David Blake (English cricketer)

David Eustace Blake (27 April 1925 – 21 May 2015) was an English amateur cricketer.[1] He was a left-handed batsman who played primarily as an opening batsman and as an occasional wicketkeeper.

Blake attended Aldenham School and Guy's Hospital Dental School.[2] He made his first-class debut for Hampshire in 1949 against a Combined Services team. In the same year he made his County Championship debut against Middlesex. Blake played regular matches for the county in the Championship over the coming years.

In 1952 Blake played for the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) against Ireland in Dublin. The following year he represented the Free Foresters in a single first-class match against Cambridge University.

By the end of the 1954 season Blake's appearances for Hampshire were becoming less frequent and in 1955/56 he toured the West Indies with EW Swanton's XI, and played against the national teams of Barbados and Trinidad and against a West Indies XI.

Blake represented Hampshire in a single first-class match in 1956 against Worcestershire. Also in 1956, he played for the Gentlemen of England in a single match against the touring Australians. In the 1957 season, he did not play any matches for Hampshire, but did play a single first-class match for the Duke of Norfolk's XI against Jamaica, in their tour to the West Indies.

In the 1958 County Championship Blake represented Hampshire five times, with his final first-class match for the club coming against Warwickshire. In his fifty matches for Hampshire, Blake scored 1,811 runs at an average of 21.81. Blake made one century for the club, which yielded his highest score of 100, as well as making twelve half centuries. Behind the stumps Blake took 62 catches and 8 stumpings, though for his county career he was rarely the first-choice wicketkeeper. In 1959, while representing the Free Foresters Blake scored his second career century, making exactly 100 against Oxford University.

Blake represented MCC a further five times up to 1961, with his final match for the club coming against Ireland. In ten first-class matches for MCC, he scored 491 runs at an average of 23.27, making three half centuries and a high score of 76. Behind the stumps for MCC he took 15 catches and made 10 stumpings.

He had a dental practice in Portsmouth in Hampshire, and played only when the demands of the practice allowed him time to do so.[3]