Major Nigel Harvie Bennett (23 September 1913 – 26 July 2008) was an English cricket

Cricket

Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of 11 players on an oval-shaped field, at the centre of which is a rectangular 22-yard long pitch. One team bats, trying to score as many runs as possible while the other team bowls and fields, trying to dismiss the batsmen and thus limit the...

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Bennett was unexpectedly appointed as the county captain of Surrey County Cricket Club

Surrey County Cricket Club

Surrey County Cricket Club is one of the 18 professional county clubs which make up the English and Welsh domestic cricket structure, representing the historic county of Surrey. Its limited overs team is called the Surrey Lions...

 in 1946 when the club was still recovering from the Second World War. It is generally believed he was mistaken for the prominent club cricketer and BBC

BBC

The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...

 captain, Major Leo Bennett

Leo Bennett

Major Alfred Charles Leopold Bennett, MBE born at West Norwood in London on 31 December 1914, and died at Thames Ditton, Surrey, on 24 September 1971, was a first-class cricketer who played for Northamptonshire for three seasons after the Second World War.Bennett was a right-handed middle-order...

, who was mooted as a likely choice. Leo Bennett later played for Northamptonshire

Northamptonshire County Cricket Club

Northamptonshire County Cricket Club is one of the 18 major county clubs which make up the English and Welsh domestic cricket structure, representing the historic county of Northamptonshire. Its limited overs team is called the Northants Steelbacks. The traditional club colour is Maroon. During the...

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Nigel Bennett had played three matches for Surrey Second Eleven in 1936, twice against Kent Second Eleven and once against Wiltshire

Wiltshire

Wiltshire is a ceremonial county in South West England. It is landlocked and borders the counties of Dorset, Somerset, Hampshire, Gloucestershire, Oxfordshire and Berkshire. It contains the unitary authority of Swindon and covers...

. He played in 31 first-class matches for Surrey as a right-handed batsman, scoring 688 runs at an average of 16.00 with a highest score of 79. He scored four half-centuries and took six catches. Bennett was "a weak batsman and utterly lost as a county captain", and Surrey slumped to 11th, their worst ever finish. He was replaced by Errol Holmes

Errol Holmes

Errol Reginald Thorold Holmes, born at Calcutta on 21 August 1905 and died in London on 16 August 1960, was a cricketer who played for Oxford University, Surrey and England....

, who was recalled as captain for the 1947 and 1948 seasons.

Bennett was born at Walton-on-Thames, Surrey

Walton-on-Thames

Walton-on-Thames is a town in the Elmbridge borough of Surrey in South East England. The town is located south west of Charing Cross and is between the towns of Weybridge and Molesey. It is situated on the River Thames between Sunbury Lock and Shepperton Lock.- History :The name "Walton" is...

 and died in Bristol

Bristol

Bristol is a city, unitary authority area and ceremonial county in South West England, with an estimated population of 433,100 for the unitary authority in 2009, and a surrounding Larger Urban Zone with an estimated 1,070,000 residents in 2007...

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