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Desmond Fell

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Desmond Fell
Cricket information
BattingLeft-handed
BowlingRight-arm off-break
Career statistics
Competition First-class
Matches 39
Runs scored 1,958
Batting average 31.58
100s/50s 5/8
Top score 161
Balls bowled 8
Wickets 0
Bowling average
5 wickets in innings
10 wickets in match
Best bowling
Catches/stumpings 14/0
Source: CricketArchive, 3 December 2020

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.

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.

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