22 Facts About Winston Place

Winston Place was an English cricketer who played in three Tests in 1948.

Winston Place became an umpire for one season, but retired to spend more time with his family.

Winston Place was born in Rawtenstall; he was orphaned at the age of 5 and was raised by his aunt.

Winston Place represented Rawtenstall's cricket team in the Lancashire League.

At the age of 15, Winston Place began opening the batting for his club side.

Winston Place served an apprenticeship as an engineer before serving an apprenticeship at Lancashire in 1936.

The Lancashire batting line up of the time was a strong one, and Winston Place had limited opportunities to break into the first team.

Winston Place managed to make his debut in 1937, scoring his maiden century in his first season against Nottinghamshire.

Winston Place enjoyed playing for Lancashire; on the last day of his first season, when asked by other cricketers in the Lancashire team how he would be spending his holiday, he replied "this is the last day of my holiday".

In 1939, when opening with Cyril Washbrook as a replacement for the injured Eddie Paynter, Winston Place scored 164 against the touring West Indies team.

The outbreak of the Second World War prevented Winston Place from playing first-class cricket until 1946, he was able to play charity matches and represented Horwich in the Bolton Cricket League.

Winston Place was 12th man for England against South Africa when they played a Test match at Headingley.

Winston Place made his debut on 21 January 1948 against the West Indies at Bridgetown.

Winston Place opened the batting with Jack Robertson, but was unsuccessful, scoring 12 in the first innings and 1 not out in the second when he dropped down the batting order to number six.

Winston Place sustained a bruised knuckle in the Test and missed the second Test due to a ruptured groin muscle that happened during a tour match against Trinidad.

Winston Place was able to return for the final two matches of the series.

On his return to England, Winston Place drifted out of England contention, and did not even feature in the Test trial as England prepared for Australia's tour in 1948.

In 1949, Winston Place suffered a broken hand, keeping him from playing seven matches, although he did manage a county championship best of 226 not out against Nottinghamshire.

The last time Winston Place passed 1,000 runs in a season was in 1953.

At the age of 40, Winston Place was released by Lancashire, and on being told his career with Lancashire was over he broke down in tears.

Winston Place became a first-class umpire, and although he enjoyed the job he disliked being separated from his family and quit after one season.

Winston Place resigned from his position because such was his goodness and benevolence, he could not bear to give people out.