Eddie Cooper      

Eddie Cooper was a stylish right-handed professional batsman for Worcestershire from 1937 to 1951. During that time he scored 13,304 runs for the county, including 18 centuries, at an average of 31.90. Born at Bacup, he played for the local club in the Lancashire League before qualifying for Worcestershire, for whom he met with immediate success. He reached 1212 runs, average 23.30, in his first season and put together a four-figure aggregate in each of the next eight summers till he left to take up a coaching appointment at the Royal Naval College, Dartmouth.

Cooper's highest innings for Worcestershire was 216 not out off the Warwickshire bowling at Dudley in 1938, when he batted without fault for six and a half hours and he and S. H. Martin (136) put on 245 for the fourth wicket. The following season he made the highest innings, 69, in the low-scoring tie game with Somerset at Kidderminster and on the same ground in 1946 hit 191 and 106 not out in the match with Northamptonshire. Generally an opening batsman, he used his height to get to the pitch of the ball, which he watched very closely; employed neat footwork against spin bowling and, with a high back-lift, put considerable power into his strokes. He was at his best on the off-side and in hooking.

His most successful season was that of 1949 when, with 1872 runs, average 46.80, he headed the Worcestershire figures. In 1951 he and Don Kenyon became what Wisden termed almost the ideal opening pair, sharing seven partnerships of over 100. He was also a capital fieldsman in the deep. After leaving Dartmouth, he coached for a time at Bedford School.
Wisden Cricketers' Almanack