Full name Levi George Wright | 1883–1909 Derbyshire Name Levi Wright | |
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Born 15 January 1862 ( 1862-01-15 ) Oxford, England Died 11 January 1953(1953-01-11) (aged 90)
Normanton, Derbyshire, England Role Batsman, occ wicket-keeper
Derbyshire captain 1906–07 First-class debut 30 July 1883 Derbyshire v Sussex | ||
Batting style Right-handed batsman | ||
Levi George Wright (15 January 1862 – 11 January 1953) was an English footballer and cricketer. He played association football for Derby County and Notts County and cricket for Derbyshire from 1883 to 1909 being captain for a season and a half in 1906–07. He scored over 15,000 runs in his first-class career and took 237 catches. He was one of nineteen sportsman who achieved the Derbyshire Double of playing cricket for Derbyshire and football for Derby County.
Wright was born at Oxford and moved to Derby in 1881 to become a teacher at St Anne's School. He first played for the Napier Cricket Club, a pub team based at 'Sir Charles Napier' in Derby and then for the Derby Midland Club. He played for Derbyshire from 1883 through to 1909, his career including the period from 1888 to 1894 when Derbyshire were demoted from first-class status because of poor results. They were reinstated in 1894 and admitted to the County Championship in 1895. He captained Derbyshire for part of 1906 and for the whole season in 1907, although the team finished bottom of the Championship in both seasons.
Wright was a right-handed batsman and a renowned fieldsman at point. He also occasionally kept wicket. Wright made almost 15,000 runs for Derbyshire at an average of 26 runs per innings. His best seasons came as he got older: he scored 1,000 runs in a season six times, the first when he was 37 years old, and his best season of all was 1905, when in all matches he scored 1,855 runs, at an average of more than 42 runs per innings. The citation as a Wisden Cricketer of the Year in the 1906 edition of Wisden paid tribute not just to his run-getting at the age of 43, but also his continued quick reactions as a fielder. He took many brilliant catches, standing within four or five yards of the bat, and on one occasion came in so close that he caught the bat instead of the ball.
Wright's football career began at the Derby Midland club, in their inaugural season of 1881. He performed consistently at half-back, and was invited to join Derby County when it was formed in 1884. His early games for Derby County were before the League was formed, but he made four appearances during the first Football League season of 1888–89.
Wright died at Normanton, Derbyshire at the age of nearly 91.