Died 27 April 1973 | ||
Leonard George Irvine (11 January 1906 – 27 April 1973) was an English army doctor who as a young man played first-class cricket for Cambridge University and Kent. He was born in Mumbai, then named Bombay, in India and died at Canterbury, Kent.
Educated at Taunton School and at Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, Irvine played cricket as a tail-end right-handed batsman and a right-arm leg-spin bowler. In the freshmen's trial match at Cambridge to try out new players for the 1926 season, Irvine was the unexpected star: Wisden Cricketers' Almanack noted that much was anticipated from known public school players such as Maurice Turnbull and Bunty Longrigg, but Irvine took eight wickets for just 32 runs in the first innings, and a further three in the second to finish with match figures of 11 for 42. That performance propelled him into the university's first team for the first game of the season and he retained his place throughout, being awarded his Blue for appearing in the University Match against Oxford University, though he took only one wicket in the match. Earlier in the season, he had taken 10 wickets in each of two consecutive matches, albeit against opposition of doubtful quality. In the match against the Free Foresters, he finished with 11 wickets for 145 runs, and his second innings seven for 79 were the best innings figures of his career. The next game against The Army produced 10 wickets for 101 runs. In the 1926 season as a whole, Irvine took 52 wickets at an average of 19.59 runs per wicket, and headed Cambridge's bowlers both in terms of number of wickets and average.
Days of success came less frequently for Irvine in 1927, and his 40 wickets in the season came at a cost of 28.57 runs each: he was hit for almost four runs an over, which was high for the standards of the time. He was, however, selected for a second University Match and took seven wickets in the game. At the end of the university cricket season, he turned out in a single match for an East of England team against the New Zealand touring team and in just one game for Kent's first team, then playing for Kent's second team in the Minor Counties to the end of the 1927 season. In 1928, he was tried in several games for Cambridge University, but was badly out of form and failed to retain his place in the side. He did not appear in first-class cricket again.
Irvine joined the Royal Army Medical Corps on leaving university and rose to the rank of colonel before retirement.