Hugo Yarnold

Who was Hugo Yarnold?

Henry Yarnold, known as Hugo, who was born at Worcester on 6 July 1917 and died in a road accident at Leamington Spa on 13 August 1974, was an English first-class cricketer who became a Test cricket umpire.

Yarnold was a diminutive lower-order right-handed batsman and a wicketkeeper who played for Worcestershire. He made his first-class debut in an end-of-season match in the 1938 season as the deputy for Syd Buller, who would later be an umpiring colleague. He was then Buller's replacement for two months of the 1939 season after Buller was seriously injured in the car crash that took the life of opening batsman Charlie Bull during the Whitsun match with Essex.

Returning to Worcestershire after the Second World War, Yarnold again understudied Buller, who played in 25 of the county's 27 first-class matches. But Yarnold himself played in 17 games, mainly as a batsman. Early in the season, in the match against Sussex at Hove, he made 64 in the first innings, his first score of more than 50. There were, however, to be only six other scores of more than 50 in his entire career and his season's batting average for 1946, at 15.45 runs per innings, was higher than he achieved in any other season. The 64 was surpassed only once: in 1947, playing for North against South in the traditional end-of-season fixture, he made 68.