Frank Smailes

Who was Frank Smailes?

Frank Smailes was an English cricketer, who played first-class cricket for Yorkshire, and one Test for England. He was of Yorkshire's main players in the club's outstanding years, when they won eight County Championships out of ten.

Though Smailes was never a player of the class of Sutcliffe, Hutton, Bowes, Verity or Leyland, he was extremely valuable to Yorkshire because of his versatility. He could bowl either swingers as a new ball partner to Bowes, or later off-breaks when pitches were affected by rain. He was also a dangerous left-handed batsman who scored over a thousand runs in 1938, with centuries against Glamorgan and Surrey.

He lost his best potential cricketing years to the cessation of competitive cricket during World War II.