Eric Bryant (cricketer)

Leonard Eric Bryant (2 June 1936 – 28 November 1999), played first-class cricket for Somerset between 1958 and 1960.

A left-handed lower order batsman and a slow left-arm spin bowler whose action was allegedly modelled on that of Tony Lock,[1] Bryant played 15 matches for the Somerset side that finished third in the County Championship in 1958, equalling the best-ever finish by the county to that time. He took only 25 wickets, but that included five in an innings – five for 64 – against Worcestershire to win the match where Australian Colin McCool made his highest score in English cricket.[2] Wisden noted that Bryant "showed promise".[3]

However, he played only a handful matches in the drier summer of 1959 and in his first first-class game of 1960, against Gloucestershire at Bath, he was no-balled five times by umpire Hugo Yarnold for throwing.[4][5] Though he reappeared in two further matches that summer without incident, he was not re-engaged by Somerset at the end of the season and did not appear again in first-class cricket.