David Walker: Norfolk’s Master Batsman
ACS Book of the Week
Each week we spotlight a fascinating title from the vast collection catalogued in the Cricket Bibliography project, drawing on insightful (but not necessarily positive!) reviews from the archives of our journal. Today we bring you David Walker: Norfolk’s Master Batsman (2025) by Andy Dawson, reviewed by Stephen Musk.
For no fewer than 63 years the record partnership for the first wicket in the Minor Counties Championship was 323. That was made by the Norfolk bats, David Walker (who scored 217) and Harold Theobald (with 93), when playing against Northumberland in 1939. Walker, an amateur, was one of the very best bats in the history of Minor Counties cricket. In all he scored 4034 runs for Norfolk at an average of 62.06 – an incredibly high figure that even the most accomplished professional “hired guns” could barely aspire to. He could easily have played for a first-class county but chose instead to represent Norfolk, the county of his birth. But most cricket fans are unfamiliar with the Minor Counties and not likely be more than vaguely aware of Walker. He is definitely worth remembering and so is an ideal subject for the Lives in Cricket series.
His story can be briefly told. After attending a couple of ghastly prep schools, Walker went on to Uppingham School, where he was a popular and successful captain and also an accomplished bat: his top score was an unbeaten 224 made against Shrewsbury. He then went up to Brasenose College, Oxford, going on to skipper the Dark Blues in 1935. He subsequently became master of cricket at Harrow and toured Egypt with HM Martineau’s XI in 1939. At Oxford he had been a member of the University Air Squadron and served in the RAF during the war. He was shot down off the coast of Norway in 1942 and died aged just 28. By all accounts he was an exemplary individual – a thorough “good egg”.
Author Andy Dawson apologises that this biography took around a quarter of a century to write. He puts this down to ‘sheer laziness’ but has no need to apologise. His research has been exhaustive; he has interviewed an impressively wide range of interested parties and put together a fine collection of photographs. As a result, I would highly recommend this book.
If I had to be picky, I would say that the statistics are a little brief. And there is an elephant in their room. Despite receiving fulsome praise from the likes of ‘Plum’ Warner and Bill Edrich, Walker’s first-class batting average was less than 30. Unfortunately, Dawson declines to comment on this anomaly.