Paine George Image 1 Warwickshire 1935

Description

Paddington, London born slow left-arm orthodox spin bowler George Paine played in five first class matches for Middlesex in 1926, in one match taking taking 5-77 and 3-25 against Warwickshire, who were so much impressed with his possibilities that, with the consent of Middlesex, they invited him to qualify for them, making his Warwickshire debut in 1929.

Inclined in his first two seasons to be expensive, he developed into a top class spinner from 1931, adding extra flight and spin to his delivery. He took 127 wickets in that season at 19.20,  and passed the 100 wickets mark in each of the next five seasons, with 136 at 18.93 in 1932 and a best season’s performance of 156 wickets at 17.07 apiece in 1934, when he was top of the first class averages. He was picked as a Wisden Cricketer of the Year in the 1935 edition of Wisden Cricketers’ Almanack.

In 1934-35, he was chosen, with his County colleague Eric Hollies, for the Marylebone Cricket Club (M.C.C.) tour of The West Indies and there he played his only Test matches, making his England debut at Bridgetown in January 1935. He took more wickets, 17, than any other England bowler and also hit the highest score, 49, in England’s innings of 226 in the third Test match at Georgetown, having been sent in as a nightwatchman. But the tour as a whole was not a success, with The West Indies winning the four match series by two to one, and Paine was not picked for any further Test matches.

In fact, in 1935, though he still took more than 100 wickets, Paine was much less effective for Warwickshire; Wisden for 1936 says that he “suffered from physical trouble”, which appears to have been rheumatism, and that he had lost much of the flight and spin that had made him a force since 1931. He was ill for much of 1936, back but out of form in 1937 and after another ineffective season in 1938, when he was given a benefit by the County, he refused the terms Warwickshire offered for 1939 and left first class cricket, though he reappeared in one match in an emergency in 1947.

As a right-handed lower order batsman he could be effective and made 7 half centuries during his 258 match career at an average of 11.95, with a highest score of 79. With his bowling he took a total of 1,021 wickets at 22.85 apiece and recorded a best return of 8-43, taking ten or more wickets in a match on 13 occasions, and recording 74 five wicket innings.

In retirement he was groundsman and a coach at Solihull School.

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