LANGRIDGE, JOHN GEORGE, MBE, who died on June 27, aged 89, was one of the best English cricketers of the 20th century never to play a Test match. He turned out for Sussex from 1928 to 1955, and came into contention at the worst possible moment, earning selection for the 1939-40 tour of India which was cancelled by war. Langridge was an opening batsman with an unclassical, open stance that made him strongest on the leg side. His batting was as idiosyncratic as it was stoical, said The Times. He was not only one of the game's great accumulators, he was one of the great fidgeters, adjusting every part of his equipment before each ball, a ritual which could never be omitted. He was only ever seen without his Sussex cap when he took it off in acknowledgment of applause, a doffing which revealed a head bereft of hair above his small, round and rosy face. Langridge removed it on reaching a hundred 76 times, a figure unmatched by any other non-Test cricketer. Eight of these were double-hundreds. He remains 40th in the all-time run-scoring list; Alan Jones of Glamorgan is the only non-Test player above him. In 1933, he shared an opening stand of 490 in 350 minutes against Middlesex with Ted Bowley, which remains the fourth highest for the first wicket in first-class cricket. Langridge also took 784 catches, mainly in the slips, where his huge, disproportionate hands missed hardly anything; 69 of them came in his last season, 1955, when he was well into his forties. However, the figures understate his real standing in cricket. The Langridges - John, his elder brother James and James's son Richard - are one of the great locally rooted families who have characterised Sussex cricket. John was born in Chailey, lived in Brighton for 50 years and died in Eastbourne. After his playing career, he became a first-class umpire for 25 seasons; his concentration, his affability, and his quiet but old-fashioned insistence of standards made him universally respected. In this incarnation, he finally did make it on to the Test field: seven times. As he aged, his complexion grew more apple-red and he seemed, alongside Sam Cook, to represent everything that was best about county cricket. It was not an illusion.
Wisden Cricketers' Almanack