Desmond Fell
Desmond Robert Fell (16 December 1912 – 22 January 1992) was a South African cricketer who played first-class cricket in for Natal either side of the Second World War, later becoming an umpire. He was born in Pietermaritzburg, and died aged 79 in Durban.
| Cricket information | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Batting | Left-handed | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Bowling | Right-arm off-break | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Career statistics | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Source: CricketArchive, 3 December 2020 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
His most successful season was 1946-47, when he scored 496 first-class runs at 49.60, including two centuries, the higher of these being the career-best 161 he hit against Rhodesia. He also passed 400 runs in 1937-38, but after that his highest aggregate was the 219 runs he accumulated in 1947-48.
Fell's only first-class match outside South Africa was the game he played for Dominions against England at Lord's in late August 1945; he made 12 and 28 in what was the first first-class match to be played in England after the war.
After his retirement from playing, Fell umpired 15 first-class matches in the 1950s and 1960s, almost all involving Natal. The two exceptions were the first Test between South Africa and New Zealand at Durban in 1961-62, and a non-Test game between a South African XI and the Australians at Pietermaritzburg in 1966-67.