Harold Gimblett
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| Full name | Harold Gimblett | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Born |
19 October 1914 Bicknoller, Somerset, England |
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| Died | 30 March 1978 (aged 63) Verwood, Dorset, England |
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| Batting style | Right-hand | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Bowling style | Right-arm medium | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Role | Batsman | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| National side | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Test debut (cap 290) | 27 June 1936 v India | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Last Test | 24 June 1939 v West Indies | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Years | Team | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 1935–1954 | Somerset | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Source: Cricinfo, 31 August 2009 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Harold Gimblett (19 October 1914 — 30 March 1978) was a cricketer who played for Somerset and England. He was known for his fast scoring as an opening batsman and for the much-repeated story of his debut. In a book first published in 1982, the cricket writer and Somerset historian David Foot wrote: "Harold Gimblett is the greatest batsman Somerset has ever produced."
Gimblett scored at a fast rate throughout his career, and hit 265 sixes – "surely a record for a regular opening batsman", wrote Eric Hill, his postwar opening partner and thereafter a long-time journalist watcher of Somerset. He appeared, however, in only three Tests, none of them against Australia, and he left first-class cricket abruptly, suffering from mental health problems that would remain with him to the end of his life.
Harold Gimblett was born at Bicknoller in the in west Somerset, where his family had been farmers since the 15th century. He was the youngest of three brothers and was educated at the local school at Williton and then at the fee-paying West Buckland School just over the border in Devon.
He played cricket successfully at school and for Watchet Cricket Club. In 1931, he left school; in August of that year, he made the first of his significant innings. In the match between Watchet and Wellington Cricket Club, he came to the wicket with Watchet on 37 for seven, chasing a total of 160. With another teenage batsman, Allan Pearse, Gimblett hit off the runs, making 91 himself. A year later, he was co-opted into the Somerset Stragglers team, a peripatetic amateur team which played matches across south west England, composed of former public school players of varying abilities, some of whom were the amateurs who formed a large contingent of Somerset county players up to the Second World War. In his first match for the Stragglers team, against Wellington School, he made 142 in 75 minutes.
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