David Hughes (cricketer)
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David Paul Hughes (born May 13, 1947 in Newton-le-Willows, St Helens, Lancashire) was an English cricketer. Though he never played for England, he was a stalwart of the Lancashire side for more than two decades, making 10,419 first-class runs. Though he batted right-handed, he also took 655 wickets with his left-arm spin.
Making his debut in 1967, Hughes was capped in 1970, but it was a match the following year that would ensure his place in cricketing folklore: the Gillette Cup semi-final against Gloucestershire played on 28 July 1971. Hughes walked out to bat in near-darkness, with the time approaching a quarter to nine in the evening and 25 runs still needed from the five remaining overs. There was more than a suggestion that the umpires would have to abandon play for the day and finish the game the following morning - but Hughes had other ideas, somehow seeing well enough to smash 24 off a single over and set up a famous Lancashire win.
Hughes played for D. H. Robins' XI in South Africa in 1971/72 and for Tasmania in 1975/76 and 1976/77, and accompanied Lancashire on three overseas tours in the mid-1980s, but otherwise stayed firmly at home; of his 447 first-class matches, only ten were not played on British soil. He was captain of Lancashire between 1987 and his retirement in 1991, and in the first of these years Lancashire finished second in the County Championship; in 1988 Hughes received the honour of being named as a Wisden Cricketer of the Year. He was given two benefit seasons, in 1981 and 1992, which raised a total of £145,000.
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