Len Coldwell
British cricket player (1933-1996)
Leonard John Coldwell (10 January 1933 – 6 August 1996) was an English cricketer, who played in seven Tests for England from 1962 to 1964. Coldwell was a right-arm fast-medium bowler who was, for a few years in the early to mid-1960s, half of a respected and feared new-ball partnership in English county cricket. With his bowling partner Jack Flavell, Coldwell was the attacking force behind the unprecedented success of Worcestershire which brought the county its first successes in the County Championship in 1964 and 1965.
In 1961, Coldwell took 140 wickets and finished sixth in the national averages; the following year, his best, he took 152 wickets and was fourth.
Life and career
Born in Newton Abbot, Coldwell was a Devonian who played Minor Counties cricket before being signed by Worcestershire in 1955. Coldwell bowled mainly in-swingers and varied both pace and line depending on the stance of the batsman. Inclined to be expensive in his early years, and one of a pack of medium to fast-medium bowlers competing to be Flavell's new-ball partner at Worcester, he came to the fore in 1960 when his rivals, Aldridge and Pearson, were accused of having suspect bowling actions. In 1961, Flavell and Coldwell bowled Worcestershire to fourth in the Championship, and Flavell was picked for Tests. In 1962, when Flavell was injured for part of the season, Coldwell bowled more than 1,100 overs and was himself picked for two Tests, and the county finished second, its highest ever position at that time.
In his first Test match against Pakistan at Lord's, Coldwell took the wicket of Imtiaz Ahmed in his first over and finished with three wickets for 25 runs in the first innings, following that up with six for 85 in the second innings.
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The entry’s evidential value lies in the named roles, institutions and publications that can be tested against primary documentation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 15, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q3527365. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1933, 1996, 1962 and 1964.
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This entry incorporates text from “Len Coldwell” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.