Jock Livingston

Infobox Old Cricketer


nationality = Australian
country = Australia
country abbrev = Aus
picture = Cricket_no_pic.pngname = Jock Livingston
batting style = Left-hand batsman
bowling style = Slow left-arm (occ WK)
FCs = 236
FC runs = 15260
FC bat avg = 45.01
FC 100s/50s = 34/79
FC top score = 210
FC balls = 138
FC wickets = 4
FC bowl avg = 12.50
FC 5s = -
FC 10s = -
FC best bowling = 2-22
FC catches/stumpings = 148/23
debut date = 28 November
debut year = 1941
last date = 29 August
last year = 1964
source = http://www.cricketarchive.co.uk/Archive/Players/5/5958/5958.html CricketArchive

Leonard "Jock" Livingston, born at Hurlstone Park, Sydney on May 3, 1920 and died there on January 16, 1998, was an Australian cricketer who played most of his first-class cricket in England.

Livingston was a hard-hitting left-handed batsman and an occasional wicketkeeper. He played five times for New South Wales with some success, but was not picked for the remarkably talented 1948 Australian tour to England, and turned instead to Lancashire League cricket, where he played for Royton.

In 1949-50, when MCC declined to tour India, the former England wicketkeeper George Duckworth assembled a "Commonwealth" side consisting of Lancashire League players plus a handful of English and West Indian cricketers. Livingston captained the side, which included Bill Alley, George Tribe and Frank Worrell. The tour was a big success and the side played five unofficial "Tests" against full Indian Test sides.

At the end of the tour, Livingston was signed as a batsman by Northamptonshire as part of the county's policy to import talented cricketers, a policy that brought in the England captain Freddie Brown from Surrey. Livingston was an immediate success, scoring 1966 runs in his first season, and over the next eight years he was often near the top of the English batting averages. In the three seasons from 1954, he scored more than 2000 runs per season, with a best performance of 2269 runs in 1954 at an average of more than 55 runs per innings. He had a less successful season in 1957 when the county side finished second in the County Championship, its highest ever placing, and he retired at the end of that season, reappearing in just a couple of later less serious matches, the last in 1964.

Livingston's value was not just in the runs that he scored, but also the style in which he scored them: in a period when defensive batting was commonplace, he hit the ball hard and often, and was no respecter of reputations. His presence at Northamptonshire also attracted other talented players, including fellow Australians Tribe and Jack Manning and the wicketkeeper Keith Andrew.

In retirement, he worked for the bat-making company Gray-Nicolls.

References

* Wisden 1951 to 1958 editions
* [http://www.cricketarchive.co.uk/Archive/Players/5/5958/5958.html www.cricketarchive.co.uk]