J. W. Cecil Turner
# J. W. Cecil Turner

James William Cecil Turner (2 October 1886–29 November 1968) was an English first-class cricketer who played 46 matches for Worcestershire either side of the First World War, as well as appearing twice for H. K. Foster's XI.

## Cricket career

Turner made his debut for Worcestershire against Essex at Amblecote on 31 July 1911, scoring 27 and 11 in a crushing innings-and-228-run defeat. A further five appearances that season brought Turner little success, and nor did a handful more the following season. In 1913 he played a solitary match for H. K. Foster's XI, but he wasn't seen again in first-class cricket until after the First World War.

Turner's return to the game, against Gloucestershire at Worcester in June 1919, saw him make his first half-century: he hit 72 in the second innings of a drawn match. However, he did not again pass 30 that season, although he did pick up the first of his two first-class wickets when he accounted for Warwickshire's Frederick Santall at Worcester at the end of August.

1920 saw Turner both hit another half-century — 85 against Warwickshire in August — and take his other wicket — that of Sussex's George Stannard. The following year, which proved to be his last in the game, Turner scored his only century, hitting 106 against Northamptonshire, though Worcestershire suffered a 356-run defeat, which as of 2007 remains Northants' greatest-ever margin of runs victory.

Turner twice captained the Worcestershire side: against Warwickshire at Birmingham in 1919, and against Glamorgan at St Helens in 1921.

