Ken Taylor
- Mark Adair
- Andy Balbirnie
- Curtis Campher
- George Dockrell
- Josh Little
- Barry McCarthy
- Paul Stirling
- Harry Tector
- Lorcan Tucker
- Craig Young
Alphabetically sorted top ten of players who have played the most matches across formats in the last 12 months
Full Name
Kenneth Alexander Taylor
Born
September 29, 1916, Muswell Hill, Middlesex
Died
April 05, 2002, Gamston, Nottingham, (aged 85y 188d)
Batting Style
Right hand Bat
Bowling Style
Right arm Medium
TEAMS
Wisden Obituary
Taylor, Kenneth Alexander, died in Nottingham on April 5, 2002, aged 85. Ken
Taylor was cricket manager of Nottinghamshire from 1978 to 1990 and so provided
the guiding hand when they won the County Championship in 1981 and 1987, and
Lord's finals in 1987 and 1989. His first essay into county cricket had not known such
success. Taylor had been playing club cricket in London when, in response to an advert
in the Sporting Chronicle, he went to Edgbaston for a trial and was taken on the
Warwickshire staff in 1939. The war scotched his immediate prospects, but a
commission in the Royal Warwicks developed the management skills that would serve
Nottinghamshire so effectively. After demobilisation, and recovered from the wounds
he received in the Normandy landings, he took up Warwickshire's invitation to rejoin
them and, opening the innings, began with 82 against Sussex. In 1947 he was the
established No. 3, scoring 1,259 runs at 26.22 and hitting what proved to be his only
century, 102 against Gloucestershire at Edgbaston. Yet within two years he was in and
out of the side, batting up and down the order, and he was not retained after 1949.
In 87 first-class games he had scored 3,145 runs at 21.69, taken one wicket and held
42 catches.
Now 36, Taylor went to work for the East Midlands Electricity Board in Nottingham.
As a member of Nottingham Forest CC, he was on the Notts committee from 1963
and experienced at close hand the county's struggles in the bottom reaches of the
Championship. "People were just going aimlessly through the motions," said Clive
Rice, the Championship-winning captain, whom Taylor signed to replace Garry Sobers
as overseas player in 1975 when he was chairman of the cricket committee. "Ken
picked up the club by the scruff of the neck and moulded us into a winning unit." He was helped in this by the unholy fallout from World Series Cricket that resulted in
Rice being sacked in 1978, replaced by Richard Hadlee and then reinstated after learned
advice. At a stroke Taylor, in his first season as full-time cricket manager, had two
world-class all-rounders, not to mention the England batsman Derek Randall, around
whom to build his team. Rice and Hadlee, disciplined to the core, gave Nottinghamshire
their professional edge; Taylor, compassionate though no less lacking in purpose, made
sure there was always a human touch in the dressing-room. It proved a winning
combination.
Wisden Cricketers' Almanack
Ken Taylor Career Stats
Batting & Fielding
Format | Mat | Inns | NO | Runs | HS | Ave | 100s | 50s | Ct | St |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
FC | 87 | 155 | 10 | 3145 | 102 | 21.68 | 1 | 13 | 42 | 0 |
Bowling
Format | Mat | Balls | Runs | Wkts | BBI | Ave | Econ | SR | 5w | 10w |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
FC | 87 | 48 | 33 | 1 | 1/18 | 33.00 | 4.12 | 48.0 | 0 | 0 |
Recent Matches of Ken Taylor
Match | Bat | Date | Ground | Format |
---|---|---|---|---|
Warwickshire vs Australians | 10 & 0 | 04-Aug-1948 | Birmingham | FC |