Remembering Peter Lever (1940-2025)
Lancashire Cricket has been deeply saddened by the news that Peter Lever has passed away, aged 84.
Peter Lever was a tall, determined right-arm, fast-medium bowler. He made his debut for Lancashire in 1960 and in his early years, 1963 and 1966 in particular, batted well enough to hold a middle-order place as well as provide energetic support for Brian Statham and Ken Higgs. In both of those seasons, he scored over 500 runs and took more than fifty wickets.
He was a vital part of the Lancashire team of the 1970s, forging a formidable opening bowling partnership with Ken Shuttleworth and later Peter Lee, twice winning John Player ‘Sunday’ League titles and playing in five Gillette Cup finals at Lord’s – missing the 1972 final with injury – and winning three of them in 1970, 1971 and 1975.
A thinking bowler who always gave one hundred per cent, Lever could vary his pace and swing.
He was nearly 30 when he played for England against the Rest of the World in 1970, taking 7 for 83 at the Oval against some legendary batsman.
That helped to earn a place for the following tour to Australia, where Lever stepped up his pace to suit the conditions and played in five of the six Tests, making significant contributions to England regaining the Ashes.
He toured Australia again in 1974-75 and ended what had been a largely disappointing tour by taking six for 38 at Melbourne in the final Test, the only one England won in their 4-1 defeat. Nine of his seventeen Tests, between 1970 and 1975, were against Australia and he totalled 41 wickets at 36.80 each.
Lever played in the first-ever One-Day International against Australia at Melbourne in 1971 and made a total of 10 ODI appearances, including reaching the semi-final of the inaugural World Cup in England in 1975.
Back problems forced him into retirement before the 1977 season, by which time he had played in 268 first-class matches for Lancashire and taken 716 wickets at 26.64 runs each. In 168 limited-overs matches for the Red Rose he had the outstanding return of 256 wickets for 17.62 each.
Six years after retiring, Lever – then the club’s assistant coach - responded to an injury crisis by playing one further game in a 2nd round Nat West Trophy match against Somerset at the age of 43, not adding to his wicket tally but rolling back the years to bowl seven very accurate overs for just 17 runs. In retirement, he was bowling coach for Lancashire and then England.
In 2021, Lever was inducted into the Lancashire Cricket Hall of Fame.
John Abrahams spoke about Peter: “Peter was like an informal mentor to me as we both lived in the Rochdale area and used to travel to and from matches together. He used to advise me on cricket and the game in general.”
There was also a tribute from Farokh Engineer: “A very sad day in my life, Peter was so instrumental in Lancashire winning the Gillette Cup. After Brian Statham, he was Lancashire’s main strike bowler. A great teammate."
Born: 17th September 1940, Todmorden
Died: 27th March 2025
Played: 1960-1983
The thoughts of everyone at the Club are with his family and friends at this difficult time.
Rev Malcolm Lorimer - Club Historian.