Fred Cooper (cricketer, born 1921)
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| Bowling style | Leg-break | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Fred Cooper (18 April 1921–22 December 1986) was an English cricketer who played first-class cricket for Lancashire and Worcestershire shortly after the Second World War.
Cooper had played for Lancashire's Second XI as a teenager before the war, but his first-class debut came for that county against Oxford University in May 1946; he made 6 and 20 not out. Later that season he made his County Championship bow against Leicestershire, playing three Championship games in total, all in July. However, he left the county for Worcestershire at the end of the season.
1947 was nothing special for Cooper as his 26 innings brought only 380 runs at 18.09, but the following summer he had his best season in county cricket, hitting 618 runs at 22.88 including his only first-class century: 113 not out in the second innings against Nottinghamshire; his brother and team-mate Edwin had made exactly 100 in the first innings of the same match. [1] 1948 also saw Cooper selected for West of England against East of England, the last such first-class match. He made 53 and 16, but the West were beaten by 223 runs. [2]
In the 1949 and 1950 seasons, Cooper played only intermittently for the Worcestershire first team, spending a considerable amount of time turning out for the Second XI in the Minor Counties Championship. He made one first-class half-century in each season, but he was dismissed for single-figure scores in 13 of his 20 innings, and after the 1950 season his time in first-class cricket was brought to an end.
Cooper was born in Bacup, Lancashire; he died in Stourport-on-Severn, Worcestershire at the age of 65.
His brother Edwin had a much longer career with Worcestershire, playing 249 times for the county.
