Jim Redman (cricketer)

James Redman (1 March 1926 at Bath, Somerset – 24 September 1981 at Salisbury, Wiltshire) played first-class cricket for Somerset as a fast-medium bowler between 1948 and 1953.

Redman was a right-handed lower order batsman and a right-arm seam bowler, "only a little above medium pace". After playing club cricket for Bath Cricket Club, he was tried in two matches for Somerset in 1948; the second of these was the match against the Australian team known as the Invincibles, and Redman with three wickets for 78 runs was the most successful of the Somerset bowlers – though an Australian total of 560 for five wickets gave them victory by an innings and 374 runs inside two days.

Redman was used primarily as an opening bowler for a weak side whose principal wicket-takers throughout his career were all spin bowlers. There were six matches and 11 wickets in 1949 and 10 matches with 16 expensive wickets in 1950. Seven of these 16 wickets came in one match against Surrey at The Oval, and in the first Surrey innings he took five for 50, the first five-wicket return of his career.Wisden noted that he bowled "at a fine pace" and that he took four wickets for 18 runs as Surrey fell to 49 for five before a recovery.

In 1951, he played in all but the first of Somerset's County Championship matches – he appeared in 27 games – and was awarded his county cap. He took 50 wickets in all at the relatively high average of 33.76. After the third Championship match, Maurice Tremlett, who had taken eight wickets to that point, did not bowl again during the season, and Redman opened the bowling in every other game with Bertie Buse, also barely above medium pace; they were backed by the three spin bowlers, Ellis Robinson, Johnny Lawrence and Horace Hazell, and these five bowlers then took all of Somerset's wickets for Championship matches across the whole summer. Redman had limited numbers of successful days: against Nottinghamshire at Yeovil he took five wickets for 151 runs after Tremlett had withdrawn from the attack. But his best performance was a month later at Frome: in the Derbyshire first innings, bowling unchanged with Buse, Redman took seven wickets for 23 runs as Derbyshire were dismissed for just 52 in an hour and 45 minutes. This return, from what Wisden termed "deadly swing bowling by Redman", was the best of his first-class career. In addition to his bowling, Redman also batted usefully in the lower order in 1951, making 472 runs at an average of 13.88. His highest score of the season, and the highest of his career, was 45 against Essex at Brentwood.