Len Hutton

Sir Leonard Hutton was an English cricketer. He played as an opening batsman for Yorkshire County Cricket Club from 1934 to 1955 and for England in 79 Test matches between 1937 and 1955. He set a record in 1938 for the highest individual innings in a Test match in only his sixth Test appearance. Hutton captained the England Test team between 1952 and 1955, although his leadership was at times controversial. He later became a Test selector, a journalist and a cricket pundit.

About Len Hutton in brief

Summary Len HuttonSir Leonard Hutton was an English cricketer. He played as an opening batsman for Yorkshire County Cricket Club from 1934 to 1955 and for England in 79 Test matches between 1937 and 1955. He set a record in 1938 for the highest individual innings in a Test match in only his sixth Test appearance, scoring 364 runs against Australia. Hutton captained the England Test team between 1952 and 1955, although his leadership was at times controversial. He went on to be a Test selector, a journalist and broadcaster. He also worked as a representative for an engineering firm until retiring from the job in 1984. He died a few months afterwards in September 1990, aged 74. He was born on 23 June 1916 in the Moravian community of Fulneck, Pudsey, the youngest of five children to Henry Hutton and his wife Lily. He practised in the playground of Littlemoor Council School, which he attended from 1921 until 1930. At the age of 12, he made his first appearance for PUDsey St Lawrence’s second eleven and by 1929 had reached the first team. He then enrolled at Pudseys Grammar School where he spent a year studying technical work before becoming a professional cricketers. By 1933, he was regularly opening the batting for the Pudsy St Lawrence first team in the Bradford Cricket League. By 1939 he was playing for England and when the war interrupted his career in 1939, critics regarded him as one of the leading batsmen in the country, and even the world.

As a batsman, Hutton built his style on a sound defence. Although capable of attacking strokeplay, both Yorkshire and England depended on him, and awareness of this affected his style. He remains statistically among the best batsmen to have played Test cricket. He retired from regular first-class cricket during the 1955 season. In 1956 he was Knighted for his contributions to cricket in 1956, and later became a Test selector, a broadcaster and a cricket pundit. He watched Australian Don Bradman hit 334 at a test match, a record individual score in Tests that he would surpass eight years later. In 1952, he became the first professional criceter of the 20th Century to captain England in Tests; under his captaincy England won the Ashes the following year for the first time in 19 years. He later became president of Yorkshire County cricket Club in 1990, and became a former Test selector and a journalist. He had a son, Peter Hutton, who played for Yorkshire in the 1970s and 1980s, and a daughter, Joanne Hutton. He is survived by his son Peter, a former England Test captain, and his son-in-law, the former England cricket team manager, Ian Botham, and two grandchildren. He passed away in 2011, at the age of 74, after a long battle with prostate cancer. He died in a car crash in September 2013, aged 75. His son Peter was the youngest member of Yorkshire’s first team at the time of his death.