Arthur Baxter

Who was Arthur Baxter?

Arthur Douglas Baxter, known as "Sandy" Baxter, was a Scottish first-class cricketer who played with Lancashire, Middlesex and the Scottish national side, as well as with other amateur teams across the 1930s.

He was educated at the preparatory school King’s Mead School, at Seaford, East Sussex and in July 1930 he bowled Don Bradman in a non-first-class match against Australia and to celebrate the school was given a half-day holiday to celebrate, though Bradman had scored 140 before he was out. He was later educated at Loretto School.

Baxter was a highly enthusiastic cricket player for amateur teams, a fast bowler of in-swingers, a negligible tail-end batsman and a poor fielder. Despite being only an irregular first-class player, he took five wickets in an innings 16 times and four times went on to take 10 or more wickets in a match; in 1935 when he played seven first-class games, the most he ever achieved in a single season, he headed the English bowling averages for players bowling in 10 or more innings, with 42 wickets at 13.08. In a game for Lancashire against the touring West Indian side at Old Trafford, he took 5 for 10 runs in a 6 over spell.