Alan Turner was a stocky left-hand opening batsman who was steady rather than spectacular, and who never quite cracked it at the highest level. A superb cutter if given width, he was picked for the 1975 tour of England on the back of several good Sheffield Shield seasons, five years after his first trip, to New Zealand in 1969-70. He started well in England, making a big hundred at Canterbury, and played in the Australian side which lost the World Cup final - in a group match he smashed a hundred before lunch against Sri Lanka. He retained his pace for the Tests but made only 68 runs in five innings. The following winter he started the series against West Indies with a battling 81 but thereafter struggled before hammering his first - and only - Test hundred in the final match at Adelaide. He started the 1976-77 summer confidently, but his form fell away and he lost his place after touring New Zealand. After retiring he became an executive with Benson & Hedges, for many years the leading sponsor of Australian cricket.
Martin Williamson