A look at Charlie Lee's Derbyshire career

Adrian Booth emailed us about Charlie Lee, Derbyshire captain in 1963 and 1964.

Adrian wrote; “Charlie Lee was a neighbour of mine, living in the Herringthorpe area of Rotherham, and I was best pals with John Lee, who was Charlie’s son. John and I played cricket together and sometimes Charlie took me and John to watch Derbyshire matches, which are fond memories.

But my fondest memory is that one Sunday I called at Charlie’s house to see if his son John was coming out to play, and Charlie had got one of my idols, fast bowler Harold Rhodes, as their guest for Sunday dinner. When they had finished eating Charlie, Harold, John, and I went out into their back garden and we set up some stumps. I was easily the best player in our little group of young friends and was a good batsman for my age, but I clearly remember Harold Rhodes bowling at me and even with a tennis ball he skittled my stumps at will. It has to be said I was no match for an England international fast bowler!”

Our Heritage Officer, David Griffin, writes;

Charlie Lee had hoped to enjoy a lengthy career with his native Yorkshire but found his way blocked by Len Hutton and so negotiated his release and joined Derbyshire in 1953 making 61 in the second innings of his debut against Hampshire at Southampton.

An opening batsman described variously as durable, patient, and obdurate in contemporary reports, he played 270 all formats matches for Derbyshire scoring 12,050 runs putting him in 23rd place on Derbyshire’s all-time run scoring charts. He made eight hundreds and 68 fifties during his 11-year career at the club.

In 1955 he had a torrid time, playing 17 first-class matches but averaging only 10.89 from 29 innings with eight ducks.
Lesser men would have given up and returned to a full-time teaching role, but Lee, with his career at the crossroads, returned in 1956 with an aggregate of 1,482 runs at an average of almost 32 – enough to earn his county cap.

After that, Lee scored 1,000 or more runs in every season until his final summer, 1964, when injury struck and ended his career.
Lee’s contribution to Derbyshire cricket has to take into consideration the era in which he played; other than Donald Carr, the county had no outstanding batsman of genuine class. The bowling was generally exceptional and one additional top class batsman might have brought the county championship title to Derbyshire.

Runs were an extremely hard-earned commodity and both Guy Willatt and Donald Carr (Lee’s predecessors as captain) both frequently pointed out that Derbyshire were rarely in the position where they could buy wickets or play in a cavalier fashion. Runs had to be protected, fielding had to be dynamic and the bowlers would do the rest.

In 1963 Lee became Derbyshire’s first professional captain since 1889 but couldn’t avoid the ignominy of the county finishing bottom of the championship. He had taken over from Carr, had lost the services of George Dawkes and Les Jackson was in his last season – the side of which he had been a part in the 1950s and which had finished in the top six on six occasions was now tired and in decline.

Lee was a fine cricketer and captain and his summary of the values of the game which he described on retirement are worth printing here; “Runs and wickets, personal performances are transient things and are as nothing compared with the real gifts of this great game. The challenges, the crises, the fun, the pathos, the comradeship, the way you play the game; these are the enduring factors of cricket and I commend them most seriously to all youngsters.”

The last word on Lee goes to Mike Carey, a legendary cricket journalist who covered Derbyshire for decades and who said on hearing of Charlie’s death in 1999; “I was happy to remember Charlie Lee not only as a fine cricketer but as a true gentleman and valued friend.”