Tommy Greenhough

Thomas Greenhough (9 November 1931 – 15 September 2009) was an English cricketer, who represented Lancashire during the 1950s and 1960s, as well as playing four Tests for England.

After the retirement of Doug Wright, Eric Hollies and Roly Jenkins, together with the disappearance from the county scene of Bruce Dooland and Gamini Goonesena, Greenhough stood as the last county leg spinner of any standing in an era when overgrassed pitches and bowling tactics changing rapidly from the enterprising attack of the 1940s to rigid containment rapidly removed this style of bowling from prominence. Greenhough had nothing like the spin of Wright or Jenkins, but could disguise his googly exceptionally well, although he bowled from a quite long run-up for a slow bowler. During 1959 and 1960, Greenhough formed an extremely valuable complement to Brian Statham – at the time probably the greatest post-war English bowler – but for the remainder of his career a succession of injuries, and form lapses, prevented him reaching the potential those two seasons suggested.

Cricket writer, Colin Bateman, commented that "it was amazing that Tommy Greenhough played Test cricket at all. As a young player with Lancashire, he took a job in a cotton mill during the winter and fell from a gantry. Both ankles were badly broken and his feet ended up different sizes". Bateman went on, "he overcame his handicap to become one of the most inventive leg-break bowlers in the country, performing well when called up in 1959. He could, however, lose confidence, as happened on the 1960 tour of the West Indies, where he did not play a Test."