Sutcliffe, Herbert (1894-1978)

English cricketer. A prolific right-handed opening batsman from Yorkshire whose Test career average of 60.73 is the highest achieved by an Englishman batting in 10 or more innings. One of only seven players to have scored over 50,000 first class runs, he established famous opening partnerships with Percy Holmes for Yorkshire and with Jack Hobbs for England.

Career highlights

All first-class cricket (1919-45) matches: 747; innings: 1088 (123 not outs); runs: 50,138; average: 51.95; hundreds: 149; highest score: 313

Test cricket (1924-35) matches: 54; innings: 84 (9 not outs); runs: 4,555; average: 60.73; hundreds: 16; highest score: 194

He first played for Yorkshire in 1919, and quickly established himself as an opening batsman. With Holmes he set a world record opening stand of 555 against Essex in 1932, which stood until 1977. Their partnerships exceeded 100 74 times, and 200 23 times. In 1924 he joined Jack Hobbs in the England team and together they made 15 test-match century partnerships. When Sutcliffe retired from first class cricket in 1945 he had made over 1,000 runs in a season 21 times; over 2,000 12 times and over 3,000 three times.