Ossie Wheatley

Who is Ossie Wheatley?

Oswald Stephen "Ossie" Wheatley is a former cricketer who played for Cambridge University, Warwickshire and led Glamorgan to a County Championship win in 1969.

Wheatley was born at Low Fell, Gateshead, County Durham. He was educated at King Edward's School, Birmingham. A tall, fair-haired right-arm fast-medium bowler, he came to prominence for Cambridge University in 1958 when he set the record for the most wickets in the university's abbreviated season with 80 first-class wickets for under 18 each. He played in the university holidays for Warwickshire with very limited success but in 1959 joined that county full-time, taking 100 wickets in the season though at a rather high cost. He repeated the feat in 1960, but at the end of the season was allowed to leave for Glamorgan, where he was appointed captain in place of Wilf Wooller, who had led the county since 1947.

Wheatley formed a hostile new ball partnership with the Test bowler Jeff Jones for a few seasons and in six years as captain took more than 600 wickets at an average of less than 20 runs per wicket. He retired from the captaincy at the end of the 1966 season, and played only a few matches in 1967. But in 1968 an early season injury to Jones meant that Wheatley returned to play in 16 County Championship matches, bowling with such success that he took 82 wickets at a cost of under 13 runs each and topped the national averages for the season. He was named as a Wisden Cricketer of the Year in the 1969 edition of the almanack.