Harold Butler

England
Harold Butler
INTL CAREER: 1947 - 1948
Browse other players
West Indies
All

Alphabetically sorted top ten of players who have played the most matches across formats in the last 12 months

Full Name

Harold James Butler

Born

March 12, 1913, Clifton, Nottingham

Died

July 17, 1991, Lenton, Nottinghamshire, (aged 78y 127d)

Batting Style

Right hand Bat

Bowling Style

Right arm Fast medium

Harold Butler had very big shoes to fill when he was brought into the Nottinghamshire team in 1933. Harold Larwood was still recovering from the damage wrought on his body by the hard Australian wickets during the bodyline series, and Butler was asked to fill his place. Butler was no Larwood, but developed into a fine pace bowler in his own right. Not overly elegant in his run-up and approach, everything came together in his delivery stride, and he bowled genuinely quickly. Due of the presence of Larwood and Voce, it was not until 1939 that he established himself as a regular for Nottinghamshire, despite performances such as 8-15 against Surrey in 1937, but then the next six years were lost to war. England were desperately short of pace bowlers after the war, and Butler, although undoubtedly past his best and carrying more weight than he should have been, was given a chance against South Africa in 1947. He bowled superbly on his debut, taking 4/34 from 28 overs in the first innings, and an equally economical 3/32 in the second; match figures of 52-24-66-7. He did not play the final Test but was picked to tour the West Indies that winter. He played in just one Test, after losing one-and-a-half stone due to malaria, and bowled manfully, taking 3/122 in the West Indies first innings, and two cheap wickets in the second. He never played another Test, which in retrospect seems something of a puzzle. Not many bowlers have a Test average of under 20, and England desperately needed a partner for Bedser. His age told against him however - he played six more years for Notts before retiring in 1954 (DL 2000).

Harold Butler Career Stats

Batting & Fielding

FormatMatInnsNORunsHSAve100s50s6sCtSt
Tests2211515*15.0000010
FC31938110029626210.5404-1120

Bowling

FormatMatInnsBallsRunsWktsBBIBBMAveEconSR4w5w10w
Tests24552215124/347/6617.912.3346.0100
FC319-56935232769528/15-24.442.4559.8-466
Harold Butler portrait

Explore Statsguru Analysis

Test

Debut/Last Matches of Harold Butler

Recent Matches of Harold Butler

MatchBatBowlDateGroundFormat
Notts vs Australians11--30-May-1953NottinghamFC
Notts vs Indians81/5905-Jul-1952NottinghamFC
Notts vs Sth Africans165/6326-May-1951NottinghamFC
Notts vs West Indians29 & 01/7417-Jun-1950NottinghamFC
England vs 80/4802-Jun-1948BirminghamFC