Ian Thomson (cricketer)

Born 23 January 1929 in Walsall, Staffordshire, Thomson was a medium-fast right-arm swing and seam bowler, of accuracy and consistency, and a lower-order batsman. He was a member of the Sussex bowling attack for fourteen seasons from 1952 to 1965, and took more than 100 wickets in every season except the first and last of that sequence.[1] The later part of Thomson's career coincided with the first one-day competition. He picked up the man of the match award in the 1964 Gillette Cup final, when Sussex beat Warwickshire.

He was picked for the 1964–65 Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) tour to South Africa, which was led by the Warwickshire captain, M. J. K. Smith. He played in all five Tests on the tour, and was used largely as a stock bowler, with the spinners Fred Titmus and David Allen taking most wickets. A spate of injuries on the tour led to a call-up for Ken Palmer, who was coaching locally, and Geoffrey Boycott was also used as a bowler. Thomson took nine wickets in the five Tests, only four more than Boycott. This was not Thomson's only overseas experience with MCC. In 1955–56, he had toured Pakistan, with the side led by Donald Carr, which played only "unofficial" Tests: in fact, he appeared in none of these matches, and played only four other games on the tour.

Thomson retired after the 1965 English season,[1] though he reappeared in two matches in 1972, when Sussex had an injury crisis. In 1961, he scored 780 runs in the season at an average of more than 20, and in several other years he contributed more than 500 runs.

• Wisden, 1953 to 1966 editions

• www.CricketArchive.co.uk