Former Yorkshire and England bowler Edric (Eddie) Leadbeater has died at the age of 83, his nephew has confirmed.
Former Yorkshire and England player passes away
Former Yorkshire and England bowler Edric (Eddie) Leadbeater has died at the age of 83, his nephew has confirmed.
Leadbeater took 289 wickets in his county career and also played in two Test matches for England.
He made 81 appearances during his seven seasons with Yorkshire, from 1949 to 1956, and went on to play a further 37 matches for Warwickshire before his retirement from county cricket in 1958.
He was called up by England on the 1951/52 MCC tour of India, where he made 40 runs, bowled eight maidens and took two wickets.
As a batsman, his lone first-class century came in his final season when he scored 116 against Glamorgan at Coventry.
Modest
His nephew Marcus Turner said: "He was the most modest of men, passionate about cricket but always self-effacing about his achievements in the game.
"He was a very popular figure and no-one had a bad word to say about him. His great friend in his early days with Yorkshire was Fred Trueman. The two of them were always joking around.
"In his young days, he was also pretty nifty on the football field - he was a great all-rounder.
"Many years after his county cricket career was over, he said, 'I wish I was back as a 14-year-old. I'd do it all again'."
Leadbeater continued to play after the end of his first-class career, mainly in the Huddersfield league, where he took more than 1,000 wickets for Almondbury before retiring for good at the age of 68.
He died on Sunday at a Huddersfield nursing home, where he had been living for almost a year.
