deliveries death_date columns catches/stumpings year birth_date tenfor country death_place club fivefor batting fullname birth_place column nickname source date runs wickets s/s matches article_title
balls 32 10 october 2008 1 24 / & ndash ; 1954 & 1957 1938 & ndash ; 1950 2011 29 may 1921 & ndash ; england torquay , devon , england devon essex & ndash ; right-handed stanley james cray stratford , essex , england first-class chick http://www.espncricinfo.com/ci/content/player/10873.html cricinfo 1921 5 29 yes 4,218 1 7/17 102 chick cray

chick cray

stanley james cray -lrb- 29 may 1921 -- 10 october 2008 -rrb- was an english cricketer .
cray was a right-handed batsman and known to fellow players as chick .
he was born in stratford , essex .
cray made his first-class debut for essex against worcestershire in the 1938 county championship .
he became a regular in the essex team in 1939 , but the start of the second world war abruptly ended his first-class career with essex in its tracks .
serving in the war , cray served in the british raj , while stationed there he played two first-class matches for a services xi against an indian xi and a bengal governor 's xi , both in 1944 .
following the war , cray returned to essex , where he played first-class cricket once more from 1946 to 1950 .
as well as his appearances for essex and a services xi , he also played a single first-class match for a combined essex and middlesex team against a combined surrey and kent team in 1947 .
cray was a member of the essex team which tied with northamptonshire in 1947 , a match in which he scored a century in the essex first-innings .
in total he made 99 first-class appearances for the county , scoring 4,062 runs at a batting average of 24.46 , with sixteen half centuries , seven centuries and a high score of 163 .
his highest first-class score came against nottinghamshire in 1950 .
cray passed 1,000 runs for a season twice , in 1947 and 1949 .
following the 1950 season , cray coached in south africa when out of the blue he received a phonecall informing him his services were no longer required by essex .
following his release he played minor counties championship cricket for devon on two occasions , firstly in 1954 against the surrey second xi and secondly against oxfordshire in 1957 .
while in devon he was the professional at paignton cricket club .
he retired fully from playing and coaching in 1961 , following problems with a hand injury he had sustained in a car accident .
he had a number of jobs outside of cricket , including as a postman and a kitchen assistant .
one of the few cricketers to have played first-class cricket before the war , cray died in torquay , devon on 10 october 2008 .
