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LEGEND'S LEGACY
Cricket great Derek ‘Deadly’ Underwood left family more than £800,000 in his will
Left-armer Derek took 297 wickets in 86 Tests between 1966 and 1982
CRICKET great Derek Underwood left more than £800,000 in his will, probate documents reveal.
England’s most successful spinner — nicknamed Deadly — bequeathed the money to his family.
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The star, who died in April aged 78, left £826,000, reduced to £823,000 after debts and costs were deducted.
Wife Patricia Cheeseman was given £50,000 in cash, as well as his home and car.
The remainder was given to his daughters, Fiona and Heather, from his marriage to first wife Dawn Sullivan.
Left-armer Derek took 297 wickets in 86 Tests between 1966 and 1982.
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Before the use of covers Underwood was considered unplayable on wet pitches and inspired England to a famous win over Australia at The Oval after the crowd helped mop up the field.
Placid on and off the field, he was known as an unlikely ladies man.
Kent and England team-mate Brian Luckhurst joked that Derek was the only man his wife would leave him for.
Sir Geoffrey Boycott said of his friend: “I don’t know anybody that could play him or hit him after it had rained on those pitches.
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“Derek was a one-off, brilliant, extraordinary bowler – unique. There was nobody else like him in English cricket.”
Flags flew at half-mast at grounds across the country to salute the left-armer who, although a spinner, bowled at speeds above 70 miles per hour.
SPIN KING
DEREK Underwood is a legendary figure in cricket thanks to his exploits with England and Kent.
The spinner earned the nickname 'Deadly' thanks to the havoc he used to wreak on wet pitches.
There was even a saying that England would carry Underwood "like an umbrella in case of rain".
Although he was listed as a slow left-armer, he often bowled at medium pace with unerring accuracy and boasted a lethal inswinging arm ball.
Underwood took 296 wickets in 86 Tests for England and was ranked the world's No1 bowler from September 1969 to August 1973.
He retired in 1987 at the age of 42 having taken almost 2,500 wickets.
Appointed as an MBE in 1981, Wisden named him in a XI of England's greatest post-war cricketers in 2004.
Underwood was one of six English cricketers to feature in World Series Cricket and also went on the rebel tour of South Africa.
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