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Alan Terry Castell (born 6 August 1943) is an English former cricketer who played for Hampshire between 1961 and 1971 at both first-class and List A level. He began his career as a leg-break and googly bowler, but later switched to medium-pace. In 112 first-class appearances, he took nearly 230 wickets.
| Personal information | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Full name | Alan Terry Castell | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Born | 6 August 1943 Oxford, Oxfordshire, England | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Batting | Right-handed | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Bowling | Leg break googly Right-arm medium | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Domestic team information | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Years | Team | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 1961–1971 | Hampshire | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Career statistics | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Source: Cricinfo, 28 September 2009 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Castell was born at Oxford in August 1943. He first came to the attention of Hampshire coach Arthur Holt as a leg break googly bowler while playing for an Oxford juniors team in 1959,[1] who invited Castell to join the Hampshire staff without a trial.[2][3] Early in his career at Hampshire, he built a good relationship with Hampshire secretary Desmond Eagar, who once chastised him for the casual manner in which he addressed Hampshire president Harry Altham.[2]
He made his debut for the Hampshire first eleven in a first-class match against Oxford University at Portsmouth in 1961.[4] He appeared in the same fixture the following season, before making three appearances in the County Championship.[4] Notably, against Surrey he shared in a partnership of 230 for the ninth wicket with Danny Livingstone, which as of 2024 remains a Hampshire record for that wicket;[5] Castell contributed 76 runs to the partnership, which would become his highest first-class score.[6] In the 1963 season, he made nine first-class appearances,[4] taking 28 wickets at an average of 18.85; he took three five wicket hauls in these matches, with best figures of 5 for 46.[7] His performances in 1963 led some critics to suggest Castell could be a Test hopeful.[8] In the winter which followed the 1963 season, Castell toured the West Indies with the International Cavaliers, playing in two first-class matches against Jamaica at Kingston.[4]
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He played infrequently for Hampshire in 1964 and 1965, failing to live up to the early promise his leg break bowling had shown; the Australian Bill Alley had suggested that Castell was more promising than Richie Benaud was at the same age.[3] He reinvented himself as a right-arm medium pace bowling ahead of the 1966 season, in which he made eleven first-class appearances,[4] taking 36 wickets at an average of 22.55, which included two five wicket hauls and what were, at that point, his career best bowling figures of 6 for 49.[7] In that same season, he also made his debut in List A one-day cricket against Worcestershire in the semi-final of the Gillette Cup.[9] Over the following two seasons, he was largely ineffective, taking 12 and 19 wickets respectively in 1967 and 1968, at expensive averages.[7] He made 22 first-class appearances in 1969,[4] having his most successful season in terms of wickets, with 50 at an average of 25.90; amongst his three five wickets hauls that season were his career best figures of 6 for 22,[7] taken against Somerset.[10]
Castell again featured in 21 first-class matches in 1970,[4] taking 43 wickets at an average of 39.86.[7] Having played one-day intermittently since his 1966 debut in that format, he featured more prominently for Hampshire in one-day cricket during 1970, taking 12 wickets at an average of 38.16 from fourteen matches.[9][11] In 1971, he featured in a further thirteen first-class matches,[4] taking 27 wickets at an average of 30.88,[7] while in one-day cricket he took 8 wickets from eight matches.[11] Castell left Hampshire at the end of the 1971 season to pursue a career in the alcoholic drinks industry.[12] From his debut in 1961, he made 110 first-class appearances for Hampshire, scoring 1,600 runs.[13] With the ball, he took 225 wickets at an average of 30.68; he took a five wicket haul on eight occasions and once took ten-wickets in a match.[14] In one-day cricket, he made thirty appearances and took 28 wickets at an average of 36.28, taking best figures of 4 for 52.[15]
Away from county cricket, he played club cricket for Old Tauntonians.[16] In the alcoholic drinks industry, he worked for The Distillers Company, which was responsible for marketing Gordon's Gin throughout the United Kingdom.[17] He retired from the industry in the late 1990s.[12]
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