Duncan Fearnley
Cricketer whose brand of bats with their three-stump logo became famous around the world
DUNCAN FEARNLEY, who has died aged 83, was a journeyman cricketer for Worcestershire in the 1960s who made his fortune as a maker of cricket bats marketed globally under his name.
The Duncan Fearnley brand, with its black logo of three stumps tapering to a point at the bottom, was pre-eminent in the 1970s and 1980s, when it could be seen in settings from the humble village green and school locker to the grandest of Test arenas. The list of players with Fearnley bats was a roll call of the era’s greats, including Ian Botham, Viv Richards, Clive Lloyd, Sunil Gavaskar, Graham Gooch and Allan Border.
Prior to the 1970s, most bat makers had been content to stamp their name in ink somewhere on the splice of a bat. Fearnley changed all that by making the most of the space available to him, and harnessing the selling power of cricketers who used his kit.
His strength was not just in marketing, however. Players at all levels liked the fine, hand-finished quality of his bats, and the fact that Fearnley was innovative. His company introduced the first bat with a polyplastic coating, the Polyflex Plus, and found that by drying the wood a little more than usual they could produce bulkier weapons, including the Magnum, with a larger sweet spot – ushering in a new era of heavier, “railway sleeper” bats. They also designed a bat with a thicker inside than outside edge, as well as batting gloves with double-finger protection.
Charles Duncan Fearnley was born on April 12 1940 at Pudsey, Yorkshire, where he was such a promising cricketing talent that he was playing for Farsley in the Bradford League by the age of 15. A left-handed opening bat, he set his mind on becoming a professional with Yorkshire, but knew that even if he did so he must find a way of earning money outside the summer months.
From a family of woodworkers, he took on an apprenticeship with a bat-making firm, and in the winters began to craft some of his own bats, initially stamped “Tudor Rose” and then “Fearnley of Farsley”.
Although he played for Yorkshire second XI, the dream of appearing for the first team did not materialise and in 1960, aged 20, he signed for Worcestershire, making his first-class debut as a professional two years later. When the team won their first county championship in 1964, Fearnley appeared in 22 games across the season. But the next year, as they successfully defended the title, he was picked only three times. Unable fully to establish himself in the side, he was released from his contract in 1968, having made 97 appearances over seven seasons.
For the next three years he played minor counties cricket with Lincolnshire and as a professional for the West Bromwich Dartmouth club in the Birmingham and District League. With a young family to provide for, he was more than ever in need of alternative income, and it was during this period that he began to focus on his bat-making. With a small team of loyal helpers, he opened a workshop in Worcester in 1968.
Not long afterwards, he met the England fast bowler John Snow at a party, and showed him his new black-stumps logo. Enthused, Snow offered to stick one on his bat. “The next time he walked out in a Test match he slung his bat over his shoulder so that everyone could see the design,” said Fearnley. “It was a brilliant feeling. After that, my wife cut out the first 4,000 logos by hand and I stuck them on everything.”
Fearnley began to enrol the support of other cricketers, including, in the early days, Basil D’oliveira, Dennis Amiss, Gooch and Gavaskar. With great foresight he also signed up a young Botham, who agreed to use his bats for £150 a year. Not long afterwards Botham began to play for England, and after his heroics in the 1981 Ashes series, sales went through the roof. By the mid-1980s, Fearnley had made his fortune. His high profile helped him to become chairman of Worcestershire in 1986 and a year later to attract Botham to play for the county. Across his 12-year reign, he oversaw a golden period for the club in which it won two county championships, two Sunday league titles, one Benson & Hedges Cup and a Natwest trophy. He served as president from 2011 to 2013, before becoming an honorary vice-president.
Although he became a millionaire on the back of his bat making, Fearnley found that his dominance did not last much beyond the early 1990s, as businesses from the Indian sub-continent began to move in on the market. His company had ratcheted up its manufacturing to sell 50,000 bats a year, but he was reluctant to go further into mass production, and chose instead to downsize.
Market share fell, and big-name cricketers were enticed to other brands. But the company survived, and is alive in Worcester today, although it now produces only handmade bats on a relatively small scale.
Fearnley continued to make bats himself until quite late in life. “There’s still the same buzz when I… see it at the end,” he said. “The difference now is that I don’t need to do it any more. I choose to do it for people who want an individual, top-class bat. That’s the fun for me… just like when it first started.”
He is survived by his wife, Mary, and their son and daughter.
Duncan Fearnley, born April 12 1940, died March 8 2024