Thomas Francis Smailes (27 March 1910 – 1 December 1970) was an English cricketer, who played first-class cricket for Yorkshire County Cricket Club, and one Test match for England. He was one of Yorkshire's main players in the club's outstanding years, when they won eight County Championships out of ten. Though Smailes was never a player of the class of Sutcliffe, Hutton, Bowes, Verity or Leyland, he was extremely valuable to Yorkshire because of his versatility. He could bowl either swingers as a new ball partner to Bowes, or later off-breaks when pitches were affected by rain. He was also a dangerous left-handed batsman who scored over a thousand runs in 1938, with centuries against Glamorgan and Surrey. He lost his best potential cricketing years to the cessation of competitive cricket during World War II. Life and career Born Thomas Francis Smailes in Ripley, then in the West Riding of Yorkshire and although he joined the Yorkshire staff in 1932, it was not until George Macaulay became unfit that Smailes had his chance of playing regularly for the first eleven. Smailes debut took place on 4 May 1932, against Oxford University. He took this chance very effectively, taking 105 wickets for around 21 runs apiece – a good average in such a fine summer, even though his bowling at this stage lacked the accuracy that was expected from Yorkshire cricketers, and he was perhaps overawed by having to lead the attack so often. His best performance was six for 56 against Kent, where he swung the ball prodigiously. At the end of the 1934 season, Smailes was awarded his county cap. With Bowes and Verity dominating the following season, Smailes had fewer opportunities but his accuracy improved greatly. In the last match against Sussex he took ten wickets in a match for the first time, but just missed 100 victims. 1936, however, saw Smailes capture significant attention for the first time, with an impressive all-round performance against India of 77 (including three sixes) and ten wickets for 62 runs. He shared in a partnership of 167 with Verity for the ninth wicket, against Somerset, in one of the more remarkable county matches, and his fast-medium swervers could still be valuable as he showed with seven for 72 against Middlesex at Scarborough. Nonetheless, it was Smailes' development of off-spin – helped by the continuously soft wickets in the North – that