18 Facts About Doug Ring

Douglas Thomas Ring was an Australian cricketer who played for Victoria and for Australia in 13 Test matches between 1948 and 1953.

Doug Ring topped the Victorian Cricket Association's second-grade bowling averages and joined the Richmond first grade team.

Doug Ring joined the Australian Army and served with an anti-aircraft regiment in New Guinea.

Doug Ring took 23 wickets, the highest of any Victoria bowler, in Shield matches but at the high average of 33 runs apiece.

Doug Ring, said Wisden in its summary of the tour, "was never a trump card in the pack".

Doug Ring was at the wicket when the match was won, by three wickets, though his own contribution was just six runs.

Doug Ring took only one wicket in a match made controversial by liberal use of the bumper by the faster Australian bowlers.

Doug Ring lasted into the second day when conditions were easier, and top-scored for the Australian team with 67, which remained his best score in Tests.

Doug Ring took three of the four wickets that fell as West Indies successfully chased a target of 233 on Christmas Day.

Century-maker Lindsay Hassett departed with no further runs added, and Langley was out at 222, so when last batsman Bill Johnston joined Doug Ring, 38 were still needed to win.

The fifth Test, which saw the debut of Richie Benaud alongside Doug Ring, was an anticlimax, and Doug Ring contributed little with either bat or ball to a large Australian victory.

Across the rest of the five-match Test series against South Africa, Doug Ring took only seven more wickets, and he tended to be expensive in terms of the number of runs conceded from his bowling.

Doug Ring took two wickets, the same number as Benaud, on a pitch allegedly susceptible to spin and scored 18 and 7 as the match ended in a tight draw.

Outside the Tests in England, Doug Ring took five wickets in an innings five times and, though mostly fairly ineffective with the bat, hit 88 against Lancashire, his second highest first-class score.

Outside cricket, Doug Ring was employed by the Victorian Department of Primary Industries from 1946 to 1982, where his supervisor was Les Menzies, brother of Australian Prime Minister Robert Menzies.

Doug Ring died in Melbourne on 23 June 2003 at the age of 84.

Doug Ring was a large man, 6 feet tall, and with his large hands he was able to impart plenty of spin on the ball, although he was not usually eager to loft the ball into the air, especially in English conditions.

Doug Ring never bought himself a bat, instead choosing to rely on a bat he borrowed from the Victorian Cricket Association practice kit.