Denis Moore dies at 93

Denis Moore, who died on Oct 2 aged 93, rewrote the Gloucestershire record-books with an innings of 206 on his debut for them, in May 1930. Moore was a student at Oxford at the time, but oddly it was against the University side that he made his startling debut, after being overlooked by the Varsity selectors.

Denis Neville Moore opened in that match in The Parks and stroked 206, a score later matched by England's Wally Hammond as Gloucestershire ran up the little matter of 627 for 2 declared.

Predictably, the Oxford call came after that, and he made an accomplished 34 in a total of 124 against the touring Australians. Later that summer Moore top-scored in both innings of the Varsity Match, with 59 and 29 as Oxford went down to a heavy defeat. Moore finished his debut season with 1317 runs at 41.15.

In 1931 he was elected Oxford's captain, but missed a large chunk of the season with pneumonia and pleurisy. He decided not to return to university, and started work with his uncle's firm of solicitors. This ruled out regular county cricket, although he did play occasionally for Gloucestershire until 1936. He finished with 2307 first-class runs at 32.49, and also took six wickets with his offbreaks.