[3] As a left-hand opening batsman he played 97 matches for Worcestershire between 1962 and 1968, featuring most often during the county's maiden Championship-winning season of 1964 when he appeared 22 times.
[11] At the same time he established his highly successful eponymous bat-manufacturing company, during the early years Fearnley got many of his ex-playing colleagues and opponents to use his products.
John Snow was the first to use the Duncan Fearnley bat in an international, with the likes of Basil D'Oliveira and Dennis Amiss close behind.
During the 1990s the marketplace changed, with many smaller brands developing, and cricket bat production started to move overseas to India and Pakistan.
Fearnley firmly resisted this trend and cut production accordingly, still concentrating on totally hand-crafted bats at its factory in Worcester.