Dean Harry Image 5 Lancashire 1920

Description

Burnley, Lancashire born Harry Dean was a left-arm bowler who could bowl fast-medium swing or slower spinners to suit the conditions. He made his Lancashire debut in 1906, and made an immediate impact with 60 wickets in his first season. He took 100 wickets in 1907 but was expensive given that virtually all pitches suited spin bowling. However, by developing fast-medium swingers of a similar style to George Hirst as a dry-weather alternative to his slow-medium spinners, Dean improved steadily to be by 1910 clearly the best bowler in the Lancashire eleven with 137 wickets. In 1911, although he was overworked when Walter Brearley was away on business,

Dean went from strength to strength, taking 175 wickets in the County Championship and being by 23 wickets the leading bowler in first class cricket (this in spite of often resting when the fast bowler was away from business). In the six games he did partner Brearley, the two gave enough evidence that they could be formidable indeed: against Kent on a perfect wicket at Canterbury they took eight wickets for 58 at the start and went on to take all twenty wickets in the match with Brearley claiming 12-218 and Dean 8-144, so depriving Kent of a hat-trick of titles in the process.

In 1912, now almost exclusively bowling spin, Dean was better than ever and in wet weather carried all before him, taking 13-49 against Worcestershire and 15 wickets against Kent, both at Old Trafford. Dean played three times for England that summer in the 1912 Triangular Tournament, playing twice against Australia, making his debut at Lord’s in June, and once against South Africa. Though he bowled very well in these games taking 11 wickets in total, with 4-19 on a sticky wicket in the decisive Test against Australia at The Oval his high point, Dean was near retirement before the next home Tests were played and was never thought likely to do well abroad.

In 1913, Dean was steady but rather expensive on the hard wickets, but on a rain-affected pitch in a special “Roses match” against Yorkshire arranged for the visit of King George V to the Aigburth ground at Liverpool, Dean accomplished one of the best performance in first class cricket. He took 9-62 in the first innings, and 8-29 in the second, and his match figures of 17-91 remain the best in a first class match for Lancashire and against Yorkshire.

In 1914, Dean was absent for most of the first half of the season, and did only one notable performance on returning when he took 13-84 against a strong Hampshire side, whilst he was very disappointing in 1919. However, he surprised the critics in 1920 with a superb season, taking over 120 wickets and with Lawrence Cook helping Lancashire to second spot, his seventh season in which he’d taken 100 or more wickets. He bowled very well in 1921 taking 53 wickets even if helped by some appalling batting sides, but then left Lancashire to join Cheshire in the Minor Counties Championship, for whom Brearley had played and Dean continued to play for them until 1926. After his retirement from playing cricket, he coached at Rossall School.

In a first class career of 267 matches, Dean took 1,301 wickets at an average of 18.14, with 24 ten wicket matches and 97 five wicket innings. He never scored a half century with the bat although his highest score was 49 not out, averaging 10.31 in 370 innings. He also took 121 catches in first class cricket.