Charles Lee

Who was Charles Lee?

Charles Lee was an English first-class cricketer, who played two matches for Yorkshire in 1952, one for the Minor Counties in 1953, and 268 matches for Derbyshire between 1954 and 1964. He captained Derbyshire in his last two seasons in the game, and scored over 12,000 runs for the club.

Lee was born in Eastwood, Rotherham, Yorkshire, England, and became a schoolteacher after leaving the RAF in 1947. He appeared for Yorkshire Second XI for a couple of seasons before making his debut against Scotland. He played his only County Championship game for Yorkshire against Surrey in August 1952, deputising for Len Hutton, and was an instant success, opening the batting and scoring 74 and 14 as Yorkshire cruised to a nine wicket win.

Despite this bright start Lee was not retained by the county, and his county career might have ended there. He played in a match for the Minor Counties against the Australian tourists at Stoke on Trent in 1953 and, though he only scored 23, he was their sole source of resistance as they crumbled for 56 and 65 against Ray Lindwall and Richie Benaud. Derbyshire were impressed by his knock, and he joined the county for a ten-year stint in which he played 268 matches and rose to the captaincy.