Roy Marshall

fWotD Episode 3016: Roy Marshall

Welcome to featured Wiki of the Day, your daily dose of knowledge from Wikipedia's finest articles.

The featured article for Thursday, 7 August 2025, is Roy Marshall.

Roy Edwin Marshall (25 April 1930 – 27 October 1992) was a Barbadian cricketer who played in four Test matches for the West Indies and had an extensive domestic career with Hampshire in English county cricket. Marshall was born in Saint Thomas, Barbados. He made his debut in first-class cricket at the age of 15 for Barbados in January 1946, and three years later he established himself in the Barbadian side as an attacking opening batsman. After several strong performances for Barbados in West Indian domestic cricket, he was selected in the West Indian representative team. He played Test cricket between November 1951 and February 1952, making two appearances apiece against Australia and New Zealand. With several players surpassing him in the pecking order for Test selection, coupled with a disagreement with his teammates, he decided to end his brief international career and pursue a career in English county cricket.

Marshall joined Hampshire in 1953, and after completing his two-year residential qualification period he established himself as one of their opening batsmen. He would form a successful opening partnership with Jimmy Gray that spanned over a decade and was considered at the time the strongest in county cricket. He became a consistent and attacking opening batsman for Hampshire, and in 1959 he was chosen as one of five Wisden Cricketers of the Year. He was a member of the Hampshire side which won their first County Championship in 1961, and was appointed Hampshire's first professional captain in 1966. He held the captaincy until 1970, and retired in 1972. For Hampshire, he made 504 first-class appearances and scored 30,303 runs, a total for the county that is only surpassed by Phil Mead, who played for Hampshire between 1905 and 1936. In retirement, he moved to Taunton where he coached cricket at King's College and was a publican. He was appointed chairman of the Somerset County Cricket Club committee in 1987, a position he held until 1991, when ill-health forced him to step down. He died from skin cancer in October 1992.

This recording reflects the Wikipedia text as of 00:30 UTC on Thursday, 7 August 2025.

For the full current version of the article, see Roy Marshall on Wikipedia.

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