Ray Watson-Smith

Raymond Watson-Smith (born 20 February 1940) is a former South African cricketer. Playing for Border in 1969-70, he scored a not-out century in each of his first two first-class matches, and reached 310 runs before being dismissed.

Ray Watson-Smith
Personal information
Full nameRaymond Watson-Smith
Born (1940-02-20) 20 February 1940
Mowbray, Cape Town, Cape Province, South Africa
BattingRight-handed
BowlingRight-arm medium-pace
Domestic team information
YearsTeam
1969-70Border
Career statistics
Competition FC List A
Matches 5 1
Runs scored 444 47
Batting average 88.80 47.00
100s/50s 2/1 0/0
Top score 183* 47
Balls bowled 12 0
Wickets 0 –
Bowling average – –
5 wickets in innings – –
10 wickets in match – –
Best bowling – –
Catches/stumpings 4/– 3/–
Source: CricketArchive, 9 July 2016

Cricket career

Ray Watson-Smith made his first-class debut for Border against Orange Free State in November 1969 in the B Section of the Currie Cup. In a drawn match in Bloemfontein, in which 1258 runs were scored in three days for the loss of only 17 wickets, Watson-Smith, batting at number seven, scored 183 not out, the highest of five centuries in the match.[1] In the next match, against Griqualand West in East London two weeks later, he batted at number six and made 125 not out in 145 minutes. Border won by an innings.[2] He was finally dismissed for the first time in the next match against Natal B, when he made 2 and 19, and Border lost by an innings.[3] In the fourth and last match of the Currie Cup season he made 25 and 53 not out in a draw with North Eastern Transvaal.[4]

He finished the Currie Cup season at the top of the competition's batting averages, with 407 runs at an average of 135.66.[5] He then played for Border against the Australians, scoring 28 and 9.[6] At the end of the season he played one match in South Africa's first List A cricket tournament, top-scoring with 47 in a losing Border team.[7]

His captain at Border, Gordon Minkley, said Watson-Smith was a talented player but "He hit a lot of balls in the air and I think the word quickly got around among the other teams." Watson-Smith moved away from Border after the 1969-70 season and played no further first-class cricket.[8]

Watson-Smith's 310 career runs before being dismissed remained a world record until 2015, when the Victorian batsman Travis Dean made 347 runs before being dismissed. Dean was dismissed in his second first-class match.[9]

gollark: Yes, I thought of this, but the issue is [REDACTED]ing grudgers.
gollark: The only major improvement I can think of would maybe be patternmatching on the weird alternating one, and turning evil at some point in order to exploit angels.
gollark: Against the random one it rapidly decides to not trust it and probably does well for it, against tit for tat it cooperates, against tat for tit it soon apifies it, against devil it also soon apifies it, against angel it's nice to it (suboptimal, can't really fix it easily), against time machine it cooperates, against grudger it cooperates, and that's basically it.
gollark: It probably isn't optimal but you know.
gollark: ```scheme(define forgiving-grudge (lambda (x y) (let* ( (defection-count (length (filter (lambda (m) (= m 1)) x))) (result (if (> defection-count 3) 1 0)) ) result)))```As far as I can tell this consistently wins.

References
  1. "Orange Free State v Border 1969-70". CricketArchive. Retrieved 10 July 2016.
  2. "Border v Griqualand West 1969-70". CricketArchive. Retrieved 10 July 2016.
  3. "Natal B v Border 1969-70". CricketArchive. Retrieved 10 July 2016.
  4. "Border v North Eastern Transvaal 1969-70". CricketArchive. Retrieved 10 July 2016.
  5. "Batting and fielding in Currie Cup 1969-70". CricketArchive. Retrieved 10 July 2016.
  6. "Border v Australians 1969-70". CricketArchive. Retrieved 10 July 2016.
  7. "RG Pollock's XI v GA Minkley's XI 1969-70". CricketArchive. Retrieved 10 July 2016.
  8. Colin Bryden, All-Rounder: The Buster Farrer Story, Aloe Publishing, Kidd's Beach, 2013, pp. 103-104.
  9. "Sheffield Shield: Victoria captain Matthew Wade and WA all-rounder Hilton Cartwright on opening day". Daily Telegraph. 14 November 2015. Retrieved 10 July 2016.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.