Tom Pugh, whose batting according to the Daily Telegraph “hardly surpassed old Etonian standards” was controversially appointed the captain of Gloucestershire.

After Graveney, who he replaced promptly resigned from the county and joined Worcestershire.

As a captain in 1961, he was spoilt by injury: he broke his jaw and missed 18 games.

Tom ducked into a full toss from David Larter and not only suffered a broken jaw, but was also given out lbw for a duck.

Tom Pugh organized a tour to Bermuda in April 1962 during which the county played a soccer match against the island team with Stanley Matthews guesting for Gloucestershire.

During the three-week tour to the county, the team played ten cricket matches against local teams.

Tom played in every match in 1962, but his batting returns were modest, and he averaged only 15 in County Championship matches.

Charles were surprisingly sacked from the captaincy at the end of the 1962 season despite the fact that Gloucestershire finished fourth in the table and won 9 out of the last 15 matches.

He was the winner of the Noel Bruce Cup (Old Boys Doubles) for Eton six times between 1962 and 1986 with James Leonard (1962, 1963 and 1965, David Norman (1965) and Willie Boone (1984 and 1986).

However, Gloucestershire was the winner of 14 matches under Pugh’s captaincy in that season and have never won as many matches in a season since.

Tom was also a nephew of a former Lancashire captain Peter Eckersley.

The cricketer represented the Middlesex Young Cricketers and was recommended to Gloucestershire by Percy Fender.

Tom Pugh passed away at 78 yrs old.