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Several cricketers who played first class cricket for Derbyshire or England were born or lived in Somercotes, including a father and son.

George BEET

Born 24 April 1886 in Somercotes, George Beet first-class cricketing career began in 1910, when he played for Derbyshire against Kent. He played for Derbyshire between 1910 and 1925, and for the MCC in 1920. In his later career he umpired. He earned a regular place as a batsman until the outbreak of war in 1914, which interrupted his career. He returned to cricket in 1919 as Derbyshire’s regular wicket keeper. He played his last match for Derbyshire in 1925.

George was a right-handed batsman and played 88 innings in 48 first class matches.. He kept wicket in about half his matches and took 62 catches and 11 wickets by stumping. In his later life he spent several winters in South Africa, and achieved his ambition of umpiring a Test Match in 1946, shortly before his death.

He died in Somercotes on 13 December 1946, at the age of 60.

George BEET Jnr

George was born at Somercotes on 30 May 1904. He was the son of George Beet Snr, also a cricketer for Derbyshire.

George, a right-handed batsman, played first class cricket for Derbyshire in 1928 and in 1932 and for Marylebone Cricket Club in 1928 and between 1933 and 1938. He made his first-class debut appearance for Derbyshire in the 1928 season when he acted as a stand-in wicket-keeper against Kent and achieved three catches and a stumping. He also kept wicket for MCC against Kent later in that season. He played four matches for Derbyshire in 1932, and once for the Derbyshire Second XI in 1933. George continued playing for Marylebone Cricket Club in first-class and other games. He played one first class match in 1933, two in 1934, one in 1936 and one in 1938. He kept wicket in all except for one of the matches in 1934.

He died in Somercotes on 21 August 1949 at the relatively young age of 45 years.

James BURTON

James Burton was born at Somercotes on 10 December 1876 and died on 25 January 1940: 

He was a right-handed batsman who played one first class match for Derbyshire,in 1901.

William PRINCE

Born on 28 March 1868 in Somercotes, William Prince was the son of Thomas and Hannah Prince. By the census of 1881, the family had moved to Skegby but as a cricketer William played one first-class match for Derbyshire in 1898. He was a right arm medium-fast bowler.

In later life, William lived at New Ollerton, where he died on 1 June 1948.

William RIGLEY

William Rigley was born at Eastwood, Nottinghamshire on 24 March 1852.

 He was a right-handed batsman and right arm medium pace bowler who played for Derbyshire between 1873 and 1882, playing 66 matches.

Although born in Eastwood, his father moved to Somercotes to work as a blacksmith. William was also a blacksmith by trade.

He died on 15 April 1897 at the age of 45.

Charles Frederick (Fred) ROOT

Born: 16th April 1890, Somercotes, Derbyshire
Died: 20 January 1954 (Wolverhampton, Staffordshire – aged 63 years 279 days)
Major teams: England, Derbyshire and Worcestershire
Batting Style: Right hand batsman      
Bowling style: Right arm fast medium
Other: Umpire

Charles Frederick Root, who died in the Royal Worcestershire Hospital, Wolverhampton, on January 20, aged 63, was celebrated for a leading exponent of leg-theory bowling. Born in Derbyshire on April 16, 1890, Fred Root, as he was always known, served for a time on the Leicestershire ground staff before commencing his first class career with the county of his birth in 1910. After five seasons of moderate success as an orthodox bowler came the First World War, and in 1921 Root joined Worcestershire. With his new county he changed his style, bowling fast medium on the leg stump with five fieldsmen stationed on the leg-side close to the batsman. So successful did these tactics prove that from 1923 onwards he took over 100 wickets in nine seasons, eight times heading the county averages.

PHOTO: Fred Root

His best year was 1925 when with, 219 victims, average 17.21, he set up a record for a Worcestershire bowler. The achievement earned him a special testimonial fund in the county. In 1926, for North of England at Edgbaston, he startled the cricket world by dismissing seven of H. L. Collin’s Australian team in an innings for 42 runs. This gained him a place in the England team in three of the test matches. Rain ruined the first, at Nottingham, but in the other two Root bowled well without repeating his earlier devastating form. In the fourth test at Old Trafford, he gained three figures: 52 overs, 27 matches, 84 runs, 4 wickets.

Three times in his career Root took nine wickets in an innings – for 23 runs against Lancashire in 1932, for 40 runs against Essex in 1924, both at Worcester, and for 81 against Kent at Tunbridge Wells in 1930, when he disposed of three batsmen in four balls. He was also a batsman of no mean ability and in 1928 completed the cricketer’s double, scoring 1044 runs and taking 118 wickets. Altogether before his retirement from first-class cricket in 1933 he took 1,152 wickets for 21.11 runs each, scored 8,089 runs, average 15.37 and held 219 catches. Afterwards he played in Lancashire League cricket for a time, acted as coach to Leicestershire and as a cricket correspondent of a national newspaper. In 1937 he wrote a book, ‘A Cricket Pro’s Lot’, in which he expressed admirably the point of view of the professional player
 

Denis SMITH

Born 24 January 1907; Somercotes, Derbyshire.
Died: 12 September 1979)
Played for Derbyshire between 1927 and 1952 and played two test matches for England in 1935. He scored over 21,000 runs in first-class cricket.

Smith was born in Somercotes, Derbyshire. Smith made his debut for Derbyshire in June 1927 against Somerset, when he was out for a duck in the only innings he played and was given a chance to bowl 10 balls. A tall left-handed opening batsman who played his strokes, Smith was the mainstay of Derbyshire’s batting line up during the 1930’s, the most successful period in the county’s history. Derbyshire came second in the Championship in 1935 and won it in 1936.

PHOTO: Denis Smith

Denis played two Test matches against the South Africans in 1935 and did well enough to be considered not to play more. He played regularly for Derbyshire until 1951, acting as wicket-keeper in the immediate post-war period. He later became county coach. His career aggregate of runs and his 30 centuries for the county were both Derbyshire records until beaten by Kim Barnett in the 1990’s!!

Smith was a Wisden Cricketer of the Year in 1936. He died in Derby at the age of 72.

 Albert STEEPLES

Albert Steeples was born on 28 July 1870 at Somercotes. He was the son of John Steeples, a coal miner. He made his one and only first-class appearance for Derbyshire in the 1899 season in May against Surrey.

Albert married Ellen Roughton, daughter of John Roughton and Hannah Carlin on 9 July 1892.

He died on 14 August 1945.

Richard STEEPLES

Richard Steeples was born in Somercotes on 30 April 1873. He was the son of John Steeples, a coal miner. He enjoyed a brief first-class career playing three matches at county level for Derbyshire during the 1897 season. He made his debut against Yorkshire, a game in which he took three wickets (Derbyshire sadly lost the game). He was a right arm medium-fast bowler.

Richard went on to play two further first-class games, one against Nottinghamshire, when he took four wickets. He played on a fairly regular basis for Monmouthshire in the Minor Counties between 1897 and 1908.

He died at Somercotes on 2 August 1946. His brother, Albert also played one game for Derbyshire.