Toby Colbeck

2nd Lieut. Leonard George Colbeck (R.F.A.) MC died at sea off the Cape of Good Hope. A classical scholar, he excelled at cricket, rackets and hockey. He returned from India to enlist, won the Military Cross

He had a fine record as a batsman at Marlborough, but his name will live in cricket history by reason of the extraordinary innings he played in the University match of 1905. Going in for the second time against a balance of 101 runs Cambridge lost six wickets for 77, and looked to be a hopelessly beaten side. At this point Colbeck, in with the score at 11, was joined by McDonnell, and in the course of 85 minutes the two batsmen put on 143 runs together, completely pulling the match round. McDonnell kept up his wicket while Colbeck hit on the off-side with amazing brilliancy. The partnership recalled the memorable stand made for Cambridge in the 1870 match by Yardley and J. W. Dale. Colbeck took all sorts of risks, cutting balls off the middle stump to the boundary, but his eye served him so well that he was very rarely at fault. He hit thirteen fours in his 107 and was batting for two hours and a quarter. Like Yardley in 1870 he had his reward, Cambridge in the end winning the match by 40 runs. Colbeck had splendid figures for Cambridge in 1908, scoring 552 runs with an average of 42, but when tried in half-a-dozen matches for Middlesex in 1906 he did very little. He played one innings of 46 and another of 30 but on all other occasions he failed dismally. In 1906, however, he again did very well for Cambridge, scoring 63 and 44 against Oxford at Lord's, and heading the University batting with an average of 39. Against W. G. Grace's XI at Cambridge he played an innings of 175 not out.
Wisden Cricketers' Almanack