1947 English cricket season
The Minor Counties Championship was won by Yorkshire II, one of six first-class teams who entered their second elevens in the competition. Unusually, there were two tied matches in 1947, compared with two in the previous 21 years. Essex v Northamptonshire and Hampshire v Lancashire were the 20th and 21st tied matches in the history of first-class cricket worldwide since the earliest known instance in 1783.


1947 English cricket season
The main source for information about the season is Wisden Cricketers' Almanack, in its 85th edition published in April 1948. This announced the five Wisden Cricketers of the Year for 1947: Martin Donnelly, Alan Melville, Dudley Nourse, Jack Robertson and Norman Yardley. 1947 was the first season to be reviewed by Playfair Cricket Annual, which began publication in April 1948.


1947 English cricket season, Background
The main sources for the 1947 season are the 85th edition of Wisden Cricketers' Almanack and the inaugural edition of Playfair Cricket Annual, both published in April 1948. The 1947 season was therefore the first to be reviewed by Playfair.


1947 English cricket season, Background
The winter of 1946–47 in the United Kingdom was harsh with heavy snowfalls disrupting communication and supply for about six weeks from January to March. February was one of the coldest months on record and the winter culminated in the wettest March for 300 years. Yet it was followed by what Playfair called a "glorious summer" in which fine weather prevailed and, as Wisden says, "the sun shone throughout". This was in sharp contrast to the wet summer of 1946. Despite austerity and rationing, the country was still in post-war euphoria and there was great enthusiasm for sporting events. As Wisden reports, "crowds thronged the grounds (and) Lord's was often full for county games".


1947 English cricket season, Background
Wisden editor Hubert Preston commented in his 1948 editorial that "the season of 1947 bears favourable comparison with any year within living memory". He had expected the continuous fine weather to produce pitch conditions favourable to batsmen and hence the predominance of drawn matches but, as he wrote, "actually about three-quarters of the County Championship matches were won outright".


1947 English cricket season, Background
Playfair editor Peter West wrote that "a grand and glorious summer" had been "a feast amidst austerity indeed, a fine reward for months of waiting through a chill and infamous winter". West went on to claim that "nearly three million people", with the younger generation strongly represented, attended first-class cricket matches in 1947. It must be remembered that this means three million attendances and not literally three million people.


1947 English cricket season, South African tour
South Africa toured the British Isles in 1947 and played a five-match Test series against England, who won the series 3–0 with two matches drawn. This was the first South African tour of England since 1935, the team captained by Alan Melville who had played in England for Oxford University and Sussex. Wisden commented that despite their lack of success in the Test series, South Africa "gave indication of real ability at all points of the game" and "little more experience is necessary to make them really powerful" in international cricket. Playfair acclaimed the South Africans as a "most popular team (who) enriched the game and set an excellent example", the tour realising a profit of £10,000.


1947 English cricket season, South African tour
South Africa fared very well in their matches against the county clubs, winning eleven of the eighteen matches and losing only one, which was the opening match of the tour against Worcestershire by 39 runs. They lost to Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) in May by 158 runs, but in September they had a convincing nine wicket win against the South who included Denis Compton, Bill Edrich and Jack Robertson.


1947 English cricket season, South African tour
The outstanding South African players were the three best batsmen: Melville, Bruce Mitchell and Dudley Nourse. Ken Viljoen had a good tour and made six centuries but none in the Tests. The bowling was moderate as no one took more than 15 wickets in the series or averaged under forty. Athol Rowan with 102 was the only tourist to take a century of wickets in the season. The team badly lacked pace bowlers and included only two medium-fast seamers, Jack Plimsoll and Lindsay Tuckett, the majority of bowlers being spinners: Rowan, Tufty Mann, Ian Smith and Leslie Payn.


1947 English cricket season, South African tour
South Africa had three wicketkeepers in the party: Johnny Lindsay, Douglas Ovenstone and George Fullerton. Ossie Dawson was an all-rounder and the remaining batsmen were Denis Begbie, Dennis Dyer and Tony Harris. South Africa used fourteen players in the Test series: the ones who missed out were Begbie, Ovenstone and Payn.


1947 English cricket season, South African tour, Test series summary
England's key victory came in the second Test at Lord's where Compton (208) and Edrich (189) shared a partnership of 370 which was a then world record for the third wicket in Test cricket. Doug Wright took ten wickets in the match and England won by ten wickets. In the third Test at Old Trafford, Edrich scored 191 in another big partnership with Compton and took eight wickets in the match. England won the fourth Test at Headingley in only three days by ten wickets. This time it was Len Hutton and Cyril Washbrook who claimed the batting honours while the best bowler was Harold Butler with match figures of seven for 66 on debut.


1947 English cricket season, England team in 1947
The England team began 1947 on tour in Australia, where they were beaten 3–0 in the Test series, and then toured New Zealand where the sole Test arranged was ruined by rain. Having played South Africa at home in 1947, England's next tour was to the West Indies beginning in January 1948.


1947 English cricket season, England team in 1947
England, playing under the auspices of MCC, took 17 players to Australia and New Zealand. Wally Hammond captained the side in his final Test series. The other batsmen were Len Hutton, Cyril Washbrook, Denis Compton, Bill Edrich, James Langridge, Laurie Fishlock and Joe Hardstaff junior. Jack Ikin and Norman Yardley were essentially all-rounders. Godfrey Evans and Paul Gibb were the wicketkeepers and the bowlers were Alec Bedser, Doug Wright, Dick Pollard, Peter Smith and Bill Voce. Gibb, Hardstaff, Hutton and Langridge did not play in New Zealand.


1947 English cricket season, England team in 1947
With Hammond having retired from international cricket, Yardley was appointed captain for the home series against South Africa. In the first Test, England recalled Eric Hollies and selected three debutants: Sam Cook, Tom Dollery and Jack Martin. Hutton, Washbrook, Edrich, Compton, Evans and Bedser were retained from the winter tour and these six with Yardley were the mainstays of the England team in 1947. There were changes again for the second Test with Charlie Barnett replacing Dollery, George Pope replacing Martin and Wright coming back in place of Cook.


1947 English cricket season, England team in 1947
Bedser missed the third Test and was replaced by Cliff Gladwin while  Ken Cranston was brought in to replace Pope. In the fourth Test, Jack Young was introduced in place of Hollies and Harold Butler for Gladwin. Edrich missed the last Test, as again did Bedser, and there were yet more changes elsewhere with Dick Howorth coming in to replace Barnett and Bill Copson replacing Butler. Jack Robertson took Edrich's place. It all meant that, in a five-match series they won 3–0, England used 21 different players.


1947 English cricket season, England team in 1947
With so many players under consideration, it was difficult to predict who would go to the West Indies in the winter and that question became even more complex when several players decided not to go. Bedser, Compton, Edrich, Hutton, Wright and Yardley from the 1947 series all declined the tour before the squad was selected, as did Trevor Bailey who was in contention for a place. With Yardley missing, MCC reappointed pre-war captain Gubby Allen to lead the party but he was the first in a spate of injuries when he damaged a leg muscle on the outward voyage. Following further injuries to Dennis Brookes and Joe Hardstaff junior, Allen asked MCC to send reinforcements and Hutton then changed his mind, flying out just in time to play against British Guiana.


1947 English cricket season, England team in 1947
Of the players who went to the West Indies, the only ones who had played against South Africa in the summer were Hutton, Evans, Cranston, Robertson, Howorth and Butler. Hardstaff and Ikin had been to Australia and New Zealand the previous winter. The other eight were Allen and seven newcomers: Dennis Brookes, Billy Griffith, Jim Laker, Winston Place, Gerald Smithson, Maurice Tremlett and Johnny Wardle. Playfair was disappointed with the situation in the West Indies, especially as England were well beaten in the Test series.


1947 English cricket season, England team in 1947
The team, it said, "could not be called great by any standards" as it was too "experimental" but it at least seemed "workmanlike" and in Laker a new star had been discovered. Playfair ominously concluded its review by reference to the 1948 Australian team being "about to descend upon us well armed in all key departments (and) we shall have to do better than this".


1947 English cricket season, County Championship
Middlesex won the County Championship under the captaincy of Walter Robins, who stood down at the end of the season. He was well supported by slow left-arm spinner Jack Young, who took 159 wickets in all matches; off break bowler Jim Sims; pace bowler Laurie Gray; wicketkeeper Leslie Compton; and their quartet of high-scoring batsmen Denis Compton, Bill Edrich, Syd Brown and Jack Robertson. The Wisden editorial drew attention to an additional feat by Middlesex in defeating "The Rest" by nine wickets in the last match of the season at The Oval.


1947 English cricket season, County Championship
Previously, only Yorkshire (1905 and 1935) had beaten The Rest, the fixture having lapsed from 1936 to 1946. Yorkshire had won the County Championship in 1946 but slipped to seventh place in 1947 and Wisden remarked on the retirement of "several veterans" after the 1946 season, although the highest innings score of the 1947 season, 270 not out, was achieved by Yorkshire's Len Hutton.


1947 English cricket season, County Championship
Playfair described the championship as "a great tussle" between Middlesex and Gloucestershire that was not settled until 28 August when Middlesex won their penultimate match, defeating bottom team Northamptonshire at Lord's by 355 runs. The key match, however, took place earlier in the month when Middlesex defeated Gloucestershire at Cheltenham by 68 runs. Middlesex had finished runners-up five times in succession: 1936 to 1939 and again in 1946. Since Middlesex's previous title in 1921, no southern team had won the championship and so their 1947 triumph ended 25 seasons of northern domination.


1947 English cricket season, County Championship, Gloucestershire v Middlesex, August 1947
The Gloucestershire v Middlesex match at the College Ground, Cheltenham was the ultimate decider of a close-fought championship. It began on Saturday, 16 August on the same day as the fifth Test at The Oval and Playfair remarked that "even the final Test seemed a matter of secondary importance". There was no play on Sundays in 1947 and the match continued into Monday, 18 August, when it was concluded with Tuesday to spare. Middlesex were without Compton and Robertson who were both playing for England but they did have Edrich, rested by England.


1947 English cricket season, County Championship, Gloucestershire v Middlesex, August 1947
Middlesex won the toss and decided to bat, Brown and Edrich opening with a stand of 50 before Brown was out lbw to the seamer Colin Scott. Edrich went on to score 50 but, apart from some resistance by tailenders Sims and Young, Middlesex's batting collapsed as Gloucestershire's great off spinner Tom Goddard took seven for 70. Middlesex were all out for 180 but Sims (six for 65) and Young (four for 55) turned the tables and bowled out Gloucestershire for 153.


1947 English cricket season, County Championship, Gloucestershire v Middlesex, August 1947
At close of play on Saturday, Middlesex had reached 9 for 1 in their second innings, Goddard having taken the key wicket of Edrich, so Monday's play began with Middlesex ahead by 36 and nine wickets standing. The decisive phase of the match was a third wicket partnership on Monday morning between Harry Sharp and the captain Robins. Scoring 46 and 45 respectively, they shared a stand of 70 runs which Playfair described as "vital". Otherwise, Middlesex again collapsed and Goddard took eight for 86 to complete an outstanding match analysis of fifteen for 156.


1947 English cricket season, County Championship, Gloucestershire v Middlesex, August 1947
So Gloucestershire with a day and a half remaining needed 169 to win. Jack Crapp tried to hold the innings together and scored 40 but Gloucestershire were rolled over for only 100 to lose by 68 runs. Young took five for 27 but an important role was again played by Sharp, this time as an off spinner, taking the wickets of three of Gloucestershire's top six batsmen, two of them without scoring. Playfair points out that Sharp at the time was still only a member of the Lord's ground staff but he played the key part in winning the match that ultimately settled the championship.


1947 English cricket season, County Championship, Season finale
Gloucestershire had gone into the Cheltenham match with a lead of four points in the championship table and the immediate outcome was that Middlesex overtook them to lead by eight points, both teams having four matches still to be played. Middlesex had to play Derbyshire away, "always difficult to beat", and three home matches against Surrey, Northamptonshire and third-placed Lancashire whom Playfair termed "the toughest nut to crack". Playfair considered Gloucestershire's programme to be easier as they faced four moderate teams: Glamorgan at Cheltenham, Hampshire and Sussex away, and Essex at Bristol.


1947 English cricket season, County Championship, Season finale
There was no change after the first two matches as Gloucestershire beat Glamorgan in two days and Middlesex won the difficult encounter at Derby. It all went wrong for Gloucestershire at Dean Park, Bournemouth where stubborn Hampshire batting forced a draw while Middlesex were defeating Surrey with some ease. This gave Middlesex a twenty-point lead and only two matches each to be played. Middlesex's victory over the bottom team Northants settled it, especially as Gloucestershire surprisingly lost to Sussex by nine wickets.


1947 English cricket season, County Championship, Season finale
Even so, there was a slight sting in the tail as Middlesex then lost their final match to a determined Lancashire by 64 runs while Gloucestershire rallied to defeat Essex. The final table showed Middlesex winning by twenty points, on the face of it a handsome margin, but in reality it was a much closer contest than the figures would suggest.


1947 English cricket season, County Championship, Final table
The seventeen first-class county teams played a total of 26 matches each. Twelve points were awarded for a win and six to each team if the result was a tie, as happened twice in 1947. Teams leading on first innings who subsequently drew or lost the match were awarded four points. Essex were awarded two points in one match they lost after a tie on first innings.


1947 English cricket season, County Championship, Tied matches
Tied matches are a rarity in cricket and there had been only two County Championship ties in the previous 21 years. Essex and Somerset had tied in 1926, then Worcestershire and Somerset in 1939. In 1947, there were two tied matches: Essex v Northamptonshire and Hampshire v Lancashire. Playfair noted that these were the 20th and 21st tied matches in the history of first-class cricket worldwide since the earliest known instance in 1783.


1947 English cricket season, County Championship, Tied matches
The Essex v Northamptonshire match was played at Valentines Park, Ilford 17 to 20 May. Northamptonshire won the toss and decided to bat, scoring 215 all out with a top score of 49 by Vince Broderick while Essex's Test leg break and googly bowler Peter Smith took four for 65. By close of play on Saturday, Essex had replied to 170 for 4 with opener Chick Cray on 90 not out. He completed his century, exactly 100, on Monday morning and Essex went on to total 267 all out.


1947 English cricket season, County Championship, Tied matches
Northamptonshire were 219 for 5 at the close on Monday evening with their veteran batsman John Timms on 90 not out. Timms was out for 112 on Tuesday morning and Peter Smith completed ten in the match by taking six for 84 in the Northamptonshire total of 291. Essex therefore needed 240 to win with ample time left on the final day.


1947 English cricket season, County Championship, Tied matches
They had a good stand of 103 for the fourth wicket between Frank Vigar (60) and Len Clark (64) but spinners Broderick and Bertie Clarke kept picking up the wickets and Essex were still ten behind when the ninth went down. The last pair were captain Tom Pearce and wicketkeeper Tom Wade who managed to level the scores before Wade was bowled by Clarke to tie the match.


1947 English cricket season, County Championship, Tied matches
Hampshire v Lancashire was played at Dean Park, Bournemouth on 27 to 29 August. Hampshire batted first and scored 363, the innings continuing into the Thursday morning, Jim Bailey with 95 the top scorer. Lancashire captain Ken Cranston had taken four for 73 and he led the Lancashire reply with 155 not out before declaring the innings closed at 367 for 9. Hampshire safely negotiated the last few overs on Thursday evening to close on 18 for 0 before totalling 224 for 7 declared on Friday, Jim Bailey again the top scorer with 63.


1947 English cricket season, County Championship, Tied matches
This was a sporting declaration by the Hampshire captain Desmond Eagar as there was time to bowl only 47 overs before the close. Cyril Washbrook led the chase with 105 while Jim Bailey, having twice starred with the bat, took six for 82. When the last over began, Lancashire had reached 220 for 8 with Jack Ikin and wicketkeeper Alfred Barlow batting, but this was the last wicket as William Roberts had been taken to hospital with a broken finger and could not bat.


1947 English cricket season, County Championship, Tied matches
Ikin and Barlow came together at 204 for 8 and so had added 16 for the final wicket to level the scores. Barlow was on strike and facing off spinner Gerry Hill. The first three balls produced no run and then Barlow was run out as he tried for a quick single to end the match in a tie.


1947 English cricket season, County Championship, Middlesex
As Playfair put it, "few will dispute that the best side won the championship". Middlesex's first four batsmen — Robertson, Brown, Edrich and Compton — scored between them 12,193 runs in all first-class matches, a level of success unprecedented in county cricket. The other batting positions were contested by George Mann, who was heir-apparent to Robins as club captain and succeeded him in 1948; Alan Fairbairn, a 1947 debutant who scored centuries in each of his first two county matches; Harry Sharp and Alec Thompson. The three main bowlers were Gray, Young and the veteran Sims.


1947 English cricket season, County Championship, Middlesex
Ian Bedford, aged seventeen, made his debut and took twelve wickets in his first two matches. Middlesex also made effective use as bowlers of Robins, Edrich and Denis Compton. Playfair noted the consistently high standard of the Middlesex fielding, especially by Brown, while Leslie Compton as wicket-keeper was a great success. Middlesex made exclusive use of Lord's Cricket Ground in St John's Wood, north London, for their thirteen home matches.


1947 English cricket season, County Championship, Gloucestershire
Gloucestershire's strong challenge for the title was despite the loss of Wally Hammond but in Tom Goddard they had the best bowler in the country. He took 238 wickets in all matches, 61 more than his nearest rival. He was well supported by Sam Cook who took 120 championship wickets and gained a Test call, but the team lacked quality pace bowlers with George Lambert largely on his own apart from the medium pace of Test batsman Charlie Barnett.


1947 English cricket season, County Championship, Gloucestershire
Five Gloucestershire batsmen scored over 1,000 runs in the championship: captain Basil Allen, Barnett, Jack Crapp, George Emmett and wicket-keeper Andy Wilson. Playfair recorded concerns about the pitch at Bristol which was alleged by some to have been prepared especially for Goddard. It is true that Gloucestershire won eight of the nine matches played there but equally true that Goddard took most of his wickets in matches not at Bristol. Ken Graveney made his debut for Gloucestershire in 1947 and his brother Tom was waiting in the wings. Other players included Monty Cranfield, Bev Lyon, Clifford Monks, William Neale, Grahame Parker, Colin Scott and Alfred Wilcox.


1947 English cricket season, County Championship, Gloucestershire
Gloucestershire generally used their headquarters in Bristol, playing nine of their fourteen home matches there. All the venues were:


1947 English cricket season, County Championship, Lancashire
Lancashire finished third for the second season in succession. They lost only once (to Somerset) but drew ten and tied one. They were well served by their openers Cyril Washbrook and Winston Place who both scored more than 2,000 runs in all first-class matches, Washbrook playing in all five Tests and Place being selected for the West Indies tour. There were problems in the middle order where only Geoff Edrich performed consistently well, but the two Test all-rounders, Jack Ikin and captain Ken Cranston scored over 1,000 runs.


1947 English cricket season, County Championship, Lancashire
Lancashire's outstanding bowler was paceman Dick Pollard who finished the season strongly after an indifferent early phase and took 144 wickets in all matches. Slow left armer William Roberts bowled steadily and took 74 championship wickets but Playfair remarked that he was short of Test class. As with the batting, the all-rounders Cranston and Ikin shored up the bowling with 56 and 48 championship wickets respectively. Looking to the future, Lancashire made a "find" in wicketkeeper Alfred Barlow and there were good reports of Alan Wharton who became a Lancashire stalwart for many seasons.


1947 English cricket season, County Championship, Lancashire
Batsman Barry Howard played some good innings in his debut season and, along with Cranston, was awarded his county cap. Other players included future county captain Nigel Howard, Tom Brierley, Phil King in his final season, future Test umpire Eddie Phillipson, Eric Price, and Gordon Garlick who joined Northamptonshire in 1948.


1947 English cricket season, County Championship, Lancashire
Lancashire played the majority of their home matches at their Old Trafford headquarters and played two matches elsewhere in the county:


1947 English cricket season, County Championship, Kent
Kent improved from seventh to fourth and were able to announce increased attendances and membership. The team was again captained by Bryan Valentine and featured England stars Godfrey Evans and Doug Wright, though they missed several championship matches for Test calls. Kent were particularly well served by their batsmen, although Valentine had problems with loss of form at times. Les Ames, Les Todd and Arthur Fagg all scored more than 2,000 runs in the season. The young left-hander Peter Hearn was regarded as a fine prospect and was awarded his county cap.


1947 English cricket season, County Championship, Kent
Wright was the main bowler and was supported by off spinner Ray Dovey, all-rounder Jack Davies and the two pacemen Fred Ridgway and Norman Harding. Harding died unexpectedly in September, aged 31. Other players included Geoffrey Anson, Brian Edrich, the veteran Hopper Levett in his final season, Tony Mallett, future captain Bill Murray-Wood and Tony Pawson. A curious case was pace bowler Jack Martin, who played for Kent only twice in 1947 and yet was selected to play for England in the Trent Bridge Test.


1947 English cricket season, County Championship, Kent
Kent's policy was to play home matches throughout the county and they used seven venues:


1947 English cricket season, County Championship, Derbyshire
Derbyshire was the most improved team of the year, rising ten places from fifteenth in 1946 to fifth in 1947. They were a strong bowling side with pacemen Bill Copson, Cliff Gladwin and George Pope all playing for England. Dusty Rhodes, bowling mainly leg break, and left-armer Eric Marsh provided support. Derbyshire, captained for the first time by Edward Gothard, played attacking cricket and were involved in several close finishes. The batting was weakened by injuries to Stan Worthington, in his final season, and Denis Smith.


1947 English cricket season, County Championship, Derbyshire
Charlie Elliott and Arnold Townsend topped 1,000 runs but Playfair noted that the presence of one really top-class batsman would have made an enormous difference to Derbyshire's batting. John Eggar, who topped the county averages, might have filled that gap but his teaching career enabled him to play only in August. Smith was seconded to keep wicket for most of the season until George Dawkes, formerly of Leicestershire, was able to join the team. Dawkes went on to become one of the greatest English wicketkeepers. Another notable debutant was fast bowler Les Jackson. Other players included Albert Alderman, 55-year-old Harry Elliott in his final season, Alan Revill and Pat Vaulkhard.


1947 English cricket season, County Championship, Derbyshire
Most of Derbyshire's home matches were played at one of their two main venues in Derby and Chesterfield but they occasionally played elsewhere. The five venues used were:


1947 English cricket season, County Championship, Surrey
Surrey showed improvements on 1946 but Playfair remarked on "the need for new blood". Having said that, the arrival of Jim Laker certainly resolved any problems in spin bowling and his future partner Tony Lock was already making progress at second eleven level. Another good start was made by opening batsman David Fletcher who was awarded his county cap with Laker and Eric Bedser. Six Surrey batsmen topped 1,000 runs in the championship: Eric Bedser, Fletcher, captain Errol Holmes, Tom Barling, John Parker and Stan Squires.


1947 English cricket season, County Championship, Surrey
Laurie Fishlock had a chequered season having been dogged by serious illness since he went to Australia with England in the winter. Wicketkeeper Arthur McIntyre played well and produced some good batting performances. The main bowlers were Alec Bedser, Jim Laker and the retiring Alf Gover, who took 121 wickets in his final season. Seamer Eddie Watts could make only a few appearances due to injury. Geoffrey Whittaker made eight appearances and two future Surrey mainstays Bernie Constable and Stuart Surridge also played.


1947 English cricket season, County Championship, Surrey
Surrey played twelve of their thirteen home matches at The Oval and one in Guildford. Two first-class matches not involving the Surrey XI were played in Kingston-upon-Thames. All venues:


1947 English cricket season, County Championship, Worcestershire
Following the emigration of Sandy Singleton to Rhodesia after the 1946 season, Allan White succeeded him as Worcestershire captain. The team lacked batting strength and did well to improve their championship position. The outstanding player was Test all-rounder Dick Howorth who was, as in 1946, the first player to complete the double of 1,000 runs and 100 wickets. Howorth was a slow left arm spinner and formed a successful partnership with Peter Jackson who bowled mostly off breaks. Howorth took 164 wickets in all matches and Jackson 125.


1947 English cricket season, County Championship, Worcestershire
Future England player Roly Jenkins made a telling contribution (67 wickets) with his leg breaks and googlies while paceman Reg Perks took 123 wickets in all matches. The success of the bowlers owed much to keeper Hugo Yarnold who claimed the most victims in the championship. Howorth, Jenkins, Eddie Cooper and, in his first full season, Don Kenyon all exceeded 1,000 runs. Worcestershire's best known batsmen at the time were Charles Palmer and the veteran Bob Wyatt and they were the first two in the county averages but neither played a full season. Laddie Outschoorn qualified for the championship for the first time and showed promise. Other players included Ronald Bird, Fred Cooper (brother of Eddie), Norman Whiting and Martin Young.


1947 English cricket season, County Championship, Worcestershire
Worcestershire played nine of their thirteen home matches at their County Ground headquarters in Worcester and used five venues in all:


1947 English cricket season, County Championship, Yorkshire
Yorkshire fell from champions to seventh and used 25 different players in the championship alone. There was future promise in five new caps: wicketkeeper Don Brennan, batsmen Willie Watson and Gerald Smithson, fast bowler Alec Coxon and left arm spinner Johnny Wardle. In addition, future stalwart Ted Lester began his career with three successive centuries and topped the county averages. Future captain Vic Wilson made a few appearances. Brian Sellers captained the team for the final time before handing over to Norman Yardley for the 1948 season.


1947 English cricket season, County Championship, Yorkshire
Bill Bowes in his final season topped the bowling averages and received a record benefit. He was supported by Wardle, off spinner Ellis Robinson, seamer Frank Smailes and new pace bowlers Coxon and Ron Aspinall. Yorkshire were hit by the loss through illness, after only four matches, of slow left armer Arthur Booth, who had been their outstanding player in 1946. The batting was generally not up to scratch and relied far too much on one man, the great Len Hutton who, because of Test calls, played in only half of Yorkshire's championship matches. Other players included Harry Crick, Harry Halliday, Freddie Jakeman, Geoffrey Keighley and pace bowler John Whitehead.


1947 English cricket season, County Championship, Yorkshire
Yorkshire used seven venues in various parts of the county:


1947 English cricket season, County Championship, Glamorgan
Glamorgan never had a settled team and there were a number of new arrivals at the end of the season including Gilbert Parkhouse, Jim Eaglestone, Norman Hever and Phil Clift. This might suggest a club in transition but there were grounds for optimism which were realised in 1948 when the club won its first championship. Glamorgan's bowling in 1947 suffered an early blow when their only real pace bowler Peter Judge was ruled out for the season after being injured in only the second match.


1947 English cricket season, County Championship, Glamorgan
Dynamic captain Wilf Wooller had to carry the seam attack almost single-handedly and took 85 wickets in addition to scoring 1,270 runs. Glamorgan relied mostly on spin with Len Muncer and the veteran Johnnie Clay bowling off breaks and opening batsman Emrys Davies helping out with his slow left. Davies created a county record by scoring five centuries in the season and formed an effective opening partnership with Arnold Dyson, both of them scoring more than 1,500 runs in the championship.


1947 English cricket season, County Championship, Glamorgan
Future Test player Allan Watkins exceeded 1,000 runs and there were some good innings by Wat Jones and George Lavis. The main wicketkeeper was Haydn Davies who claimed 47 victims in the championship but had some problems with a damaged hand. Other players included veteran Austin Matthews in his final season, Jim Pleass, Arthur Porter and Maurice Robinson.


1947 English cricket season, County Championship, Glamorgan
Most of Glamorgan' home matches were played at one of their two main venues in Cardiff and Swansea but they occasionally played elsewhere. The four venues used were:


1947 English cricket season, County Championship, Sussex
Playfair emphasised the contrast between strong batting and weak bowling at Sussex who recovered from bottom place in 1946 to finish a creditable equal ninth. Only Jim Cornford performed consistently well among the bowlers while six batsmen scored over 1,000 runs. Three of these exceeded 2,000 in all matches: John Langridge, George Cox and Harry Parks. James Langridge reached the thousand despite missing several matches due to appendicitis. Charles Oakes and new captain Hugh Bartlett were the other two.


1947 English cricket season, County Championship, Sussex
His predecessor turned club secretary Billy Griffith had a poor season with the bat but kept wicket well enough to be selected for England's winter tour. Other players who appeared were Paul Carey, Donald Smith, Jim Wood, Jack Oakes, John Nye and two future Test players Alan Oakman and David Sheppard.


1947 English cricket season, County Championship, Sussex
Sussex generally played home matches at their County Ground headquarters in Hove and used five venues in all:


1947 English cricket season, County Championship, Essex
Essex matches were noted for high scores as Essex themselves scored more runs than anyone except Middlesex but also conceded the most. Their two outstanding players were the cousins Peter and Ray Smith who both completed the double. These two, bowling leg break and off break respectively, effectively carried the Essex attack. Outstanding prospect Trevor Bailey was the sole pace bowler of any effect but he was only available in the latter half of the season and then injuries limited his bowling, though he topped the county's batting averages.


1947 English cricket season, County Championship, Essex
The other all-rounder Frank Vigar took 59 championship wickets bowling leg breaks but was expensive. Bailey, Vigar and the Smiths were half of the eight Essex players who scored 1,000 runs in the season, the other four being captain Tom Pearce, Chick Cray, Dickie Dodds and Doug Insole. Wicketkeeper Tom Wade had a very good season with 77 victims, 38 of them stumped. Essex were also represented by Bill Dines, Bill Morris, Denys Wilcox, Dick Horsfall, Frank Rist, Harry Crabtree, Len Clark and Sonny Avery.


1947 English cricket season, County Championship, Essex
Essex continued their policy of playing matches throughout the county and home venues used in 1947 were:


1947 English cricket season, County Championship, Nottinghamshire
Nottinghamshire, captained for the first time by William Sime, drew half of their matches and only the top three had less defeats. They lost Bill Voce early in the season to retirement and this placed a heavy burden on the remaining pace bowlers Arthur Jepson and Harold Butler. They did well, both taking over 100 wickets and Butler being picked for England, but they lacked support. The only other bowler to make any kind of impression was slow left armer Harry Winrow who took 56 championship wickets. Winrow was one of five batsmen to score 1,000 runs.


1947 English cricket season, County Championship, Nottinghamshire
The best of these by a distance was England's Joe Hardstaff junior who had an outstanding season, scoring 2,396 with seven centuries. Walter Keeton, Reg Simpson and Tom Reddick all topped 1,000 runs while Charles Harris was approaching the landmark when his season was ended early by illness. Wicketkeeper Eric Meads claimed 52 victims in championship matches. Cambridge University captain Guy Willatt batted well when available and young Peter Harvey, leg break and googly bowler, looked a good prospect, but Freddie Stocks did not fulfil the promise he showed in 1946. Nottinghamshire made exclusive use of their headquarters at Trent Bridge in Nottingham for their thirteen home matches.


1947 English cricket season, County Championship, Somerset
Somerset were captained for the only time by educator Jack Meyer but the team did not learn anything and dropped seven places from fourth in 1946 to equal eleventh. Even so, they pulled off some surprises by defeating champions Middlesex twice and inflicting on third-placed Lancashire their only loss of the season. Somerset were let down by their batting with only Harold Gimblett reliable through the season. Michael Walford played very well in the closing weeks when he became available and Playfair called him "the best amateur batsman in England on a firm wicket".


1947 English cricket season, County Championship, Somerset
The main bowler was veteran Arthur Wellard who was supported by all-rounders Bertie Buse and Johnny Lawrence, slow left armer Horace Hazell, captain Meyer and new pace bowler Maurice Tremlett. The veteran Wally Luckes kept wicket and claimed 55 championship victims. Other players were Bill Andrews in his final season, Frank Lee in his final season before becoming an umpire, Hugh Watts, George Woodhouse, Mandy Mitchell-Innes and Miles Coope.


1947 English cricket season, County Championship, Somerset
Somerset generally played home matches at their County Ground headquarters in Taunton and used five venues in all:


1947 English cricket season, County Championship, Leicestershire
Leicestershire had fourteen defeats and finished fourteenth. In Les Berry, they had the only professional captain in the County Championship. In July, they were involved in two exciting finishes, first when Middlesex were set to score 66 in 25 minutes and got them, courtesy of Edrich and Compton, to win by ten wickets with only four minutes to spare.


1947 English cricket season, County Championship, Leicestershire
Second, in their home match against Derbyshire, Leicestershire themselves succeeded in a run chase scoring 391 to win by three wickets at over eighty runs an hour, the winning run coming from a straight six off the third ball of the final over. Leicestershire were a strong batting side with Berry, Vic Jackson, Gerry Lester, Francis Prentice, Maurice Tompkin and George Watson all exceeding 1,000 runs while all-rounder Anthony Riddington scored over 800. Wicketkeeper Percy Corrall claimed 59 victims in championship matches. The main bowler was Jack Walsh, a great exponent of slow left-arm wrist-spin, who took 152 wickets in all matches. Jackson and the veteran James Sperry bowled well but Leicestershire's main need was a good pace bowler. Other players were Thomas Chapman, Jack Howard and Harry Pickering.


1947 English cricket season, County Championship, Leicestershire
Leicestershire played the majority of their home matches at their Grace Road headquarters in Leicester and used four venues in all:


1947 English cricket season, County Championship, Warwickshire
Warwickshire, let down by unreliable batting, were captained by attacking batsman Peter Cranmer. Despite their lack of success, they attracted large crowds to Edgbaston. Their best players were Test spinner Eric Hollies and batsman Tom Dollery, who was to become captain as a professional in 1948, though Dollery had a relatively poor season in 1947. Warwickshire were well served by their bowlers. In addition to Hollies, these were three new caps in the two seamers Victor Cannings and Charles Grove; and the New Zealand pace bowler Tom Pritchard.


1947 English cricket season, County Championship, Warwickshire
Dollery had to play as wicketkeeper in several matches when Cyril Goodway was unavailable. Playfair commented on advantages gained by the bowlers being "squandered" by inconsistent and unreliable batsmen. Five batsmen did exceed 1,000 runs but none had a good average: Cranmer, Dollery, Aubrey Hill, Jimmy Ord and Ken Taylor. Other players were Bill Fantham, John Hossell and Ron Maudsley. Warwickshire played eleven home matches at their Edgbaston headquarters in Birmingham and two matches at the Courtaulds Ground in Coventry.


1947 English cricket season, County Championship, Hampshire
Hampshire, a very ordinary side who bowled badly, were captained by Desmond Eagar. The batting was occasionally good and top of the county's averages was wicketkeeper Neil McCorkell who scored 1,539 championship runs and claimed 49 victims. Neville Rogers and Johnny Arnold played some good innings to both comfortably exceed 1,000 runs. Eagar and Gerry Hill both reached 1,000 with low averages and the all-rounder Jim Bailey, who took 53 wickets, fell just short of 1,000 runs. Playfair considered "the steady and loyal George Heath" to be the best of the bowlers who included Bailey, Hill, Victor Ransom, Lofty Herman and the injury-plagued Charles Knott. Other players included Gilbert Dawson, Thomas Dean, Arthur Holt, Alan Shirreff and future stalwart Leo Harrison.


1947 English cricket season, County Championship, Northamptonshire
Northamptonshire slipped from sixteenth to bottom and were captained by Arthur Childs-Clarke. Dennis Brookes was the pick of the batsmen and earned a trip to the West Indies in the winter. Bill Barron, Percy Davis and John Timms also topped 1,000 runs but with low averages. Vince Broderick put in a sound all-round effort with 860 runs and 87 wickets while the best bowler was West Indian Test player Bertie Clarke with 89 wickets. The attack was hampered by injuries to Nobby Clark who did not play often. Wicketkeeper Kenneth Fiddling claimed 40 victims. Other players included Leo Bennett, Robert Clarke, Arthur Cox, Eddie Davis, William Nevell and Jack Webster.


1947 English cricket season, County Championship, Northamptonshire
Northamptonshire played nine of their thirteen home matches at their County Ground headquarters in Northampton and used five venues in all:


1947 English cricket season, Other major fixtures, MCC v Yorkshire
At the beginning of the season, on 3, 5 and 6 May, Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) played a three-day match at Lord's against the 1946 county champions, Yorkshire. MCC won by 163 runs. The MCC team in batting order was Dennis Brookes (Northamptonshire), Jack Robertson (Middlesex), Bob Wyatt (Worcestershire), Denis Compton (Middlesex), Bryan Valentine (Kent, captain), Leslie Compton (Middlesex, wicketkeeper), Wilf Wooller (Glamorgan), Haydn Davies (Glamorgan), Jack Young (Middlesex), Rowland Shaddick (Middlesex) and Jack Martin (Kent). MCC won the toss and chose to bat first but were bowled out in 57 overs for 134, Denis Compton making 73.


1947 English cricket season, Other major fixtures, MCC v Yorkshire
Yorkshire got off to a very bad start when Len Hutton was dismissed by Jack Martin for nought. This began an outstanding spell for Martin who finished with six for 23 from 12.1 overs as Yorkshire collapsed to 81 all out. At close of play on the Saturday, MCC were 67 for one with Jack Robertson 36 not out. On the Monday, Robertson built a big innings and scored 164 of a declared total of 343 for 9. Yorkshire's hopes slumped when Hutton was again dismissed cheaply and at close of play they were 69 for two. Vic Wilson tried his best and scored 74, which was his highest career score to date, but Jack Young was in fine form and took six for 85 to win the match for MCC.


1947 English cricket season, Other major fixtures, University Match
The 1947 University Match between Oxford University and Cambridge University was played at Lord's over three days from 5 to 8 July and was drawn. Oxford batted first and amassed 457 with Kent's Tony Pawson scoring a chanceless 135 before being run out. Geoffrey Keighley made 99 and Test batsman Martin Donnelly 81. Cambridge could manage only 201 in reply as Oxford's other Test player Abdul Hafeez Kardar took four for 50. Following on, Cambridge rallied to 314 for four and ensured the draw, Guy Willatt scoring 90 and Trevor Bailey 60 not out.


1947 English cricket season, Other major fixtures, University Match
Donnelly (New Zealand) and Kardar (India) both played Test cricket before winning their "Blues" and no university team had ever before included two Test players in the same year. Cambridge had a notable future Test player in Trevor Bailey (England). Donnelly was the first university batsman ever to score 1,000 runs before the University Match in two successive seasons. Playfair praised Donnelly as "the finest left-hand batsman in the world", ahead of even the Australians Arthur Morris and Neil Harvey.


1947 English cricket season, Other major fixtures, Gentlemen v Players
There were two Gentlemen v Players matches in 1947. The first was played at Lord's over three days from 16 to 18 July and was drawn after rain restricted play on the last two days. The second was played at the North Marine Road ground in Scarborough from 10 to 12 September and the Players won by an innings and 10 runs.


1947 English cricket season, Other major fixtures, Gentlemen v Players
Martin Donnelly dominated the Lord's match with "a truly magnificent innings", scoring 162 not out as the Gentlemen made 302 in the first innings, Bill Edrich scoring 79. The Players replied with 334 for eight declared, Cyril Washbrook scoring 101 and David Fletcher 77. The Gentlemen slumped to 25 for five as wickets fell to Cliff Gladwin and Harold Butler but were rescued by Norman Yardley and Ken Cranston, rain ensuring that the result was a draw.


1947 English cricket season, Other major fixtures, Gentlemen v Players
The Gentlemen were led by England captain Norman Yardley and selected three Oxford University players — Donnelly, Tony Pawson and Tony Mallett — and two from Cambridge University: Guy Willatt and Trevor Bailey. The team included current England players Edrich and Cranston while Billy Griffith kept wicket. Reg Simpson made his first appearance in the fixture but could only score 4 and 0. The Players were captained by Les Ames who played as a batsman, Godfrey Evans keeping wicket. Washbrook opened with Jack Robertson, the other batsmen being Denis Compton, Charlie Barnett and Fletcher. The pace bowlers were Butler and Gladwin, supported by spinners Jack Walsh and Doug Wright.


1947 English cricket season, Other major fixtures, Gentlemen v Players
At Scarborough two months later, a much weaker Gentlemen team were easily beaten by an innings after totalling 135 and 217 against 362. Denys Wilcox opened the innings and did well with scores of 25 and 57 while skipper Yardley made 35 and 23, but Edrich and Donnelly did not contribute many against a strong Players attack, particularly Dick Howorth who took four wickets in each innings. The Players had three England pace bowlers: Butler, Alec Bedser and Dick Pollard. Howorth top-scored for the Players too, with 80, and captain Len Hutton scored 64.


1947 English cricket season, Other major fixtures, North v South
There were three North v South matches in 1947, involving largely makeshift teams, and Playfair did not bother to report on them. The first was at the St George's Road Cricket Ground, Harrogate over three days from 27 to 29 August and the North won by 86 runs. The second was played at the Leyland Motors Ground in Kingston-upon-Thames from 3 to 5 September and the South won by 4 wickets. The final match was played at North Marine Road Ground, Scarborough from 6 to 9 September and was drawn.


1947 English cricket season, Other major fixtures, Middlesex v The Rest
Having won the County Championship, Middlesex played a representative team called The Rest (i.e., the Rest of England) at The Oval in a four-day match lasting from 13 to 17 September. Middlesex won by 9 wickets. The Rest was a very strong team entirely consisting of players who had played or would play for England at Test level. In batting order, they were Cyril Washbrook, Winston Place, Dick Howorth, George Emmett, Norman Yardley (captain), Ken Cranston, Godfrey Evans (wicketkeeper), Alec Bedser, Doug Wright, Tom Goddard and Harold Butler.


1947 English cricket season, Other major fixtures, Middlesex v The Rest
Middlesex won the toss and decided to bat first but were soon reduced to 8 for two as Bedser dismissed both openers Syd Brown and Jack Robertson. Bill Edrich and George Mann took the score on to 53 for three when Mann, who had scored 33, was stumped by Evans off Wright. This brought Edrich and Denis Compton together. In keeping with their form throughout the season, they amassed 426 runs between them and enabled skipper Walter Robins to declare at 543 for nine.


1947 English cricket season, Other major fixtures, Middlesex v The Rest
Edrich made 180 which was just enough for him to surpass Tom Hayward's old record season aggregate, which Compton had already beaten. Compton retired hurt when he had scored 55 and the total was 191 for three. He returned with his knee strapped when the score was 274 for four and, despite his injury, he went on to make 246, his highest score of the season. Robins made 33 while Compton was off the field but the tailenders did not score many. The Rest were bowled out for 246 and followed on. They made 317 in their second innings, leaving Middlesex to win the match with 21 for one.


1947 English cricket season, Minor Counties Championship
Six first-class clubs entered their "second elevens" into the Minor Counties Championship in 1947 and Playfair reported that five more would do so in 1948. Teams played each other irregularly and a league table was compiled on the basis of average points per match played. A win was worth ten points with lesser awards given in certain specific circumstances. All teams played at least eight matches, the most being fourteen by Yorkshire II. The leading teams in the table were Surrey II, Yorkshire II, Lancashire II, Staffordshire, Suffolk and Oxfordshire who each exceeded five points per match.


1947 English cricket season, Minor Counties Championship
To decide the championship, a challenge match took place at The Oval on 4 to 6 September and Yorkshire II defeated Surrey II by 111 runs. Future first-class players taking part included Tony Lock, Vic Wilson, Stuart Surridge, Ron Aspinall and Bernie Constable.


1947 English cricket season, Compton and Edrich
Playfair described 1947 as "the Edrich and Compton year" and remarked that their domination of first-class cricket through the season was unprecedented. Between them, they scored 7,355 runs, took 140 wickets and held 66 catches. It is improbable that the records achieved by Compton of most runs and most centuries in a season will ever be broken, especially since the reduction in first-class matches which began in 1969. What will be remembered is not the statistics but the style because Compton and Edrich scored quickly and played attacking cricket.


1947 English cricket season, Compton and Edrich
Playfair described Compton as "a genius" who was brilliant at improvisation; Edrich on the other hand was "not a genius but a wonderfully efficient batsman". Both men were hampered by injuries. Compton had a bad knee caused by a piece of chipped bone which was removed after the season ended. Edrich suffered a pulled shoulder muscle in early August which impeded his batting and prevented him from bowling again. When the season began in May, Edrich scored a century in his first innings and followed up with two more, including a score of 225, before the end of the month. Compton did not score his first century until his eleventh innings. Edrich scored 1,047 runs in the calendar month of July and Compton 1,039 runs in August. Edrich's highest score was 267 not out for Middlesex against Northamptonshire and Compton's was 246 for Middlesex against The Rest.


1947 English cricket season, Compton and Edrich
Wisden published an appreciation of Compton and Edrich written by R. C. Robertson-Glasgow who began by opining that "they go together in English cricket as Gilbert and Sullivan go together in English opera". Robertson-Glasgow made further comparisons, strictly cricket ones this time, with Jack Hobbs and Herbert Sutcliffe for England and with Don Bradman and Bill Ponsford for Australia. However, he tempered his praise by pointing out that Compton and Edrich had yet to "quell the fiercest Test attack" as, although they had dominated the South African bowling in 1947, Australia remained another matter with "fulfilment awaited". While Playfair spoke of "brilliance and efficiency", Robertson-Glasgow eulogised about "genius and talent" and then "poetry and prose" in comparing Compton with Edrich. He concluded by describing them as "fitting adornments and exponents" of cricket, itself a "refreshment from worldly struggle".


1947 English cricket season, Wisden Cricketers of the Year
In its 1948 edition, Wisden Cricketers' Almanack announced that its five cricketers of the 1947 season were Martin Donnelly, Alan Melville, Dudley Nourse, Jack Robertson and Norman Yardley. As a rule, though it has occasionally been broken, Wisden never selects a player more than once. Among players of 1947 who had been selected previously were Les Ames in 1929; Walter Robins in 1930; Bill Bowes in 1932; Bruce Mitchell in 1936; Tom Goddard, Joe Hardstaff junior and Len Hutton in 1938; Denis Compton in 1939; Bill Edrich and Doug Wright in 1940; Peter Smith and Cyril Washbrook in 1947.


1947 English cricket season, Wisden Cricketers of the Year
Martin Donnelly was rated by Wisden as "the world's best present-day left-handed batsman". Although small in stature, Donnelly was noted for powerful stroke play using the drive, pull and cut shots. Donnelly dominated university cricket in 1947 but his outstanding performance was "an almost faultless 162 not out in three hours" for the Gentlemen against the Players at Lord's. Donnelly was a New Zealand Test batsman who had starred for the Dominions team in 1945.


1947 English cricket season, Wisden Cricketers of the Year
Alan Melville's career was dogged by injury and family illness. Wisden reflected this by opening its citation with "a story of courage and determination". In 1947, Melville won admiration for his "feeling for the spirit of the game" which was a significant factor in ensuring the success of "a most delightful Test series". Melville enjoyed personal success as a batsman in 1947, especially by scoring centuries at both Trent Bridge and Lord's. Melville was a strong onside batsman, noted for his fine timing. He retired from first-class cricket after the 1947 tour.


1947 English cricket season, Wisden Cricketers of the Year
Dudley Nourse, son of Dave Nourse, had his best Test series as a batsman in 1947 with 621 runs and two centuries. He was an aggressive batsman, noted for his powerful hitting off the back foot. He played the cut and hook shots especially well. Nourse was an expert fielder, rated by Wisden as one of the best in world cricket. As vice-captain in 1947, he was Melville's expected successor.


1947 English cricket season, Wisden Cricketers of the Year
Jack Robertson "surpassed all reasonable anticipations" in 1947 when his aggregate of 2,760 runs was exceeded only by his colleagues Compton and Edrich. Robertson was noted for "elegant strokeplay" and was strong on the back foot, especially his skill in playing the ball off his legs. Wisden saw "a striking resemblance" between Robertson and his Middlesex predecessor J. W. Hearne who was another polished performer adept at shot placement.


1947 English cricket season, Wisden Cricketers of the Year
Norman Yardley was selected for his successful captaincy of England in 1947 after he succeeded Wally Hammond. Wisden said his appointment as England captain "set a crown upon a cricket career that (always) promised distinction". Yardley was primarily a batsman, noted for "watching the ball carefully and hitting it hard", but Wisden also praised his fielding in all positions and the consistency of length and direction in his bowling.


1947 English cricket season, Achievements, Teams
Three teams scored more than 600 runs in an innings:


1947 English cricket season, Achievements, Teams
The lowest innings total of the season was 25 by Somerset against Gloucestershire at Bristol.


1947 English cricket season, Achievements, Batting
Of batsmen who played at least ten innings, twelve averaged 50.00 or more.


1947 English cricket season, Achievements, Batting
In total, 91 batsmen scored 1,000 runs in the season. Of these, seventeen scored 2,000-plus.


1947 English cricket season, Achievements, Batting
Compton's 3,816 runs and his 18 centuries are records for an English first-class cricket season. Edrich's 3,539 runs is the second highest aggregate of all time in a single season. Compton's two records were previously held by Tom Hayward, who scored 3,518 runs (including 13 centuries) in 1906, and Jack Hobbs, who completed 16 centuries (among 3,024 runs) in 1925.


1947 English cricket season, Achievements, Batting
Between them, the Middlesex trio of Compton, Edrich and Robertson scored 42 centuries in the season but none of them scored two in the same match. This feat was achieved eight times:


1947 English cricket season, Achievements, Batting
A total of 26 double-centuries were scored, Bill Edrich and Joe Hardstaff making the most with three each. The highest individual innings was 270 not out by Len Hutton for Yorkshire against Hampshire at Bournemouth.


1947 English cricket season, Achievements, Bowling
Of bowlers who took fifty or more wickets, twelve achieved an average less than 20.


1947 English cricket season, Achievements, Bowling
22 players took 100 wickets or more in the season and six of these took over 150 wickets.


1947 English cricket season, Achievements, Bowling
There were twelve hat-tricks in the season and six instances of three wickets taken in four balls. Tom Goddard did the hat-trick twice, against Glamorgan at Swansea and Somerset at Bristol, and Doug Wright once, against Sussex at Hastings, which meant that they equalled the world career hat-trick record of six, set by Charlie Parker.


1947 English cricket season, Achievements, Bowling
Tom Goddard had the best bowling analysis of the season when he took nine for 41 against Nottinghamshire at Bristol. His colleague Sam Cook was second-best with nine for 42 against Yorkshire, also at Bristol. Three other bowlers — Peter Smith, Len Muncer and Cliff Gladwin — took nine in an innings and there were twelve instances of eight in an innings, including three by Goddard. Goddard took fifteen wickets in a match three times but the best match analysis was sixteen for 215 by Peter Smith for Essex against Middlesex at Colchester. Arthur Wellard and Doug Wright took fifteen wickets in a match once apiece.


1947 English cricket season, Achievements, All-round
Three players completed the season "double" of 1,000 runs scored and 100 wickets taken:


1947 English cricket season, Achievements, Fielding and wicketkeeping
Five fielders held more than forty catches in the season:


1947 English cricket season, Footnote
• a)   The Wisden Cricketers of the Year for 1947 were announced in the 1948 edition of Wisden Cricketers' Almanack.


1947 Epsom by-election
The Epsom by-election, 1947 was a parliamentary by-election held in the United Kingdom on 4 December 1947 to fill the vacant House of Commons seat of Epsom in Surrey. The vacancy arose when the sitting Member of Parliament (MP), Sir Archibald Southby resigned from the House of Commons by accepting the Stewardship of the Chiltern Hundreds.


1947 Estonian SSR Football Championship
The 1947 Estonian SSR Football Championship was won by Tallinna Dünamo.


1947 Estonian Supreme Soviet election
Elections to the Supreme Soviet of the Estonian SSR were held on 16 February 1947. They were the first elections since the Estonian SSR was declared on 21 July 1940 and the first after World War II.


1947 Estonian Supreme Soviet election
The elections took place on the same day as the elections to the Supreme Soviet of the Latvian SSR.


1947 Estonian Supreme Soviet election
The Bloc of Communists and Non-Party Candidates was the only party able to contest the elections, and won all 100 seats. Elected members included Joseph Stalin (Tallinn constituency 9), Vyacheslav Molotov (Tallinn constituency 2) and Andrei Zhdanov (Kohtla-Järve constituency no 84).


1947 European Amateur Boxing Championships
The 1947 European Amateur Boxing Championships were held in the National Stadium, Dublin, Ireland from 2 to 17 May. It was the seventh edition of the bi-annual competition was organised by the European governing body for amateur boxing, EABA and the second consecutive European Championship held in Ireland with the other championship being held before the break during World War II in the 1939 Games.


1947 European Aquatics Championships
The 1947 LEN European Aquatics Championships were held 10–14 September 1947 in Roquebrune-Cap-martin, France .


1947 European Figure Skating Championships
The 1947 European Figure Skating Championships were held in Davos, Switzerland from January 31 to February 2. Elite senior-level figure skaters from European ISU member nations, in addition to the United States, Canada, and Australia, competed for the title of European Champion in the disciplines of men's singles, ladies' singles, and pair skating. Athlets from Germany and Austria were not admitted. Austrian skaters Eva Pawlik and Edi Rada probably would have won medals.


1947 European Figure Skating Championships, Results, Ladies
Scott is the only winner from outside Europe in ladies' singles.


1947 European Rowing Championships
The 1947 European Rowing Championships were rowing championships held on the Rotsee in the Swiss city of Lucerne. The competition was for men only, they competed in all seven Olympic boat classes (M1x, M2x, M2-, M2+, M4-, M4+, M8+), and 15 nations participated. It was the first European Rowing Championships held after World War II, and it was the second time that the regatta was held on the Rotsee; the previous regatta was in 1934.


1947 European Wrestling Championships
The 1947 European Wrestling Championships were held in 11–14 April 1947 Prague, Czechoslovakia. Only Greco-Roman wrestling competitions were held, in which representatives of 15 countries participated. It was the first European Wrestling Championship in which Soviet wrestlers took part.


1947 FA Cup Final
The 1947 FA Cup Final was the 66th final of the FA Cup. It took place on 26 April 1947 at Wembley Stadium and was contested between Charlton Athletic and Burnley. Charlton were appearing in their second consecutive final after losing to Derby County the previous year, while Second Division Burnley were appearing in their first final since 1914.


1947 FA Cup Final
Charlton won the match 1–0 after extra time, with Chris Duffy scoring the winning goal. For the second consecutive year, the ball burst during the match; both incidents were later put down to the poor quality of leather available after World War II.


1947 Fijian general election
General elections were held in Fiji in September 1947. Voting took place in the Northern and Western and Southern constituencies on 20 September, with voting in the Eastern constituency carried out between 15 and 22 September.


1947 Fijian general election, Electoral system
The Legislative Council consisted of 32 members, including 16 'official' members who were civil servants, fifteen 'unofficial' members (five Europeans, five Fijians and five Indo-Fijians), and the Governor sitting as President of the Council.


1947 Fijian general election, Electoral system
For Europeans and Indo-Fijians, three of the five representatives were elected from single-member constituencies, with the other two appointed by the Governor. All five Fijian members were appointed from a list of ten candidates submitted by the Great Council of Chiefs.


1947 Fijian general election, Electoral system
Voting for Europeans remained restricted to men aged 21 or over who had been born to European parents (or a European father and was able to read, speak and write English), who were British subjects and had been continuously resident in Fiji for 12 months, and who either owned at least £20 of freehold or leasehold property or had an annual income of at least £120. For Indo-Fijians, eligibility was also restricted to men aged 21 or over.


1947 Fijian general election, Electoral system
They had to be a British subject or from British India, have lived continuously in the Fiji for at least two years, be able to read or write in English, Gujarati, Gurmukhi,  Hindi, Tamil, Telegu or Urdu, and for the previous six months, have either owned property with an annual value of five years, had a net annual cash income of at least £75, or held a Government or municipal licence worth at least £5 annually.


1947 Fijian general election, Electoral system
The ban on civil servants voting in elections was lifted earlier in 1947, although civil servants remained ineligible to run for office. Nominations for candidates closed on 25 August.


1947 Five Nations Championship
The 1947 Five Nations Championship was the eighteenth series of the rugby union Five Nations Championship. Including the previous incarnations as the Home Nations and Five Nations, this was the fifty-third series of the northern hemisphere rugby union championship. Ten matches were played between 1 January and 19 April. It was contested by England, France, Ireland, Scotland and Wales.


1947 Five Nations Championship
The competition was not only the first after World War II, but also marked the return of France after an absence of 16 years. Les Bleus had been expelled from the tournament after the 1931 event over allegations of professionalism and administrative deficiencies; they were readmitted after the 1939 tournament, but shortly thereafter war forced the suspension of international rugby. The return of France established the Five Nations lineup until 2000, when the admission of Italy created the modern Six Nations.


1947 Florida A&M Rattlers football team
The 1947 Florida A&M Rattlers football team was an American football team that represented Florida A&M College as a member of the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SIAC) during the 1947 college football season. In their third season under head coach Jake Gaither, the Rattlers compiled a 9–1 record, including a victory over Hampton in the Orange Blossom Classic. The Rattlers played their home games at Sampson-Bragg Field in Tallahassee, Florida.


1947 Florida A&M Rattlers football team
Florida A&M ranked No. 3 among the nation's black college football teams according to the Pittsburgh Courier and its Dickinson Rating System.


1947 Florida A&M Rattlers football team
Key players included quarterbacks Jim Williams and Leroy Cromartie, fullback Bernie Ingraham, halfback Elman Williams, running back Ulysses Curtis, end Nathaniel Powell, William Rolle, tackle John Burgess, and center Wilbur Gary.


1947 Florida A&M Rattlers football team
Prior to the team's October 18 game against Morris Brown, the university dedicated Bragg Stadium in honor of Jubie Bragg and his son Eugene Bragg.


1947 Florida Gators football team
The 1947 Florida Gators football team was an American football team that represented the University of Florida in the Southeastern Conference (SEC) during the 1947 college football season. The season was Raymond Wolf's second as the head coach of the Florida Gators football team. Wolf's 1947 Florida Gators finished with a 4–5–1 overall record and a 0–3–1 record in the SEC, placing last among 12 SEC teams.


1947 Florida Gators football team
On October 18, 1947, the Gators broke a 13-game post-war losing streak, dating back to the final game of the 1945 season, when they upset the 18th-ranked NC State Wolfpack, 7–6, on the Wolfpack's home field in Raleigh, North Carolina. Among the other highlights of the season, the Gators beat the in-state rival Miami Hurricanes in Miami, and ended the season with a 25–7 intersectional victory over the Kansas State Wildcats.


1947 Florida Gators football team
Florida halfback Bobby Forbes was selected by the Associated Press as a second-team player on the 1947 All-SEC football team.


1947 Florida State Seminoles football team
The 1947 Florida State Seminoles football team was an American football team that represented Florida State University as an independent during the 1947 college football season. In its first and only season under head coach Ed Williamson, the team compiled a 0–5 record and was outscored by a total of 90 to 18. The team played its home games at Centennial Field in Tallahassee, Florida.


1947 Florida State Seminoles football team
In September 1947, the Florida State College for Women became coeducational, was renamed Florida State University and announced that it would field a football team, though it had no plans to compete with the University of Florida "for some time to come." The 1947 team was Florida State's first football team since 1904, after which Florida State became a women's college. Ed Williamson served as both athletic director and football coach and vowed to develop "a 'well rounded athletic program' without particular emphasis on football or any other single sport."


1947 Florida State Seminoles football team
In five games during the 1947 season, the team gained only 687 yards from scrimmage. The team completed 32 of 87 passes for 400 yards and 14 interceptions. "Red" Parrish was the team's leading rusher with 111 yards. Fullback Kenneth McLean led the team with 105 yards of total offense (105 rushing yards, 45 passing yards).


1947 Football Championship of the Ukrainian SSR
The 1947 Football Championship of UkrSSR were part of the 1947 Soviet republican football competitions in the Soviet Ukraine.


1947 Fordham Rams football team
The 1947 Fordham Rams football team was an American football team that represented Fordham University as an independent during the 1947 college football season. In its second season under head coach Ed Danowski, the team compiled a 1–6–1 record and was outscored opponents by a total of 245 to Rams offense scored 44.


1947 Fordham Rams football team
After a winless 1946 season, Fordham boosters raised money for 30 new scholarships. In addition, the school made several additions to its coaching staff, including the hiring of Vince Lombardi. Lombardi was responsible for coaching the freshman team. In addition, he helped the varsity team implement the T-Formation on offense. Lombardi did this for a salary of $3,500 a year. Athletic director Jack Coffey stated that he thought Lombardi would one day become head coach of the varsity team.


1947 Fordham Rams football team, Freshman team
The freshman team was Vince Lombardi's first experience as a head coach above the high school level. Many of the freshmen on the team were in their twenties. Three of the freshmen were players that Lombardi had coached in high school: Dick Doheny, Billy White and Larry Higgins. Twenty-three-year-old freshman Herb Seidell was elected as captain of the freshman team. He had served in the Navy with Leo Paquin, who was one of Lombardi’s teammates on Fordham’s Seven Blocks of Granite. Dick Doheny was the starting quarterback.


1947 Fordham Rams football team, Freshman team
One of the highlights for the team was defeating Rutgers freshman team by a score of 12-0. The Rams held the Scarlet Knights to negative yards, while the Rams gained 400 yards on the ground. After a 33-0 defeat of New York University’s freshman team, the New York Herald Tribune stated that Lombardi should feel proud for a job well done. Other members in the media were very optimistic about Lombardi because the varsity team finished the season with a record of 1-6-1.


1947 Fort Lauderdale hurricane
The 1947 Fort Lauderdale hurricane was a long-lived and an intense tropical cyclone that affected the Bahamas, southernmost Florida, and the Gulf Coast of the United States in September 1947. The fourth Atlantic tropical cyclone of the year, it formed in the eastern Atlantic Ocean on September 4, becoming a hurricane, the third of the 1947 Atlantic hurricane season, less than a day later. After moving south by west for the next four days, it turned to the northwest and rapidly attained strength beginning on September 9.


1947 Fort Lauderdale hurricane
It reached a peak intensity of 145 mph (233 km/h) on September 15 while approaching the Bahamas. In spite of contemporaneous forecasts that predicted a strike farther north, the storm then turned to the west and poised to strike South Florida, crossing first the northern Bahamas at peak intensity. In the Bahamas, the storm produced a large storm surge and heavy damage, but with no reported fatalities.


1947 Fort Lauderdale hurricane
A day later, the storm struck South Florida as a Category 4 hurricane, its eye becoming the first and only of a major hurricane to strike Fort Lauderdale. In Florida, advance warnings and stringent building codes were credited with minimizing structural damage and reducing loss of life to 17 people, but nevertheless widespread flooding and coastal damage resulted from heavy rainfall and high tides. Many vegetable plantings, citrus groves, and cattle were submerged or drowned as the storm exacerbated already high water levels and briefly threatened to breach the dikes surrounding Lake Okeechobee. However, the dikes held firm, and evacuations were otherwise credited with minimizing the potential death toll. On the west coast of the state, the storm caused further flooding, extensive damage south of the Tampa Bay Area, and the loss of a ship at sea.


1947 Fort Lauderdale hurricane
On September 18, the hurricane entered the Gulf of Mexico and threatened the Florida Panhandle, but later its track moved farther west than expected, ultimately leading to a landfall southeast of New Orleans, Louisiana. Upon making landfall, the storm killed 34 people on the Gulf Coast of the United States and produced a storm tide as high as 15.2 ft (4.6 m), flooding millions of square miles and destroying thousands of homes. The storm was the first major hurricane to test Greater New Orleans since 1915, and the widespread flooding that resulted spurred flood-protection legislation and an enlarged levee system to safeguard the flood-prone area. In all, the powerful storm killed 51 people and caused $110 million (1947 US$) in damage.


1947 Fort Lauderdale hurricane, Meteorological history
Hurricane Four was first monitored as an area of low pressure over French West Africa on September 2, 1947. Steadily tracking westward, the system was quickly classified as a depression before moving into the Atlantic Ocean near Dakar, Senegal, on September 4. Shortly thereafter, weather agencies lost track of the system over water due to a lack of ships in the region. However, later analysis determined that the cyclone obtained tropical storm status, with maximum sustained winds of 40 mph (60 km/h), during the morning of September 5.


1947 Fort Lauderdale hurricane, Meteorological history
The storm gradually intensified as it tracked nearly due west, but then maintained an intensity of 60 mph (100 km/h) for nearly five days, taking a west-southwest turn on September 7 before turning to the northwest two days later, when the steamship Arakaka provided confirmation of its existence. Another few days later, the cyclone began to intensify more rapidly as its forward speed increased; between September 10 and 15, reconnaissance missions by the United States Navy began monitoring the hurricane.


1947 Fort Lauderdale hurricane, Meteorological history
At 1500 UTC on September 11, a navy aircraft first penetrated the storm; in less than 24 hours, the storm rapidly strengthened into the equivalence of a Category 1 hurricane on the Saffir–Simpson Hurricane Scale, and shortly afterward attained peak winds of 100 mph (160 km/h), roughly 18 hours after being classified a tropical storm, as another aircraft registered a barometric pressure of 977 mb (28.84 inHg), a drop of 22 mb in 24 hours.


1947 Fort Lauderdale hurricane, Meteorological history
On September 13, another airplane at 1930 UTC confirmed that the storm had deepened further to 952 mb (28.11 inHg) and its eye shrunk to 6 nmi (11 km); by that time the hurricane had reached high-end Category 3 intensity, and intensified into a Category 4 hurricane six hours later. The same mission reported a double eyewall, a feature replaced by a large eye by the time the storm hit the Bahamas and Florida.


1947 Fort Lauderdale hurricane, Meteorological history
The next day, the storm attained the minimum pressure, 938 mb (27.70 inHg), recorded by aircraft reconnaissance during its life span, peaking in intensity as a strong Category 4 hurricane. On September 15, however, the storm lost this intensity. Early on September 16, as its movement slowed greatly and turned westward near the northern Bahamas, the cyclone weakened into a Category 3 hurricane with winds of 120 mph (190 km/h).


1947 Fort Lauderdale hurricane, Meteorological history
Following the phonetic alphabet from World War II, the U.S. Weather Bureau office in Miami, Florida, which then worked in conjunction with the military, named the storm George, though such names were apparently informal and did not appear in public advisories until 1950, when the first Atlantic storm to be so designated was Hurricane Fox.


1947 Fort Lauderdale hurricane, Meteorological history
While retaining its intensity, the storm, its northwesterly course having been blocked by a ridge of high pressure, crossed the northern portion of the Abaco Islands, where on Elbow Cay the Hope Town weather station simultaneously estimated winds of 160 mph (260 km/h) and recorded 960.7 mb (28.37 inHg) as the center passed just to the north. Until 2014, the cyclone was classified as a Category 5 hurricane in the northern Bahamas, based largely upon the observation from Elbow Cay; however, this wind was eventually determined to be unrepresentative of the intensity.


1947 Fort Lauderdale hurricane, Meteorological history
(Visual estimates of wind speed, particularly early in the era of modern reconnaissance, were sometimes unreliable.) About 24 hours later on September 17, it made landfall near Fort Lauderdale, Florida, as a Category 4 hurricane with maximum sustained winds near 130 mph (210 km/h). To this date, the hurricane remains the only major hurricane to have struck Broward County, Florida, at that strength, and the only one to pass directly over the county seat of Fort Lauderdale, though the 1926 Miami hurricane and Hurricane King caused significant damage in the county.


1947 Fort Lauderdale hurricane, Meteorological history
About 1700 UTC, the cyclone produced peak gusts of 155 mph (249 km/h) and sustained winds of 122 mph (196 km/h) at Hillsboro Inlet Light near Pompano Beach, Florida; the gust was the highest measured wind speed recorded in the state of Florida until Hurricane Andrew in 1992, which produced a gust of 177 mph (285 km/h) at Perrine.


1947 Fort Lauderdale hurricane, Meteorological history
The station also reported a pressure of 947.2 mb (27.97 inHg), the lowest during the passage of the storm over Florida, though Fort Lauderdale, in the eye to the south, reported higher pressures; winds at the lighthouse briefly lulled as the center passed nearby, while Fort Lauderdale reported a one-hour lull. Unusually, the lowest pressures occurred not in the center of the eye, but near its northern edge, suggesting the influence of eyewall mesovortices. The hurricane moved slowly inland near 10 mph (16 km/h), and it diminished to a Category 2 hurricane over the Everglades. Early on September 18, the cyclone entered the Gulf of Mexico near Naples, producing wind gusts of 120 mph (190 km/h) at Sanibel Island Light near Fort Myers.


1947 Fort Lauderdale hurricane, Meteorological history
Once over water, the hurricane had diminished to about 90 mph (140 km/h); though no further reconnaissance missions were dispatched to estimate its intensity over the Gulf of Mexico, it is believed to have begun reintensifying as it turned west-northwest and its forward motion increased to 15 mph (24 km/h). On September 19, the hurricane moved ashore over Saint Bernard Parish, Louisiana, as a high-end Category 2 hurricane with sustained winds of 110 mph (180 km/h).


1947 Fort Lauderdale hurricane, Meteorological history
The hurricane quickly weakened as it moved over the New Orleans metropolitan area, although its strong winds gusted to 125 mph (201 km/h) in New Orleans. The eye passed over Baton Rouge, the state capital, between 2000 and 2020 UTC, with anemometers registering sustained winds of 96 mph (154 km/h) at 2045 UTC. On September 20, the storm rapidly weakened to a tropical depression over northeastern Texas, but the remnant circulation turned northeast over southeastern Oklahoma and northwest Arkansas. On September 21, it dissipated over southern Missouri.


1947 Fort Lauderdale hurricane, Preparations
On the evening of September 15, the U.S. Weather Bureau expected the storm to recurve, precipitating a possible landfall betweenJacksonville, Florida, and Savannah, Georgia. As a precautionary measure, small watercraft between Jupiter, Florida, and Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, were advised to remain in port. Early on September 16, the forecast was revised, and hurricane warnings were issued for the Florida east coast from Titusville to Fort Lauderdale, later to be expanded to Miami. As the hurricane approached Northern commercial flights were grounded, and 1,500 National Guard troops were readied for mobilization if "deemed necessary" by Florida Governor Millard Caldwell.


1947 Fort Lauderdale hurricane, Preparations
4,700 persons in Broward County moved into shelters established by the Red Cross, while up to 15,000 people evacuated the flood-prone Lake Okeechobee region. In all, more than 40,000 people statewide moved into shelters established by the Red Cross. Military aircraft were flown to safer locations, in some cases four days or more in advance. Hotels in the threatened area filled quickly due to fears of a disaster similar to the 1928 Okeechobee hurricane; at Melbourne and Cocoa no vacant hotels were left for evacuees. During the storm, the MacArthur, North Bay (now Kennedy), and Venetian Causeways in Miami were closed to traffic. At Lake Worth alone, 1,800 people sheltered in nine official shelters during the storm.


1947 Fort Lauderdale hurricane, Preparations
As the hurricane entered the Gulf of Mexico, initial forecasts expected the storm to strike between Apalachicola and Pensacola, Florida, but by 0415 UTC on September 19, hurricane warnings were issued by the Weather Bureau office in New Orleans covering Saint Marks, Florida, to Morgan City, Louisiana. As the storm neared Louisiana, Emile Verret, the acting governor of Baton Rouge, closed the state capital and sent public officials home. In New Orleans, local National Guard units were mobilized.


1947 Fort Lauderdale hurricane, Impact, The Bahamas
As the storm passed nearby, Green Turtle Cay was flooded by 2 feet (0.61 m) of water and the local weather station abandoned. Strong winds damaged or destroyed many homes and docks on the western end of Grand Bahama. At Settlement Point, a storm surge of 12 ft (3.7 m) destroyed half the community, preventing medical supplies from being delivered until September 20. Despite its intensity, the storm was not attributed to any known deaths in The Bahamas.


1947 Fort Lauderdale hurricane, Impact, Florida
The storm killed only 17 people in Florida, many fewer than the size and intensity of the storm suggested, largely due to improved warnings and preparations, as well as more stringent construction standards, since the 1920s. The hurricane was not only intense and slow-moving, but also unusually large: some reports indicated winds of hurricane force extended 120 mi (190 km) from the center in all directions. Winds of over 50 mph (80 km/h) spread nearly 150 mi (240 km) in all directions, affecting practically the entire Florida peninsula below the latitude of Brevard County.


1947 Fort Lauderdale hurricane, Impact, Florida
In spite of the winds, wind-caused structural damage was generally minor; in Broward County only 37 homes were irreparably destroyed, primarily small homes or those undermined by coastal waves, while in the Palm Beach area most of the unroofed buildings were small and cheaply built; most newer structures, built since the 1928 Okeechobee hurricane, resulted in less damage in the September 1947 storm.


1947 Fort Lauderdale hurricane, Impact, Florida
Upon making its first U.S. landfall, the storm produced wind gusts estimated at up to 127 mph (204 km/h) in Fort Lauderdale, though estimates varied as other observations elsewhere in South Florida ranged from 140 mph (230 km/h) to 180 mph (290 km/h), and up to 150 mph (240 km/h) in Fort Lauderdale itself. Intense wind gusts unroofed hundreds of homes and apartments in the Hollywood–Fort Lauderdale area, and reportedly "few utility poles were left standing, many having been snapped like toothpicks by the 150 mph (240 km/h) gusts."


1947 Fort Lauderdale hurricane, Impact, Florida
At the Boca Raton Army Air Field, the hurricane destroyed 150 barracks, supply houses, warehouses, the post stockade, the fire station, and the theater and mess buildings. Losses as lately reported were 1947 US$4,500,000, hastening existing plans to close the base. At West Palm Beach, 40% of the initial 1947 US$1,500,000 in damages was related to roof damage. Farther south, the 11,000-seat Hialeah race track was mostly unroofed, with barns and paddocks damaged and many of its famed flamingos missing.


1947 Fort Lauderdale hurricane, Impact, Florida
On the east coast of Florida, many cities experienced significant flooding; tides of up to 11 ft (3.4 m) affected Broward and Palm Beach counties, washing out large portions of State Highway A1A between Palm Beach and Boynton Beach, as well as between Sunny Isles Beach and Haulover. High tides carved a channel 3 ft (0.91 m) deep and rendered a nearby road impassable while nearly reopening New River Inlet, which had silted over and never re-emerged since the 1935 Yankee hurricane.


1947 Fort Lauderdale hurricane, Impact, Florida
At Miami Beach many of the 334 resort hotels as well as homes and apartments were battered by waves. There, a three-to-four-ft-deep (0.9-to-1.2-m) layer of sand covered many oceanfront grounds, and nearby neighborhoods on the Venetian Islands, like Belle Isle, were flooded to a depth of several feet. As it crossed South Florida at about 10 mph (16 km/h), the storm dropped a prodigious amount of rain over a broad area, peaking at 10.12 in (257 mm) at Saint Lucie Lock. In Miami, the city manager claimed 200 mi (320 km) of city streets were flooded out, while in Miami Springs half the homes were flooded. The town of Davie, having lost 35,000 citrus trees to floodwaters in preceding months, suffered devastating losses to groves and vegetable beds.


1947 Fort Lauderdale hurricane, Impact, Florida
On Lake Okeechobee, concerns about disastrous flooding were heightened by memories of the 1928 Okeechobee hurricane on the south shore and of the 1926 Miami hurricane at Moore Haven. During the storm, tides peaked at 13 ft (4.0 m) on the north shore of the lake and 21 ft (6.4 m) on the south shore at Clewiston and Moore Haven, nearly overrunning the Herbert Hoover Dike that surrounded the lake.


1947 Fort Lauderdale hurricane, Impact, Florida
However, due to revamped improvements in the dike, the storm caused only minor damage, and the dike prevented a repeat of the flooding of 1926 and 1928, in which over 2,500 people drowned. Nevertheless, floodwaters in the Everglades region resulted in significant losses to cattle, and hundreds of small block homes in the agricultural districts were blown off their foundations. Much of the marshy country was waterlogged during and after the storm.


1947 Fort Lauderdale hurricane, Impact, Florida
On the west coast of the state, the hurricane produced sustained winds of 105 mph (169 km/h) at Naples, but the anemometer was obstructed from measuring the strongest winds. Damage in the Fort Myers–Punta Gorda area was described as being heavy, and the Coast Guard station at Sanibel Island Light was inundated by floodwaters to a depth of 3 ft (0.91 m). Tides at Everglades City peaked at 5.5 ft (1.7 m), forcing residents into attics and flooding local streets.


1947 Fort Lauderdale hurricane, Impact, Florida
However, the Tampa Bay area, being north of the eye, had less damage due to offshore winds forcing tides below normal. In Fort Myers, hundreds of trees were prostrated and the city left without power. During the storm, two vessels, with a total combined crew of nine people, went missing; as of September 18, contact had been established with the former and the crew declared safe, but the remaining vessel, with a crew of two, had not been accounted for. Additionally, six Cuban schooners carrying 150 crew members in all sheltered off Anclote Key late on September 17 and rode out the storm. However, another Cuban vessel, the Antonio Cerdedo, foundered and sank off Fort Myers with a loss of seven of its crew members.


1947 Fort Lauderdale hurricane, Impact, Gulf Coast of the United States
The center of the storm, estimated at the time to have been 25 mi (40 km) wide, passed directly over the business district of New Orleans between 1530 and 1700 UTC, making the storm the first major hurricane to pass over the city since 1915; no other storm would pass so close to downtown New Orleans until Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Before the eye arrived, wind instruments at Moisant Airport were disabled after just having registered sustained winds of 90 mph (140 km/h).


1947 Fort Lauderdale hurricane, Impact, Gulf Coast of the United States
Due to the increasing northerly winds, water overtopped sections of the levees on Lake Pontchartrain, leaving some lakefront streets submerged "waist deep," above the 3-ft (0.92-m) delimiter. As communications failed during the calm eye, the Weather Bureau office in Fort Worth, Texas, assumed the duties of the New Orleans office by broadcasting advisories to the public. During the eye, atmospheric pressure in New Orleans dropped as low as 968.9 mb (28.61 inHg) by 1649 UTC.


1947 Fort Lauderdale hurricane, Impact, Gulf Coast of the United States
A large part of Greater New Orleans was flooded, with 2 ft (0.61 m) of water shutting down Moisant Field and 6 ft (1.8 m) of water in parts of Jefferson Parish. The storm surge in Louisiana peaked at 9.8–11.2 ft (3.0–3.4 m) at Shell Beach on Lake Borgne—today submerged due to erosion from the construction in 1968 of the Mississippi River Gulf Outlet—and at 11.5 ft (3.5 m) in Ostrica.


1947 Fort Lauderdale hurricane, Impact, Gulf Coast of the United States
The surge overtopped the 9-ft-tall (2.7-m) Orleans Parish seawall, built by the Orleans Levee Board in the 1920s to prevent a repeat of the 1915 hurricane there, and spread water over 9 sq mi (23 km2) of the parish, as far from Lake Pontchartrain as Gentilly Ridge. Large portions of Jefferson Parish remained flooded for as long as two weeks. Subsidence settled behind the levees, leaving "topographic bowls" containing up to 6 ft (1.8 m) of water, to be excavated by dredging and pumping the water back into Lake Pontchartrain. Saint Bernard and Plaquemines parishes were also inundated by an 11-ft (3.4-m) storm surge, though mainly sparsely populated areas were affected.


1947 Fort Lauderdale hurricane, Impact, Gulf Coast of the United States
A storm tide of up to 15.2 ft (4.6 m) was reported along the western half of the Mississippi coastline, causing heavy damage in Bay St. Louis, Gulfport, and Biloxi. The recorded tides in these communities were the highest ever recorded until Hurricane Camille, a Category 5 hurricane in 1969 and one of the strongest hurricanes to strike the United States with sustained winds of 175 mph (282 km/h), produced tides of up to 21.7 ft (6.6 m). Although the storm had weakened by its second landfall, the hydrology of the region makes it particularly vulnerable to hurricanes.


1947 Fort Lauderdale hurricane, Impact, Gulf Coast of the United States
12 people were killed in Louisiana and 22 in Mississippi. In both states combined, the Red Cross reported that the storm destroyed 1,647 homes and damaged 25,000 others, with the majority, up to 90%, of the destroyed having been due to water. In New Orleans, the storm produced an estimated 1947 USD$100,000,000 worth of damage to the city. Barometric pressures as low as 971.6 mb (28.69 inHg) and sustained winds as high as 96 mph (154 km/h), equivalent to Category 2 intensity, were reported as far inland as Baton Rouge.


1947 Fort Lauderdale hurricane, Aftermath
In Florida, a federal state of emergency was declared by then-U.S. President Harry S. Truman. The combined flooding from the September hurricane and a later hurricane in October was among the worst in southern Florida's history, even spurring the creation of the Central and Southern Florida Flood Control District along with a plan for new flood-control levees and canals. In New Orleans, the United States Congress approved the Lake Pontchartrain and Vicinity Project to assist ongoing efforts to increase the height of the existing levee along the lakeshore; to bolster the existing seawall in Orleans Parish, an 8-ft-high (2.4-m) levee was erected along lakeside Jefferson Parish.


1947 Fort Lauderdale hurricane, Aftermath
The storm is most commonly called the 1947 Fort Lauderdale hurricane but is sometimes referred to as Hurricane George, the 1947 New Orleans hurricane, or the 1947 Pompano Beach (or Broward) hurricane. If this same storm were to hit today it would probably do around $11.72 billion (2004 US$) in damages.


1947 Fort Valley State Wildcats football team
The 1947 Fort Valley State Wildcats football team was an American football team that represented Fort Valley State College in the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SIAC) during the 1947 college football season. Led by head coach Richard Craig, the team compiled a 7–0–1 record in eight regular season games. The Wildcats were ranked No. 15 among the nation's black college football teams according to the Pittsburgh Courier and its Dickinson Rating System.


1947 Fort Valley State Wildcats football team
After going through its eight-game regular season with an undefeated record, Fort Valley was regarded as the "Cinderella team" of 1947 and received an invitation to play No. 8 Southern in the Yam Bowl in Dallas. Southern defeated Fort Valley by a 46–0 score on Christmas Day.


1947 Fort Valley State Wildcats football team
Key players included halfback Ted Bey, Webb Hollis, Joseph Davis, and Carl Cannon. William E. McKinney was the assistant coach.


1947 French Championships (tennis)
The 1947 French Championships (now known as the French Open) was a tennis tournament that took place on the outdoor clay courts at the Stade Roland-Garros in Paris, France. The tournament ran from 14 July until 27 July. It was the 51st staging of the French Championships. In 1947 (as in 1946) the French Championships were held after Wimbledon. They were thus, both, the third Grand Slam tennis event of the year and 1947 was the last tournament until the 2020 French Open to be held outside of the usual May-June schedule. József Asbóth and Patricia Todd won the singles titles.


1947 French Championships (tennis), Finals, Seniors, Men's Doubles
Eustace Fannin /  Eric Sturgess defeated  Tom Brown /  Bill Sidwell, 6–4, 4–6, 6–4, 6–3


1947 French Championships (tennis), Finals, Seniors, Women's Doubles
Louise Brough  /  Margaret Osborne defeated  Doris Hart /  Patricia Todd, 7–5, 6–2


1947 French Championships (tennis), Finals, Seniors, Mixed Doubles
Sheila Piercey Summers /  Eric Sturgess defeated  Jadwiga Jędrzejowska  /  Cristea Caralulis, 6–0, 6–0


1947 French Championships – Men's Singles
József Asbóth defeated Eric Sturgess 8–6, 7–5, 6–4 in the final to win the Men's Singles tennis title at the 1947 French Championships.


1947 French Championships – Men's Singles, Seeds
The seeded players are listed below. József Asbóth is the champion; at others the round is shown in which they were eliminated.


1947 French Championships – Women's Singles
Fifth-seeded Patricia Todd defeated Doris Hart 6–3, 3–6, 6–4 in the final to win the Women's Singles tennis title at the 1947 French Championships.


1947 French Championships – Women's Singles, Seeds
The seeded players are listed below. Patricia Todd is the champion; others show the round in which they were eliminated.


1947 French Grand Prix
The 1947 French Grand Prix was a Grand Prix motor race held at Lyon-Parilly on 21 September 1947 and was won by Louis Chiron driving a Talbot-Lago. The race was marred by an accident involving Pierre Levegh crashing into and killing 2 spectators.


1947 French Grand Prix, Entries
As the first French Grand Prix held after World War II the entry was quite mixed. Pre -race favourites, the two Alfa Romeo 158s entered by Jean-Pierre Wimille, did not arrive. The entrants which did arrive were two two-seater Delahayes, four sports car Talbot-Lagos with two single seaters for Louis Chiron and Luigi Chinetti, six Maseratis, two of which were the latest 4CLTs for Alberto Ascari and Luigi Villoresi, three ERAs, one of which was Peter Whitehead's aging B-Type, and finally the experimental French CTA-Arsenal.


1947 French Grand Prix, Report
The start of the race was quite eventful. Henri Louveau (in a Maserati 4CL) lead at first from the front row, but was overtaken by fellow Maserati driver Pierre Levegh. Both were overtaken by another Maserati driven by Raph who lead the first lap. Meanwhile, from the back of the grid Villoresi in the newer Maserati had moved up to third place, while Raymond Sommer retired the CTA-Arsenal in its only ever race appearance without completing a lap.


1947 French Grand Prix, Report
On the second lap Villoresi moved into second place and by the end of the third lap had taken the lead. On the fourth lap he was forced to retire with smoke pouring out of his engine, handing the lead to Raph followed closely by Emmanuel de Graffenried, in another Maserati, who took the lead on the following lap.


1947 French Grand Prix, Report
Chiron made a slow start but quickly moved up through the field, taking the lead from de Graffenried on the eighth lap. de Graffenried stayed with Chiron until engine overheating forced him to retire after 20 laps, handing second place to Henri Louveau. Thanks in part to just about every competitor suffering from various mechanical issues, the lead two would hold their positions until the end of the race.


1947 French Grand Prix, Report
After making a fuel stop, on his 24th lap Pierre Levegh crashed his Maserati through a barrier, killing two spectators, after his engine seized.