{{short description|Welsh cricketer}} {{Use dmy dates|date=May 2022}} {{Infobox cricketer | name = | country = England | fullname = David Wilfred Hughes | birth_date = {{Birth date|1910|7|12|df=yes}} | birth_place = Ebbw Vale, Monmouthshire, Wales | death_date = {{Death date and age|1984|4|21|1910|7|12|df=yes}} | death_place = Sarisbury Green, Hampshire, England | heightft = | heightinch = | heightm = | batting = Right-handed | bowling = Right-arm fast-medium | role = | family = | club1 = Dorset | year1 = 1946–1949 | club2 = Glamorgan | year2 = 1935–1938 | deliveries = | columns = 1 | column1 = First-class | matches1 = 22 | runs1 = 274 | bat avg1 = 10.96 | 100s/50s1 = –/1 | top score1 = 70* | deliveries1 = 2,873 | wickets1 = 52 | bowl avg1 = 32.53 | fivefor1 = 2 | tenfor1 = – | best bowling1 = 5/70 | catches/stumpings1 = 6/– | date = 25 July | year = 2011 | source = http://www.espncricinfo.com/ci/content/player/14291.html Cricinfo }}
'''David Wilfred Hughes''' (12 July 1910 – 21 April 1984) was a Welsh cricketer. Hughes was a right-handed batsman who bowled right-arm fast-medium. He was born in Ebbw Vale, Monmouthshire.
After studying science at Bangor University, Hughes became a teacher, taking up a teaching post in Northamptonshire. While teaching in Northamptonshire, he played club cricket for Kettering, with some success. His bowling later came to the attention of Glamorgan captain Maurice Turnbull when Glamorgan were in the county playing Northamptonshire,<ref name="PRO">{{cite web|url=https://cricketarchive.com/Archive/Articles/1/1147.html|title=Brief profile of Wilf Hughes|last=Hignell|first=Dr. A.K.|publisher=CricketArchive|accessdate=25 July 2011}}</ref> Turnbull being told about a Welsh cricketer who was getting "a bag of wickets every week".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.espncricinfo.com/ci/content/player/14291.html|title=Player profile: Wilf Hughes|publisher=ESPNcricinfo|accessdate=25 July 2011}}</ref> He was invited to Cardiff Arms Park for a trial, impressing enough to be given a contract to play in the summer holidays.<ref name="PRO"/>
His first-class debut for Glamorgan against the touring South Africans in 1935 was an eventful one. In Glamorgan's second-innings Hughes, batting at number 11, scoring a quickfire unbeaten 70 runs as he and Cyril Smart put on 131 for the tenth wicket, to help save the match for Glamorgan.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://cricketarchive.com/Archive/Scorecards/15/15403.html|title=Glamorgan v South Africans, 1935|publisher=CricketArchive|accessdate=25 July 2011}}</ref> One of Hughes's sixes flew right out of the ground, across the road, and in through an upstairs window of the Grand Hotel opposite.<ref>W. H. Ferguson, ''Mr Cricket'', Nicholas Kaye, London, 1957, p. 92.</ref>
Hughes made a further 21 first-class appearances for Glamorgan, the last of which came against Leicestershire in the 1938 County Championship.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://cricketarchive.com/Archive/Players/4/4458/First-Class_Matches.html|title=First-Class Matches played by Wilf Hughes|publisher=CricketArchive|accessdate=25 July 2011}}</ref> As a bowler, he formed a useful partnership with the more experienced Jack Mercer.<ref name="PRO"/> He took 52 wickets at an average of 32.53, with best figures of 5/70.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://cricketarchive.com/Archive/Players/4/4458/f_Bowling_by_Team.html|title=First-class Bowling For Each Team by Wilf Hughes|publisher=CricketArchive|accessdate=25 July 2011}}</ref> These figures, one of two five-wicket hauls he took, came against Leicestershire in 1936.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://cricketarchive.com/Archive/Scorecards/15/15995.html|title=Leicestershire v Glamorgan, 1936 County Championship|publisher=CricketArchive|accessdate=25 July 2011}}</ref> A hard hitting batsman, Hughes scored 274 runs at a batting average of 10.96, with a high score of 70 not out against the South Africans.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://cricketarchive.com/Archive/Players/4/4458/f_Batting_by_Team.html|title=First-class Batting and Fielding For Each Team by Wilf Hughes|publisher=CricketArchive|accessdate=25 July 2011}}</ref>
During World War II, Hughes had an emergency commission with the rank of 2nd Lieutenant in the Royal Regiment of Artillery.<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=35333 |date=1941-10-31 |supp=y |page=6364 }}</ref> He later served as an Adjutant at the Royal School of Artillery at Larkhill, Wiltshire.<ref name="PRO"/> Following the war, he took up a teaching position in Poole, Dorset, and did not appear again for Glamorgan.<ref name="PRO"/> While based in Poole, he played for Dorset, making his debut in the 1946 Minor Counties Championship against Buckinghamshire. He made six further Minor Counties Championship appearances for Dorset, the last of which came against Oxfordshire in 1949.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://cricketarchive.com/Archive/Players/4/4458/Minor_Counties_Championship_Matches.html|title=Minor Counties Championship Matches played by Wilf Hughes|publisher=CricketArchive|accessdate=25 July 2011}}</ref>
He later moved to Peterborough, Cambridgeshire, where he ended his teaching career as the headmaster of a boys' school.<ref name="PRO"/> He died in Sarisbury Green, Hampshire, on 21 April 1984.
==References== {{Reflist}}
==External links== *[http://www.espncricinfo.com/ci/content/player/14291.html Wilf Hughes] at ESPNcricinfo *[https://cricketarchive.com/Archive/Players/4/4458/4458.html Wilf Hughes] at CricketArchive
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hughes, Wilf}} Category:1910 births Category:1984 deaths Category:Sportspeople from Ebbw Vale Category:Cricketers from Blaenau Gwent Category:Alumni of Bangor University Category:Welsh educators Category:Welsh cricketers Category:Glamorgan cricketers Category:Dorset cricketers Category:British Army personnel of World War II Category:Royal Artillery officers Category:20th-century Welsh sportsmen