Jim de Courcy

Who was Jim de Courcy?

James Harry de Courcy was an Australian cricketer who played in three Tests on the 1953 Australian tour of England.

De Courcy was a dashing right-handed middle-order batsman who played for New South Wales for 10 years from the 1947-48 season. A regular as a specialist batsman in the state side from 1949–50, he did not make a first-class century until late in the 1951-52 season, when he hit 114 against South Australia in the Sheffield Shield match at Sydney. That remained his highest score in Australia, though he added a second domestic cricket century the following season, 1952–53, in the match against Victoria at Melbourne.

The 1952-53 season was de Courcy's most successful in Australian cricket, with 503 runs at an average of 41.91 runs per innings. He was picked as an extra batsman for the 1953 tour of England, and outside the Test series on the tour was one of the most successful batsmen in first-class matches, scoring 1214 runs at an average of 41.86. His four centuries on the tour were the four highest scores of his career, and were headed by 204 in an end-of-season match against Combined Services, when he was outdone by 262 not out from Keith Miller, with whom he shared a partnership of 377 in 205 minutes for the fourth wicket.