Stuart Johnston Symington, born at Bexhill-on-Sea, Sussex, on 16 September 1926 and died at Hereford on 11 December 2009, played first-class cricket for Leicestershire as an amateur in 1948 and 1949. He was captain of the Leicestershire side in 1949. After little more than a year in full-time cricket, he resumed a career in the Army. Cricket career A right-handed middle-order batsman and a right-arm fast-medium bowler, Symington was educated at Canford School and played for Leicestershire in wartime matches. He made his first-class debut in a couple of matches in the 1948 season. He took four wickets in his first match against Hampshire, and this was followed by scores of 21 and 40 in the second game, which was against Essex. In 1948, Leicestershire had appointed the professional, Les Berry, as captain, only the second appointment of a professional by one of the first-class counties since the 1890s (the previous instance had also been by Leicestershire, when Ewart Astill was appointed captain for the 1935 season). In both 1935 and 1948, the appointment had been necessitated because no amateur was available to lead the team: Wisden also reported that "possibly affected by the cares of captaincy", Berry "did not reproduce the form of previous years". For the 1949 season, Symington was offered the captaincy of the county side and accepted, although he had played only two matches at this point. The move was not a success. Though Berry returned to form, the side as a whole played badly, and, having finished in 11th place out of 17 in the County Championship in 1948, Leicestershire slipped to bottom place in 1949. Under Symington's captaincy, only two matches were won, though there was a third victory late in the season after he had departed. Symington's own record for the season was respectable: he batted mostly at No 6 or No 7, and made 659 runs at an average of 21.25. There were three scores of more than 50, with the highest being 65, made in the match against Essex at Leicester. Bowling was the weakness of the Leicestershire side as a whole, and in the absence of alternatives Symington was cast in the role of opening bowler for most of the season. He took only 30 wickets in the season at the high average of 43.73. There was one good bowling day, early in the season: in Leicestershire's first home match,