OLD AZURIANS
ASSOCIATION
KENNTH GEORGE SUTTLE
Outstanding Sussex cricketer
Ken Suttle was born in Brook Green Hammersmith on 25 August 1928. His family moved to Worthing when he was nine. Whilst Ken was at Worthing High School for Boys he excelled at all sports. He considered a career in law, but, after passing some of the preliminary examinations and completing his National Service with the Parachute Regiment, he was called up by Sussex. His first match for the County was against Hampshire in 1949.
Ken was also no mean footballer, he was signed up by Chelsea as a young man, and later played three times for Brighton & Hove Albion, but it was cricket that Ken finally opted for as a career. He was capped by Sussex in 1952, a season in which he scored over 1,000 runs (the first of 17 times he was to do this) and, most notably, saved a match against Worcestershire with a brilliant maiden century of 114 out of 119 for the eighth wicket. Four years later Ken surfaced as a formidable spin bowler by topping the Sussex bowling averages with 24 for an average of 16.75 runs.
Between 1954 and 1969 Ken made a record 423 consecutive appearances for Sussex in County Championship matches, a feat which has never been equalled. This was all the more remarkable because Sussex often left out proven professionals in favour of talented amateurs like David Sheppard. During his career he joined the select group of batsmen who managed to score over 30,000 runs in first class cricket. He was a brilliant fielder too with 385 catches to his credit.
His talents would almost certainly have enabled him to excel in one-day cricket had it arrived on the scene earlier in his career. He was unlucky too not to have played in test cricket. He was selected for the West Indies tour in 1953 and, having opened the batting in the warm-up match against a Barbados side that included the legendary Gary Sobers, scored 96 and 62. The MCC captain Len Hutton selected the amateur player-manager Palmer for the first test, in preference to Suttle, a decision that Freddie Truman described as being grossly unfair to Suttle.
A lesser known fact about the West Indies tour is that while in Barbados Ken rescued a young woman from drowning in the sea.
Ken’s career with Sussex came to a rather unhappy ending in 1972. The previous season it had been made clear that his days were numbered, and when in 1972 Ken was relegated to the Second XI he resigned. After that he played for Suffolk, became an umpire, and represented a sports company until his retirement in 1969. He also coached at Christ’s Hospital School and was elected captain of the County Cricketers’ Golfing Society.
There is no doubt that Ken’s record number of appearances owed much to his fitness and his willingness to make light of injury. In testament to the latter there was an occasion when he was hit in the face by a fearsome ball launched at him by the West Indian fast bowler Charlie Griffith. Despite losing copious amounts of blood Ken insisted on carrying on. Three years later Griffith struck Ken in the face again, and when a concerned team-mate asked if he was alright Ken replied “Oh yes, he’s not as fast as he used to be”.
His cheerful nature and sense of humour made him a popular member of the team. It has been said of him that he liked to change fielding positions frequently so that he could have a different audience for his ceaseless banter. That, together with his agility, could have been why he sometimes played as wicket-keeper.
For every cricketer who has made it to the very top level there have been thousands who have spent years serving their county faithfully; Ken was a shining example in this respect.
Ken Suttle died on 25 March 2005 while on holiday in Mauritius.
17 March 2015