David Bairstow

David Leslie Bairstow was an English cricketer, and, briefly, a professional footballer.  Born in Horton, Bradford, Yorkshire, on September 1st, 1951, Bairstow was primarily a wicketkeeper and a middle-order batsman, although he occasionally bowled medium-pace.  Bairstow made his debut for Yorkshire in a County Championship match against Gloucestershire at Park Avenue on June 3rd, 1970, taking an 'A'-level at 6 a.m. that day to enable him to play in the game.  He had a long and successful cricket career, playing for Yorkshire County Cricket Club for 21 seasons until 1990, captaining the side for three of them.  He scored 13,961 first-class runs at an average of  26.44, taking 961 catches and making 138 stumpings behind the timbers, and even chipping in with 9 wickets at an average of 34.22.  Bairstow made his England debut in a One-Day International against Australia in Melbourne in January, 1979.  Later that year, he made his Test debut against India at The Oval.  Overall, he played 21 O.D.I.s and 4 Test Matches for England.  Bairstow also had a short career as a footballer for Bradford City, playing 17 games as a forward and scoring one goal between 1971 and 1973.  He was married twice, first to Gail (whom he nicknamed 'Stormy'), who bore him one son, Andrew, who briefly played first-class cricket for Derbyshire.  Divorcing Gail, he married Janet, who bore him two children: Becky, and Jonny - who went on to play cricket for Yorkshire and England.  Bairstow later had a second career as a cricket commentator, but began to become dejected after his wife developed breast cancer.  Heated confrontations with Yorkshire C.C.C. officials, financial worries, and a drink-driving charge hanging over him, all exacerbated his problems, for which he saw both his own doctor and a consultant psychiatrist. Suffering from depression, he took an overdose of tablets in late 1997.  A few weeks later - on January 5th, 1998 - David Bairstow hanged himself at his home in Marton-cum-Grafton, Yorkshire.  He was 46 years old.