LEE, CHARLES, died on September 3, 1999, aged 75. Charlie Lee was a schoolteacher who deputised for Len Hutton as Yorkshire's opening batsman in 1952, and promptly scored 74. It was his Championship debut, after one undistinguished match against Scotland, and it turned out to be the end of his Yorkshire career as well. Curiously, a far smaller innings proved to be the making of him. A year later, he made 23 against the Australians at Stoke-on-Trent for the Minor Counties, who were bowled out for 56 and 65, mainly by Lindwall and Benaud. Derbyshire were sufficiently impressed to sign him. He was held up when he broke a leg playing football but, after finally getting into the team, Lee established himself as a typical Derbyshire batsman of the period, making 1,000 for eight successive seasons, nudging the ball a lot but never the selectors. Very occasionally, he would break out, especially during run-chases: Lee hit five sixes off Jim McConnon at Swansea in 1958, and five more at Lord's in 1961. In 1963, he became county captain but, with Les Jackson fading out, he had a hard time and the team came bottom; they rose to 12th in 1964 before Lee decided to go back to teaching. His team-mates remember him as a cheerful, kindly man, steeped in cricket lore.
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