Geoff Millman      

Wisden Cricketers' Almanack obituary

MILLMAN, GEOFFREY, who died on April 6, 2005, aged 70, kept wicket for England in six Tests. He played two each in both India and Pakistan after John Murray went home from the interminable 1961-62 tour for an operation, and kept his place for the first two home Tests against Pakistan the following season. Geoff Millman was a quiet, almost studious, figure on the field and off it, with an unflashy style behind the stumps that produced a minimum of errors. Deeply rooted in Bedfordshire, he was plucked from their Minor Counties team to be Nottinghamshire's keeper in 1957. He instantly made the job his own, and was capped in his first season, helped by an ability to make steady runs down the order. However, he was in a struggling team and, at national level, had to compete for recognition against freer scorers like Murray and Jim Parks. Millman was reputedly nursing an injury when he played his final Test, at Lord's, and Murray recaptured his place. He was county captain for his last three seasons, from 1963 to 1965, doing this job with his customary low-key competence, and leading Nottinghamshire to their highest place in seven years, ninth, in his first season. Millman returned to Bedford where he took over the family jewellers' business, and went sailing. David Allen, who toured the subcontinent with him, remembers him as good, if never rowdy, company with a sly sense of humour, which - on a trip where creepy-crawlies were a regular feature of hotel rooms - once ran to putting a clockwork spider in Barry Knight's bed.