John Willes

Biography

John Willes, born in 1778, was regarded among his contemporaries as an innovative cricketer; a member of early county sides, he was one of the first players to embrace the round-arm stroke at a time when the laws were unsettled.

He died in 1852, and the Church of St Mary in Sutton Valence remembers the sportsman whose dedication to the gentlemanly ideals of cricket inspired the game's development.