Researching Leslie Wright

Wright played as a professional for Stourbridge Cricket Club before beginning his county career.His first-class debut came in May 1925, when he scored 31 and 14 against Oxford University at The Parks.He did not play again that season, but in 1926 he appeared on 26 occasions, and ended the summer with 873 first-class runs at an average of 18.97.This tally included his maiden hundred, 111 against Hampshire (sharing an opening partnership of 185 with Maurice Jewell) in midsummer.He also picked up the first of his 76 wickets when he removed Leicestershire's Les Berry and Alec Skelding in early June.

From then until the end of his career in 1933, Wright was a regular sight in the Worcestershire team: in only two seasons (1931 and 1933) did he make fewer than 20 appearances. His most productive season was 1928, when he made 1,402 runs at 24.07, including 101 and 57 against Hampshire.He also passed his thousand runs in 1930, when he hit 1,180: this was the only year in which he made two centuries, of which the higher (his career best) was 134 against Northamptonshire in July.He narrowly missed out on the landmark in 1929, making 992 runs that year.

After 1930 Wright never scored another hundred, and although his form recovered somewhat after a dreadful 1931 in which he averaged less than 10,in 92 innings in the last three years of his career the highest score was the 86 he struck against the touring Indians at Worcester in June 1932.He did hit another six half-centuries that summer, and a further three in his final season of 1933. His last game, against Glamorgan in late August 1933, was an anticlimax: Wright was bowled by George Lavis for 3 in his only innings, and went wicketless from ten overs.

Wright also played football as a centre-forward in the Worcester League. After retiring from cricket, he ran a remand home in Mitcham, Surrey.

He was born on 18 November 1899 and educated at St. Bees School and the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich. He was Commissioned into the Royal Artillery in 1919 and retired in 1926. He was Travelling Secretary for the Officers' Christian Union from 1928 to 1935 when he was ordained a priest in the Church of England. After a curacy at St Andrews, Nottingham he became a RAF Chaplain, rising through the service to become an Honorary Chaplain to the King and eventually its Archdeacon (Chaplain-in-Chief). He was Vicar of Wimbledon from 1953 to 1961 and of Kingston Vale until his retirement in 1968.

He died on 28 April 1972.

Leslie Wright received his first piano lessons at just six years old. In 1953 he joined the Music Academy of Santa Cecilia in Rome. He graduated in 1960, winning first prize and jury mention. In 1961 he participated in the International Piano Competition in Geneva, taking third place. In 1962 he made a tour of several South American countries appearing in their best theaters and concert halls. In 1963 he won first prize in the "Biernans" competition in Paris. Shortly afterwards he was honored in the global contest of Bilbao from among 44 virtuoso pianists worldwide. In 1965 he won a major prize in the International Piano Competition "Marguerite Long", in Paris.

He was awarded the Ecuadorian national award "Premio Eugenio Espejo" in 1986 from the President of Ecuador for his contribution to the national culture.

Leslie Wright married fellow pianist Nadine Vercambre Paul of France, with whom he plays concerts. "Leslie and Nadine Wright", as they are best known, have done 6 world tours.