Obituaries in 1987

ABRAHAM, NORMAN, died at Newport in South Wales in January, 1987, aged 98. In a few matches for Monmouthshire in 1925 and 1926, when they were very weak, he scored 473 runs with an average of 17.57.

ASHWELL, ARTHUR HARRY, who died at Birkenhead on August 19, 1985, aged 77, was on the Kent staff as a fast-medium opening bowler. In 1933 he headed the Second XI bowling averages with 40 wickets at 17.42, but in four matches for the county in 1933 and 1934 he failed to take a wicket and never quite looked what was wanted.

BAILEY, FREDERICK RAYMOND, who died at Wolstanton, Stoke-on-Trent, on May 8, 1985, aged 65, was a sound left-handed batsman who played for Staffordshire from 1939 to 1963 and also represented the Minor Counties. For Minor Counties against the Indians at Longton in 1959 he scored 79, putting on 284 for the second wicket with P. J. Sharpe, a stand which had much to do with his side making 334 in 290 minutes to win the match.

BANHAM, STANLEY TATTERSALL, died at Peterborough in December 1984, aged 71. A Bacup man, he was called upon by Lancashire to keep wicket against R. S. Grant's West Indians in 1939, took one catch, but in a match spoilt by rain, did not bat. It was his only first-class appearance, although he did play for the county's Second XI.

BROOK, JAMES WILLIAM, who died at Halifax on July 12, 1985, aged 88, had a great local reputation as a batsman but, appearing in one match for Yorkshire in 1923, failed to score in his only innings.

BRUMFITT, JACK, died at Ilkley on March 16, 1987, aged 70. A well-known batsman in Yorkshire league cricket, he played once for the county as an amateur in 1938, when the side weakened by the absence of Sutcliffe, Hutton and Turner, but met with no success.

BUCKINGHAM, JOHN, died in hospital in Birmingham on January 25, 1987, aged 84. Born in Yorkshire and going to the Midlands as a professional footballer, he kept wicket for Warwickshire II and first played for the county in 1933. In 1934 Jack Smart, their'keeper, was injured in June and Buckingham took over, creating a good impression besides playing some useful innings. In 1935 and 1936, with Smart again available, he hardly played, but in 1937 he became the regular wicket-keeper and retained his place until the war. In 1937 he made the first of his three centuries, 109 at Gloucester, and in 1938 he came third in the averages, scoring 1,054 runs with an average of 31. Against Northamptonshire at Northampton, he made the highest score of his career, 137 not out, but more remarkable was his 124 at Derby. Warwickshire, set 311 to win, were 39 for five when he came in, but he and Dollery added 220 in two and a half hours, breaking the county's sixth-wicket record, and they won by four wickets. In all for Warwickshire he scored 2,840 runs with an average of 23.86, caught 133 batsmen and stumped 91. Never a sound or orthodox player, he had plenty of strokes and hit the ball astonishingly hard for so small a man. As a wicket-keeper, again he was brilliant rather than consistent and was apt to snatch. He is described as a cheerful and plucky performer whose hilarious disregard of grammatical English was an unending source of amusement to the side. To the end of his life he was a constant visitor to the Edgbaston ground.

BURDEN, MERVYN DEREK, died at his home at Whitchurch, in Hampshire, on November 9, 1987, aged 57. Unlike so many Hampshire players, he was a genuine Hampshire man, born at Southampton and educated there at King Edward VI School. After a match or two for Hampshire in 1953, he became a regular member of the team in July 1954, when an analysis of seven for 48 against Leicestershire at Leicester showed how dangerous he could be when the wicket helped him. But like all save the really great slow off-spinners, he needed that help from the wicket to trouble the class batsmen; on a good wicket he lacked the spin and venom to be formidable to them. Still, without ever quite reaching the top flight, he did valuable service for the county for ten years and took 481 wickets at 26.11 runs each. His best season was 1955, when he took 70 at 21.75 and received his county cap. C. J. Knott, who played much for the county with him, writes: He really did follow the mould of Lofty Herman, the jester of the dressing-room, and was a lovable and popular player. The value of such a man is not to be estimated in figures.

CARTY, RICHARD ARTHUR, who died at Bishops Waltham on March 31, 1984, aged 61, did useful work for Hampshire between 1949 and 1954 without quite getting an assured place in the side. He never lived up to the promise of his first appearance, against Oxford at Bournemouth, when, going in tenth, he contributed a hard-hit 53 and brought his side almost level on the first innings. This remained his highest score for the county and he followed it by taking five for 47. Fast-medium and at times, when fully fit, genuinely fast, he had to compete with several others of the same type and class, and tended to be the spare man of the side. Altogether he took 138 wickets at 30.17 and scored 798 runs with an average of 14.77. Against Oxford at Basingstoke in 1951, he took seven for 29.

CHANCE, GEOFFREY HENRY BARRINGTON, died on July 11, 1987, aged 93. At the end of June 1912, his last summer at Eton when he was seventeen and a half, he made his first appearance in the XI: it was against MCC and he took ten for 36, his victims including P. R. Johnson, F. A. Phillips, W. Findlay, E. M. Dowson and C. M. Wells, all experienced first-class batsmen and all, except perhaps Dowson, presumably in reasonable practice. The match was thirteen a side, so he did not take all ten wickets. MCC made 100 and bowled the boys out for 73, E. R. Wilson taking seven wickets. This was on Saturday. On the following Wednesday at Winchester, the ground was so wet that play could not start till 12.00, but by 1.30 Winchester, who had won the toss, were all out for 48, chance having taken seven for 16. According to some accounts, in both these matches he was bowling slow leg-breaks. In fact there can be no doubt that he really bowled away-swingers. The Times on Eton and Winchester is precise - Chance made good use of his wicket; he bowls fast to medium in pace over the wicket; he kept a length and made the ball get up quickly and go away just a little. Later, summing up the match, it said, The Eton bowling was steady, but no one gave the impression he would be really difficult in fairly easy conditions. A writer in The Wykehamist said, Chance did not seem to be making the ball break much or keeping a very steady length, tho' he varied his pace cleverly. This looks as if he had been expecting a leg-spinner. The accounts of Eton and Harrow, where he took three for 38 and three for 70, again lend no support to the leg-break theory, but they do say that the Eton batsmen shaped poorly at E. T. Buller's leg-breaks: ... it looked as if they had not much experience of this style of bowling. Still, after what he had achieved, one would expect something fairly enthusiastic about his bowling, but one would look for it in vain. E. B. Noel, in his account of the season in Wisden, wrote: Chance, medium-right, was also useful and he took thirty wickets for eight runs apiece. Yet his subsequent history suggests that this lukewarm language may well have been justified. In 1912 and 1913 he played a few matches for Berkshire, his native county. In 1913 he also appeared for Hampshire against MCC at Lord's and in 1922 for MCC against Scotland at Lord's. In none of these matches did he achieve anything. At the time of his death he was one of the few survivors of those who had played in first-class cricket before the Great War.

CHARI, S. V. T., who died at Madras on January 23, 1986, aged 71, had played for Madras in the inaugural match of the Ranji Trophy championship in 1934-35 and the next season represented India in an unofficial Test at Madras against Ryder's Australian team. A brilliant wicket-keeper with a somewhat unorthodox style, he gave up serious cricket to pursue his profession in medicine.

COBBOLD, RALPH HAMILTON, who died in Ipswich Hospital on September 1, 1987, aged 81, was a player who never quite fulfilled his early promise. He was three years in the Eton XI and captain in the last, and in his first appearance at Lord's for them in 1923 he made 100. His average for his three matches against Harrow was 48. In 1924 he scored 149 against Winchester. At the same time he was one of the mainstays of three rather weak bowling teams, on the slow side of medium, often opening the bowling but sometimes slightly uncertain in length. Going up to Cambridge at a time when the University was extremely strong, he had a trial in his first year but did not get in. In his second year, 1927, he did nothing in the early trials, but late in May he made 104 for Perambulators against Etceteras and was given a place in the last two matches at Fenner's, against the Army and Free Foresters, when the University side was weakened by exams. An innings of 100 not out against the Foresters secured him a place on tour, when a series of useful scores got him his Blue. At Lord's, he failed. He was a good stylist and a particularly fine driver on both sides of the wicket.

COCHRAN, JOHN ALEXANDER KENNEDY, died in Johannesburg on June 15, 1987, aged 77. A tall, well-built fast bowler, able to move the ball both ways off the pitch, he opened the bowling against England at Durban in the final Test of the 1930-31 series. His 23 overs cost 47 runs without producing a wicket and he did not bowl in the second innings. It was his only match for South Africa. In a first-class career of three seasons, during which he represented Transvaal and Griqualand West, he took fifteen wickets at 24.06.

COLDHAM, JAMES DESMOND BOWDEN, who died on January 14, 1987, aged 63, was one to whom many other cricket writers owed a great debt. A tireless researcher, he was always delighted to place his knowledge at the disposal of anyone who wanted it, and the number of books and articles with which he helped must be legion. For years he had kept Wisden informed of deaths of which we would not otherwise have heard. If one wrote to him, one was certain of an answer and, if it did not come by return, it was because he was collecting the information required. He had moreover a passion for accuracy which is all too rare. He was himself responsible for a full and reliable history of Northamptonshire cricket and for a life of Lord Harris which won the praise even of those who had been brought up in the shadow of the great man. For years he edited the Cricket Society's Journal and himself wrote many learned articles for it.

COOPER, FREDERICK, died at Stourbridge in December 1986, aged 65. A younger brother of Edwin Cooper, who made many runs for Worcestershire, and like him born at Bacup, he played four times for Lancashire in 1946 and then moved to Worcestershire, for whom he had a good trial in 1947 and 1948, often opening the batting with his brother. His most notable performance was 113 not out in the second innings against Nottinghamshire at Trent Bridge in 1948, when he and Jenkins added 170 for the second wicket and secured an honourable draw. Although he did fairly well, he never quite secured a firm place in the side, and after a few matches in 1949 and 1950 he left the staff. It was a disappointing career, but his health had suffered in the war and it is pleasant to record that after retiring from serious cricket, he prospered in business and also served on the local council. Altogether, in 44 first-class matches he scored 1,369 runs with an average of 19.28.

COX, ARTHUR LEONARD, who died in November, 1986, aged 79, several times indicated that he might be of valuable service to Northamptonshire, but such expectations were never fulfilled. In a career stretching from 1926 to 1947, he played a number of useful innings but his lack of consistency was evidenced by his failing ever to get 1,000 runs. His only hundred, 104, was against Nottinghamshire at Trent Bridge in 1930. In 1932, bowling slow-to-medium leg-breaks, he took 54 wickets at 26.94, including seven for 91 against Derbyshire at Chesterfield, to complement his 967 runs, and this gave rise to hopes that he would establish himself as an all-rounder; but in the following season his batting and bowling both fell away as his confidence wavered. His father, Mark Cox, had been a stalwart of Northamptonshire at the turn of the century and his brother, also Mark, had a trial for the county in 1932.

DEACON, CHRISTOPHER FRANCIS, who died at his home in Cornwall on March 21, 1987, aged 64, played regularly for Dorset from 1951 to 1956. A compact left-handed batsman with a games-player's eye, he won a wartime Blue for Oxford in 1942 - he was there on a short course after three years in the St. Edward's side - and scored heavily in club circles when the war was over. For Dorset his top score was 134 against Devon at Sherborne in 1951. From 1947 until 1982 he taught at Stowe School.

DE ZOETE, MILES HERMAN, who died on July 9, 1987, aged 79, was in the Eton XI in 1926, when he scored 73 and 30 at Lord's by some of the hardest hitting seen in the match for many years. Tall and strong, he drove with enormous power and never minded lifting the ball. In later life he was a menace in club cricket and a valuable addition to the Hertfordshire side whenever they could secure his services. His father had had a Blue at Cambridge.

DIVECHA, AJAY VITHALDAS, who died in Bombay on October 12, 1987, aged 47, was a younger brother of the Indian Test bowler, Remesh. For Maharashtra, Bombay and Delhi in the Ranji Trophy, he scored 226 runs, average 22.60, and, bowling medium pace, took 22 wickets at 32.45 between 1960-61 and 1964-65.

DODSWORTH, VICTOR EDWARD, who died at Healing, near Grimsby, on November 4, 1986, aged 75, played as a fast-medium right-arm bowler for Lincolnshire against Leicestershire II in 1949 and took four for 84. He was better known as a professional footballer.

DRAPER. ROBERT WILLIAM, who died at his home in Cowles Durban, on August 29, 1987, aged 84, made three appearances for Somerset as an amateur between 1925 and 1929. Left-handed both as a batsman and a bowler, met with little success.

DUNBAR, JAMES GARRETT, who died after a long illness on February 1987, aged 73, was one of the Assistant Secretaries at Lord's from 1949 to 1974, chartered surveyor by profession, he had special responsibility for the tenance of the grounds and buildings- This led him to become a leading authority on artificial pitches, and latterly he had been chairman of the London Playing Fields Association. He also took a great interest in youth cricket and had bee chairman of the National Cricket Association. A man of boundless energy and enthusiasm, who threw himself wholeheartedly into everything that he understood he was an outstanding secretary of the Butterflies from 1949 to 1959 and managed five Butterfly tours to Germany, besides taking more than 400 wickets for the club. A fast-medium bowler with an easy action, which gave him some life off the pitch, he had been two years in the XI at Charterhouse. He was also a keen photographer and a number of his colour photographs appear in the first edition of E. W. Swanton's The World of Cricket.

EDGE, CYRIL ARTHUR, died on October 4, 1985, in Lancashire, aged 60. Tried for Lancashire as a fast-medium bowler between 1936 and 1938, he achieved little in his eight matches. In 1939 he played for the Minor Counties against the West Indians. His 29 wickets in first-class cricket cost 30.10 each.

EDWARDS, PHILIP GEORGE, who died in London on April 3, 1987, aged 80, had trials for Middlesex as a slow left-arm bowler in 1930 and 1933, but in four matches he took only one wicket and was not persevered with.

FAREBROTHER, MICHAEL HUMPHREY, died at Seaford on September 27, 1987, aged 67. Bowling left-arm fast-medium, with a good action, he was Eton's leading wicket-taker in 1938 and going up to Oxford played one first-class match for the University in 1939. Commissioned into the Grenadier Guards, he was erroneously reported in the 1945 Wisden as "killed in Italy". From 1956 till 1982, he was headmaster of St Peter's, Seaford.

CAVELL, LESLIE ERNEST, MBE, who died on June 14, 1987, aged 57, was one of South Australia's most popular players, having played more games (143) captained them more times (95) and scored more runs (9,656, average 38.17) than any other player. Twice, in 1963-64 and 1968-69, South Australia won the Sheffield Shield under his inspirational captaincy. But it was for his dashing style and fearless strokeplay as an opening batsman that the crowds loved him. From a crouching stance, with his grip low on the handle, he was especially strong on the square-cut and hook, while never averse to driving the fast bowlers straight back down the ground. When facing bowling he particularly fancied, he would allegedly sing "Happy Birthday" as a sign of his confidence. In the field, his throwing, as with so many Australians of his generation, was outstanding, even thrilling. Indeed, it had been his fielding that had taken him into first-grade cricket in his native Sydney as an eighteen year old. His chances of breaking into the strong New South Wales side were slim, however, and in 1951, when 22, he moved to Adelaide- As fate would have it, his first match for South Australia, in 1951-52, was against his home state, and with 86 and 164 at Adelaide he embarked on a career which, until 1969-70, when he was in his 41st year, produced 8,269 runs in 121 Sheffield Shield matches, the most by any batsman for South Australia.

In the twilight years of his career, with his stance becoming more upright, Favell had moved down the order. Although he never toured England, he represented Australia in every other Test-playing country. The first of his nineteen Tests, nevertheless, was against England, at Brisbane in 1954-55 where he made 23: the last was at the Adelaide Oval in 1960-61, when he played in four of the five Tests against Worrell's West Indies, including the tied Test at Brisbane. In his 757 runs, average 27.03, there was only one hundred, an out-of-character 101 at Madras where, in January 1960, he batted throughout the opening day and was 100 not out at the close. Two years earlier, in South Africa, he had scored 190 against Griqualand West at more than a run a minute, including 114 before lunch. This was his highest score. In all first-class matches, he scored 12,379 runs, average 36.62, including 27 hundreds and twice scoring two hundreds in a match. His son, Alan, also played for South Australia.

The affection with which he was held was illustrated by 7,000 fans who attended, along with a host of Australia's legendary cricketers, a testimonial game for him several months before his death. Sir Donald Bradman went out with him to toss, a sincere tribute to a player who, Sir Donald had once said, set an example of sportsmanship which had never been bettered. In his later years he had become a journalist and broadcaster, and in these roles, as in his cricket, he demonstrated a generous and kindly spirit.

FULLER, RICHARD LIVINGSTON (DICKIE), died at his native Kingston, Jamaica, on May 3, 1987, aged 74. An aggressive right-hand bat and fast-medium bowler, he was selected in 1934-35 to play for West Indies against England in the Fourth Test at Kingston following performances of four for 69 and 113 not out in two and a half hours in the island's two matches against MCC- He scored 1, had match bowling figures of none for 12 from eight overs and it was his only Test. He later played in England in the Durham League and in Scotland.

FULLJAMES, GROUP CAPTAIN REGINALD EDGAR GILBERT, MC, who died on July 31, 1985, aged 88, played for the RAF from 1927 to 1932 as a slow left-arm bowler and in 1928 took seven for 25 against the Army at The Oval. He continued to play with success in good-class club cricket until a patriarchal age.

GILL, LYNWOOD LAWRENCE (LES), who died at Pullenvale, Queensland, on December 4, 1986, aged 95, was Australia's oldest surviving first-class cricketer, and indeed may have been the world's. A right-handed batsman and medium-pace bowler, he had already represented his native Tasmania against the 1911-12 MCC side and twice against Victoria the following season when he settled in Queensland after war service in the AIF. In 1926-27 and 1927-28 he played for the state in its first seasons in the Sheffield Shield, and in 1930-31, when many of the team were in dispute with the Queensland Cricket Association, he was recalled as captain for the final match against Victoria. Because of rain, the match was abandoned without a ball being bowled. In his ten first-class matches, he scored 447 runs, with an average of 29.80, and took eight wickets at 81.62. He was a Queensland selector from 1924 to 1944, with the exception of 1930-31. Although his birth registration shows his first name as Lynnwood, he always indicated it with only one "n".

GODDARD, JOHN DOUGLAS CLAUDE, OBE, died in hospital in London on August 26, 1987, aged 68. He had collapsed in his hotel while a guest of MCC at the Bicentenary match at Lord's. Goddard captained West Indies in 22 of his Tests, most notably in England in 1950 when, after losing the first Test, struck back to win the next three and their first series in England. In 1948-49, had led West Indies to a 1-0 victory in India, where he won the toss in all five Tests, only the fourth captain so blessed by fortune. These two tours saw him popular with his players and in charge of happy sides, but this unhappily was not so in Australia in 1951-52. Riven by inter-island rivalries, a disillusioned team was conclusively beaten 4-1. Always a man who put the interests of his team ahead of his own, he stood down for the final Test, feeling that his form was a handicap; West Indies lost again and he returned to lead the side against New Zealand. Although when he went back to New Zealand in 1955-56, it was as player-manager with Atkinson as captain, Goddard was preferred as captain to take the West Indians to England in 1957. This time they lost the series 3-0; had it not been for his 40-minute 0 not out at Edgbaston and his 61 in 3 hours 40 minutes at Trent Bridge, this would surely have been 5-0.

Goddard was a fine all-round cricketer: left-hand bat, right-arm medium in-swing bowler or off-spinner, and an excellent fielder, especially close to the bat. He first played for Barbados in 1936-37 when he was seventeen, and in 1943-44 he scored a career-best 218 not out when he and Worrell shared an unbroken stand of 502 for the fourth wicket against Trinidad at Bridgetown. He played in all four Tests against England in 1947-48 and as captain at Georgetown and Kingston led West Indies to their two victories in the series. At Georgetown, where England in the first innings were dismissed for 111 on a drying pitch, he took five for 31 -his best Test figures - bowling medium-pace off-breaks to a leg-trap. Its both these Tests he opened the batting, but really his place was further down the order.

His highest score in Tests was 83 not out against New Zealand at Christchurch 1955-56, and in all Tests he scored 859 runs with an average of 30.67; his wickets cost 31.81 runs. He played his last first-class game in 1957-58, having scored 3,769 runs, average 33.35, hit five hundreds, and taken 146 wickets at 26.33.

GREEN, JOHN HERBERT, died on September 13, 1987, aged 79. He had a good record at Brighton College and in 1927, the year after he left, made one appearance for Warwickshire. But going up to Oxford that autumn, he did nothing in the Parks and was never tried for the University. He was a right-hand bat and a slow left-arm bowler. For years he was headmaster of a prep school in Broadstairs. He was also an ex-captain of the Royal St George's Golf Club.

HALL, GLEN GORDON, was found dead at his home in Ramsgate, Natal on June 26, 1987, aged 49. A tall leg-spinner, quickish with both googly and top-spinner in his repertoire, he played just one Test for South Africa, against England at Cape Town in 1964-65 where for the first time in a Test match everyone but the two wicket-keepers on either side bowled. His one wicket cost 94 runs: he failed to score in his only innings. He had, however, made a sensational entry into first class cricket when he took four for 24 and nine for 122 for South African Universities against Western Province at Cape Town in 1960-61. In 32 first-class matches, during which he also appeared for North-Eastern Transvaal and Eastern Province, he took 110 wickets at 29.66; his batting average was 7.84.

HART, GEORGE EDMEAD, who died in hospital at Barnstaple, on April 11, 1987, aged 85, may well, in the course of a fourteen-year career for Middlesex have been twelfth man more often than any other cricketer. For good measure, he had also acted as twelfth man for England in three Tests at Lord's, a position for which his faultless fielding admirably qualified him. Traditionally Middlesex had relied on a small staff of professionals supported by an apparently endless supply of talented amateurs, few of whom could play regularly. If in the 1920s and 1930s there was little sign of this supply drying up, the amount of time that the amateurs could give decreased rapidly. Hence the value of a professional such as Hart, who was always available to fill a vacancy, could field anywhere, and might make a few valuable runs at a crisis. Moreover, he was a good cutter and off-driver and was constantly raising hopes of developing into something better; hopes that were never fully realised.

In 1928 he appeared in twenty matches and made 68 badly needed runs against Surrey at Lord's, but his aggregate was only 316 and his average 13.73. At last in 1934 he seemed to have made the grade. In consecutive matches at Lord's he scored 121 against Hampshire and 80 and 107 against Sussex, and though he had many failures later, he made 976 runs with an average of 24.40. He would doubtless have reached his thousand but for missing the last three matches through injury. By now he was regularly opening the batting, frequently with Price, the wicket-keeper, who a few years before had been No.11. In 1936 he again topped 900 runs, but after that, with Edrich and Compton available, he reverted once more to being a regular twelfth man. In 1937 he made an admirable 118 against Kent at Lord's and in 1938 scored his fourth and last hundred, 105 against Nottinghamshire at Trent Bridge. In 1939 he and Hulme received a joint benefit and were not re-engaged, and from 1940 to 1964 he was the professional at Shrewsbury. Altogether, in 198 matches, 194 of them for Middlesex, he scored 5,786 runs with an average of 20.81.

HERMAN, OSWALD WILLIAM (LOFTY), who died in hospital in Southampton after a long illness on June 24, 1987, aged 79, was for years the mainstay of the Hampshire bowling. One of the many good cricketers whom Hampshire recruited from Oxfordshire (he was born at Horsepath), he played for them from 1929 to 1948, though that in fact meant for thirteen seasons: six he lost because of the war, and in 1939 he had succumbed to the lure of the Lancashire leagues and did not appear for the county. Luckily he returned in 1946 and was a great help when they were trying to rebuild the side. Very tall, with a high easy action which enabled him to bowl, as he often had to, for long periods, he was primarily a fast-medium in-swinger and, if sometimes he tended to bowl slightly short of a good length, it was because he could not, with so little support, afford to give runs away.

In all he took 1,045 wickets at 27 runs each and scored 4,336 runs with an average of 11.08. Five times he took more than 100 wickets in a season, his best year being 1937 when he took 142 wickets at 22.07. In that year he also met with considerable success as a bat, scoring 801 runs with an average of 19.53, and might almost have been classed as an all-rounder. Against Leicestershire at Basingstoke he made 91 not out and against the New Zealanders 55 out of 77. In 1936 he had made 41 in eighteen minutes against Glamorgan at Bournemouth. Oddly enough, his highest score for the county he made only a few weeks before retirement, 92 against Leicestershire at Leicester: the score was 65 for six when he came in and he and Bailey put on 99. He batted after the old-fashioned tradition of fast bowlers, now alas abandoned. He put his foot out to the ball and hit it as hard as he could. In his last three seasons he took to bowling off-spinners when the shine was off or the wicket taking spin, often with considerable success. After leaving Hampshire he did valuable work for a season or two for Wiltshire, and from 1963 to 1971 he was on the list of first-class umpires. C. J. Knott writes: 'He was a grand fellow, whom I enjoyed playing with."

His son, R. S. Herman, also a fast-medium bowler, played for some years first for Middlesex then for Hampshire, and later, like his father, was a first-class umpire.

HERRING, LT-GEN. THE HON. SIR EDMUND FRANCIS, died in Melbourne on January 5, 1982, aged 89. Going to Oxford after graduating from Melbourne University, he played twice for the University as a right-hand bat but did not win a Blue. After the Second World War, he was appointed Lt-Governor of Victoria.

HIBBERT, HUGH WASHINGTON, died at Salisbury on March 12, 1985, aged 73. He had been in the Xl at Downside, and in 1931 played one match for Northamptonshire as a bat without success.

HODGKINSON, GILBERT FRANK, who died in hospital at Mickleover, near Derby, on January 7, 1987, aged 73, played nineteen times for Derbyshire from 1935 to 1946. He had been in the XI at Derby School, primarily as a batsman, and in his first innings for the county, against the South Africans at Ilkeston, was top scorer with 44, which included nine fours, mainly from drives. This remained his highest score in first-class cricket. He played a few more matches before the war, during which in 1940 he was badly wounded in the head and taken prisoner: indeed the 1943 Wisden reported him killed in action. However, he was repatriated and had recovered sufficiently to captain the county in 1946, though he met with little personal success. In all matches for Derbyshire he scored 472 runs with an average of 14.75.

HORTON, ARNELL STANLEY, who died at Launceston, Tasmania, on September 15, 1987, six days before his 95th birthday, had been Australia's oldest surviving first-class cricketer following the death of L. L. Gill the previous December. A left-arm fast-medium bowler and right-hand bat, he failed to take a wicket or score in his sole first-class appearance, for Tasmania against the 1928-29 MCC side.

JACKBIR, SYDNEY, who died on October 16, 1986, played for Trinidad in the late 1940s and 195Os, chiefly as an orthodox left-arm spin bowler. He could, however, bowl to some effect with the new ball, and he appeared in this role in MCC's two games against the island in 1947-48.

JAMESON, CAPTAIN THOMAS GEORGE CAIRNES, RN, who died in hospital on January 18, 1987, aged 78, had represented the Navy as a batsman and in 1930 and 1931 appeared in three matches for Hampshire without much success.

JANES, DAVID ALLAN. who died in London on September 15, 1987, aged 43, was in the XI at Marlborough in 1960 and 1961 and, as a left-hand hat, strong on the front foot, played in the latter year for the Public Schools at Lord's. His county cricket was for Buckinghamshire, for whom from 1960 to 1976 he scored 3,802 runs, with an average of 26.59, in the Minor Counties Championship. In the Gillette Cup in 1972, he scored 95 when Buckinghamshire knocked out Cambridgeshire at Fenner's in the first round.

JEFFREY, CLINTON LINLEY, who died on February 11, 1987, aged 74, played fifteen times for Tasmania, making 530 runs with an average of 23.04 and taking nineteen wickets at 40.21 with medium pace. At Launceston, he took four for 70 against the 1934 Australian team before they left for England; his highest score was 80 not out against Victoria in 1938-39.

JOHNSON, HOPHNIE HOBAH HINES, who died in Miami, Florida, June 24, 1987, aged 77, was a tall, slim fast bowler who took ten wickets (five for 41, five for 55) against England in 1947-48 when making his Test debut in his native Jamaica. He was then 37 years old; with Goddard's side in England in 1950, he was 40 when he played in the second of his two Tests there.

In the First Test, at Old Trafford, he pulled a muscle in his side early in his second spell and did not bowl again in the match, but in his first spell he had forced Hutton to retire hurt after being struck on the hand. This is not to suggest that Johnson was a dangerous bowler, for he disdained the bouncer, content to get his wickets through pace and accuracy. Altogether, in his three Tests he took thirteen wickets at 18.30 and in 28 first-class matches he took 68 wickets at 23.36. He represented Jamaica from 1934-35 until 1950-51.

JOSHI, PADMANABH GOVIND (NANA), died in Pune on January 8, 1987, aged 60. A sound wicket-keeper and useful, versatile right-hand batsman, he appeared in twelve Tests for India over nine seasons. He had already announced his possibilities as a batsman with a dour, unbeaten 100 for a combined team against "Jock" Livingstone's Commonwealth side at Nagpur in 1949-50 when he was called up by India in 1951-52 for the First Test against Nigel Howard's England side. He took two catches and made two stumpings in the first innings but was not required to bat, yet India dispensed with his services until the Fourth Test, then dropped him again for the Fifth, so establishing a pattern which prevailed until 1960-61, when he played in his final Test, against Pakistan at Bombay. He scored 52 not out and with R. B. Desai added 149 for the ninth wicket which was still a record for India against all countries at the time of his wicket. His highest score in Tests, this took his aggregate to 207, with an average of 10.89; hardly, perhaps, what had been expected. In addition, he took eighteen catches and made nine stumpings. He had been on two tours, to the West Indies in 1952-3 and to England in 1959, when he played in three of the Tests. He played for Muharashtra from 1946-47 to 1964-65, captaining them from 1960-61 till 1962-63, and in 78 first-class matches scored 1,724 runs with an average of 17.06, caught 120 batsmen and stumped 61.

KRIPAL SINGH, AMRITSAR GOVINDSINGH, died in Madras on July 22, 1987, aged 53. Coming into the side for India's first test match against New Zealand, at Hyderabad in 1955-56, he hit an unbeaten 100 on debut and with Umrigar (223) added 171 for the fourth wicket. When India began uncertainly at Bombay in the next Test, he scored 63 and added 167 for the same wicket with Mankad, who emulated Umrigar's score of 223. With 36 in his only other innings, Kripal Singh finished the series with an average of 99.50. He did little in two Tests against Australia in 1956-57, but a half-century against West Indies at Madras in his one match of their 1958-59 series helped secure him a place in the 1959 team to England. There, however, he was a disappointment. He had taken to bowling off-breaks to improve his chances of Test selection, but a sore spinning finger limited his opportunities and his ten wickets in England cost 56.80 each. Of his 879 runs, average 33.80, 309 came after the Tests, including 178 against Lancashire in a high-scoring match. He had played only in the Lord's Test, scoring 41 in the second innings, and although he appeared another six times for India at home, he did nothing of note. In his fourteen Tests, he scored 422 runs, average 28.13, with just the one hundred, and took ten wickets at 58.40.

Recalled in 1961-62 for the series against England after taking a career-best six for 14 and six for 35 for Madras against Hyderabad, he appeared in the First Test alongside his brother, Milkha Singh. Their father, Ram Singh, had represented India in two unoffical tests against Ryder's Australian team in 1935-36 and against Lord Tennyson's 1937-38 team, and two other brothers, Satwender and Harjinder, also played first-class cricket. In the Ranji Trophy, Kripal Singh first played for Madras in 1950-51; in 1954-55, when they won the Championship for the first time, he hit the highest of his ten hundreds: 208 against Travancore-Cochin at Ernakulam. In 96 first-class matches, he scored 4,947 runs with an average of 40.88 and took 177 wickets at 28.41. He proved a sound tactical captain of Madras, later became a Test selector, and would have become the chairman of selectors in August 1987.

LASCELLES, REGINALD PETER, died at Nettleham, near Lincoln, on December 14, 1986, aged 62. An elegant right-hand batsman, he played for Lincolnshire from 1947 to 1959, scoring 1,842 runs with an average of 23.61. In 1952, when he headed the batting with an average of 61.66, he scored the only two centuries of his career, 163 not out against Yorkshire II at Barnsley and 104 not out against Cambridgeshire at Wisbech.

LING, ARTHUR JOHN PATRICK, died in hospital on January 12, 1987 aged 76. A left-handed batsman, he captained Stowe in 1928 and for the next few seasons was a pretty regular member of the Wiltshire side. From 1934 to 1936 be played for Glamorgan, doing sufficiently well to suggest that he could have become a useful member of the side, and in 1939 made five appearances for Somerset. In all first-class cricket he made 256 runs with an average of 16. His highest score was 41 not out for Glamorgan against Leicestershire at Swansea in 1934.

LUCK, ARTHUR, died on February 24, 1987, aged 72. He was tried for Northamptonshire as a medium-paced bowler in 1937 and 1938, but taking only two wickets was not considered for a further trial.

MACKESSACK, DOUGLAS, who died at Hopeman, Morayshire, on October 28, 1987, aged 84, achieved success as an all-rounder at Rugby in 1921, but on going up to Oxford he did nothing the following year in the freshmen's match. In 1927, he played for Scotland against Ireland at Dublin, scoring 27 runs in his two innings and failing to take a wicket. It was his only first-class match.

MADDERN, JAMES GREGORY, who died on March 27, 1987, aged 73, played five times for Queensland between 1932-33 and 1936-37 as a right-hand bat but totalled only 51 runs. In 1936-37 he scored 62 for Queensland Country against MCC at Ipswich and again represented them against the Indian touring team in 1947-48.

MARTIN, JOHN WILLIAM, died in hospital after a short illness on January 4, 1987, aged 69. A tall, strongly built man, who bowled fast-medium to fast with a high action off a fairly short run, he showed distinct promise for Kent in three matches in 1939. Unfortunately he was never able to play more than a very few games a year, which he continued to do until 1953. However, in 1947, having taken four for 55 for MCC against the South Africans and followed it with three for 49 and six for 47 for Kent against Hampshire at Southampton, he was picked to open the England bowling with Bedser in the first Test at Nottingham.

Nothing can show more clearly the weakness of English bowling in 1947, as in 1921, than that the selectors should have had to call upon one of so little experience and who had had so little chance of being in full practice. His one wicket (he bowled Alan Melville when he had made 189) cost 129 runs. None the less he was a good county bowler, and if Kent had been able to get his services regularly, they would have been several places higher in the table. In 1948 he again bowled Hampshire out at Southampton, taking six for 37, and in 1950 he had seven for 53 against Leicestershire at Folkestone. In all matches for Kent he took 129 wickets at 22.52 and in all first-class matches 162 at 24.00. He was of no great account as a batsman, but considered it his job to enliven the tail by hitting a few sixes if he could.

MERCER. JOHN (JACK), died on August 31, 1987, in London, aged 92. Born at Southwick, he joined the Sussex staff in 1913 but in 1914 was out of cricket and in Russia. In the war he was commissioned in the Royal Sussex and was wounded.Rejoining the county staff in 1919, he played twelve matches for Sussex between then and 1921, but eighteen wickets cost him more than 35 matches runs each, the side was rich in bowlers of his type, and he went away to Glamorgan, who, admitted to the Championship in 1921, were for lack of native players seeking far and wide for recruits.

For a time it seemed that they might have made a bad bargain: in 1923 and 1924 he accomplished little, but in 1925 he took more than 100 wickets, a feat which he performed nine times in all, and from there he never looked back. Fast-medium, he had a beautiful and effortless action and could swing the ball either way late; he kept it well up and knew the value of a swinging yorker or half-volley. When the shine was off or the wicket was taking spin, he would turn to off-breaks. Above all, he was a tireless trier, as the one reliable bowler on a weak side has to be. In his eighteen seasons with Glamorgan, the county was only twice higher than tenth and, until J. C. Clay developed into a great bowler, the only other bowler of any class was that wildly eccentric character, Frank Ryan, a slow left-hander, who had he not combined a passion for beer and women with the temperament of a spoilt prima donna, might have been one of the great bowlers of his own or indeed of any generation. In such circumstances many bowlers would have wilted, but Mercer's cheerfulness was proof against anything. Robertson-Glasgow called him the Mark Tapley of cricketers. To him, his tribulations and misfortunes were simply an endless cause of laughter and jesting. In 1936, at 41, he was still as good as ever; he took all ten wickets at Worcester for 51 and finished the season with 129 at 19.37. After this, however, the hard work began to tell. In the next three years, though the accuracy was there, the wickets became more expensive, and at the end of 1939 the county terminated his contract.

Even so, his career was not over. In 1947 he was appointed coach to Northamptonshire and indeed appeared once in the county side. Later he was their scorer. In addition to his bowling, he was in his early years a cheerful and successful hitter in the tail. In 1923 he made 48 in 35 minutes against Hampshire at Cardiff and next year created quite a sensation by hitting Rhodes for four sixes in an innings of 57 at Bradford. No-one can doubt that, had chances come his way in representative cricket, he would have shown himself worthy of them, but competition then was strong and his only MCC tour abroad was to India in 1926-27. In all first-class cricket he took 1,591 wickets at 23.38 and made 6,076 runs with an average of 11.77.

MOBED, MINOCHER JAMSHEDJI (MANCHI) died in his native Karachi on December 29, 1986, aged 87. Much of his early career spanned an era Indian cricket when was developing, and by the time India became a Test-playing country he was past his peak. He first played for the Parsis in 1919 in the Sind Quadrangular Tournament, and he rendered yeoman service to various sides from Sind until 1943, scoring 1,456 runs for an average of 30. In his later days he became a useful all-rounder by bowling off-breaks with some degree of accuracy. He played against Gilligan's and Jardine's MCC teams to India, as well as Lord Tennyson's side of 1937-38, and in four seasons from 1938-39 he captained Sind in the Ranji Trophy. He later stood as an umpire in the two unofficial 'Tests' played by MCC in Pakistan in 1951-52.

MORRISON, EWART GLADSTONE, died at Lewes on May 12, 1985, aged 87. Left-handed both as a batsman and a bowler, he appeared for Gloucestershire from 1926 to 1933, but only in his first season did he play at all frequently and was then that he made his highest score, 59 in an hour against Worcestershire at Stonebridge. Altogether in his career he made 340 runs with an average of 10.30 and took three wickets for 209 runs.

MYBURGH, MAJOR CLAUDE JOHN, died suddenly at Hartley Wintney on October 10, 1987, aged 76. A fast-medium bowler, he headed the averages at St. Lawrence, Ramsgate, and later played occasionally for the Army and for Devon. He also played soccer and hockey for the Army.

NEVINSON, JOHN HARCOURT, who died on August 22, 1987, aged 76, was in the Eton XI in 1928 and 1929. With a good action, he was distinctly fast for a schoolboy and in 1929 headed the averages with 44 wickets at 13.47. At Lord's he took six for 86 in the first innings. Going up to Oxford, he had a good trial for the University in 1930 and in his first match took four for 15 against Glamorgan; but after that he did nothing and later was never a serious contender for a Blue. In 1933 he played six matches for Middlesex, but, as his four wickets cost 92.25 runs each, he was not persevered with.

NEWNHAM, LESLIE, who died in Chelmsford on June 4, 1987, aged 67, had been for a number of years the official statistician for Essex, producing in that capacity a history of the county club in 1976, its centenary year.

NEWNHAM, STANLEY WILLIAM, died at Rhuddlan on December 2, 1985, aged 75. A slow left-arm bowler and useful batsman, he appeared once for Surrey in 1932 and later played for Denbighshire.

NUNN, DR JOHN AYSCOUGH, who died suddenly in Scotland on April 6, 1987, aged 81, had the curious experience of representing Oxford at both cricket and rugger for his first two years and failing to get a place in either side for the next two. The 1920s were a great era in University games, but in 1926 Oxford were for once short of talent at cricket. Their one player of distinction, E. R. T. Holmes, though dangerous, was not yet the consistent batsman he afterwards became. Similarly in rugger: after the great sides of 1923 and 1924, with their international threequarter lines, they were crushingly defeated at Twickenham in 1925 and 1926. It was in these circumstances that Nunn, coming up with a considerable reputation from Sherborne, gained his Blues. When higher standards returned, he could not retain them. At cricket, he got the last place in 1926 on the morning of the match, as an opening bat, and justified it with admirable innings of 30 and 33 in a low-scoring match. Despite his humble record he was so highly regarded personally that he was elected secretary for 1927, clearly in the hopes that he would captain the side in 1928. No-one who knew him can doubt that he would have been an ideal captain. Unfortunately he had a poor season in 1927 and it was obvious that his place was no longer secure. He was dropped after the first match in 1928 and never appeared for the 'Varsity again. A beautiful upstanding stylist in minor cricket, with strokes on both sides of the wicket concentratingof the wicket, he seemed at a higher level able to score soley by concentrating on dour defence, and it is significant that his only considerable scores for Oxford, 83 in 1926 and 98 in 1927, were made against the Army, whose bowling was distinctly below county standard. His greatest value to the side was his superb fielding at cover. In 1926 he was tried in three matches for Middlesex. Altogether in first-class cricket he scored 641 runs with an average of 18.85. Later he served for many years on the committee of the Free Foresters.

PAGE, MILFORD LAURENSON (CURLY), who died in Christchurch on February 13, 1987, aged 84, was the second of New Zealand's Test captains. A fine performer in whatever sport he chose, he was especially prominent in cricket and rugby; he was an All Black scrum-half in 1928. He was eighteen, still attending Christchurch Boys' High School, when selected to play for Canterbury against strong Australian side in 1921 and he continued to represent the Province until 1937. The Plunket Shield programme in those days provided for only three games, but none the less he scored 2,424 runs for Canterbury, with an average of 33.20. He made his highest score, 206, against Wellington in 1931-32. Altogether, he scored 5,857 runs in first-class cricket, averaging 29.88, and hit nine hundreds. He was a member of New Zealand's first team to England in 1927, when he passed 1,000 runs, returned in 1931 and was captain of the touring team in 1937. He played in fourteen Tests, scoring 492 with an average of 24.60. His one century, 104 at Lord's in 1931, was the first of New Zealand's dramatic comebacks. He was also a useful slow-medium bowler and an Astaire-like slip or gully. Self-effacing and modest, he was an unobtrusive captain, one of the game's quietly spoken, gentle figures.

PALMER, LT-COL. RODNEY HOWELL, MC, died suddenly on April 24 1987, aged 79. Tall and strongly built, he bowled fast with a late swerve and was three years in the Harrow XI. He did not get a Blue at Cambridge but made three appearances for Hampshire between 1930 and 1933. His one notable performance was to take five for 93 against Yorkshire at Sheffield in 1933. He had also played for Berkshire.

PATEL, JAMSHED RUSTOM, died in Bombay on October 6, 1987. At Delhi in 1948-49, in the first Test between India and West Indies, he and D. K. Naik became the first Indian umpires to stand in a Test match. In all, between then and 1958-59, he officiated in nine Tests.

PICKERING, HARRY GORDON, who died at Seaford on March 4, 1984, aged 67, made three appearances for Essex in 1938 without much success, but in 1947, having a job in Leicester, he did enough in five matches for Leicestershire to suggest that he could have been valuable had he been able to play regularIy. Against Derbyshire at Leicester, when 394 were needed to win, he joined Jackson at 236 for six and helped to add 140 in 90 minutes, his share being 62. Leicestershire won by three wickets with three balls to go. The finish, undeniably a fine one, was somewhat oddly described by Neville Cardus as "the most inspiring of our period". He followed this with 57 against Somerset, and finished the season, and indeed his first-class career, with 79, easily top score in a total of 208 at The Oval. For Leicestershire that year he scored 235 runs with an average of 23.50.

PILKINGTON, ALFRED FREDERICK, who died in October 1986, aged 85, was tried as a fast-medium opening bowler for Surrey against Cambridge University at The Oval in 1926; and though he took only one wicket, it was at least that of Duleepsinhji. He was better known as a footballer, playing for Dulwich Hamlet when they won the Amateur Cup in 1920 and later as a professional for Fulham.

PLANT, RICHARD HOWSON, who died on April 22, 1987, aged 75, did useful work as a batsman for Staffordshire for some twenty years. Later he was the club's president.

RUSSELL, DENIS LESLIE, died on December 29, 1986, aged 77. Captain of Beaumont College in 1927, he was four years at Oxford without getting a Blue, although in 1930 he scored 40 and 101 in the Seniors' match and, playing for H. D. G. Leveson Gower's XI at Eastbourne against the University in 1931 after the side had been made up, scored 92. Meanwhile he had made his mark for Middlesex, for whom he made 25 appearances between 1928 and 1932. In 1929 he scored 66 against Warwickshire at Birmingham and 52 against Kent at Dover, while in 1930 he enjoyed a triumph as a bowler, taking seven for 43 against Gloucestershire at Lord's. A right-handed bat, he had beautiful strokes, and with a slightly stronger defence, and perhaps a more stable temperament, he could have been a fine player. He was a slow-medium left-arm bowler who, if memory serves, relied more on length and a bit of pace off the wicket than on spin. He was also an excellent field. In all first-class matches he made 666 runs, with an average of 13.87, and took seventeen wickets at 31.00.

SAGGERS, RONALD ARTHUR, died in Australia in March 1987, aged 69. Although tall for a wicket-keeper, he was considered stylish by his contemporaries and was among the top flight of Australian 'keepers. Coming to England in 1948 as understudy to Talton, he played in the Headingley Test, taking three catches, and then in 1949-50, with Tallon unavailable, he was the senior wicket-keeper in Hassett's team to South Africa. He played in all five Tests, effecting 21 dismissals with thirteen catches and eight stumpings. In 77 first-class matches - he represented New South Wales from 1939-40 to 1950-51 - he took 147 catches and made 74 stumpings, including ten dismissals (seven in one innings) for New South Wales against a Combined XI at Brisbane in 1940-41. A useful right-handed batsman, he scored 1,888 runs with an average of 23.89, his one century being his 104 not out against Essex in 1948 when the Australians put on 721 runs in one day.

SALE, RICHARD, died on February 3, 1987, aged 67. Going up to Oxford from Repton, he made his place in the side secure as a freshman in 1939 by consistent scoring. An aggressive left-hander, a particularly good off-driver and cutter, who also scored well off his legs, he opened the batting in the earlier matches with his captain, E. J. H. Dixon, and later with J. M. Lomas. Both were essentially solid players for whom Sale made an ideal partner. At Lord's in the first innings Oxford made a poor start and owed much to his 65, made out of 88, an innings regarded as quite outstanding by those who saw it. In the vacation he did well for Warwickshire, for whom he made 101 against Sussex at Edgbaston. Returning to Oxford in 1946, he was again a consistent opener and again held the side together at Lord's with an innings of 42 after they had lost two wickets cheaply. Later that summer he made the highest score of his career, 157 for Warwickshire against the Indians. He did not play for Warwickshire after 1947, but from 1949 to 1954 he appeared for Derbyshire, having gone as a master to Repton. For them his highest score was 146 against Lancashire in 1949.

Altogether in first-class cricket he made 2,923 runs with an average of 27.31, including three centuries. Headmaster of Brentwood School from 1966 to 1981, he was responsible for changing them from direct grant status to full independence. His father, a housemaster at Shrewsbury, had been a member of H. S. Altham's famous Repton XI of 1908 and later gained Blues at Oxford for cricket and soccer, besides playing for Derbyshire.

SANTALL, JOHN FRANK EDEN, died at Bournemouth in May 1986, aged 18. He was given a good trial for Worcestershire as a batsman early in 1930, but in eight matches his highest score was 36 not out against Lancashire and the county did not persevere with him. Later he became a professional ice-skater. His father long one of the mainstays of the Warwickshire attack and his elder brother one of Warwickshire's leading batsmen between the wars.

TANNER, JOHN DENYS PARKIN, died at Ilkley on October 25, 1987, after illness, aged 66. A sound wicket-keeper of the modern school, who was happiest standing back, and a left-hander whose bat was sedulously straight, he was in the Charterhouse XI in 1938 and 1939 and, going up to Oxford after the War, narrowly missed a Blue in 1948. His only county cricket was a solitary appearance for Oxfordshire against Buckinghamshire in 1951, when he made 129, but he continued for many years to play with success in club cricket, largely in his native Yorkshire. He was a soccer player of great distinction, who captained Oxford and won several amateur international caps for England; on his first appearance, against Ireland, he scored three goals. He was a member of the Pegasus side which won the Amateur Cup in 1951 and had also played for Huddersfield Town.

TAYLOR, DERIEF DAVID SAMUEL, died in Kingston, Jamaica, on March 15, 1987, aged probably 78. Having formed a friendship with Tom Dollery while serving in North Africa in the war, he came to England and qualified for Warwickshire, for whom he played sixteen matches between 1948 and 1950. Tried primarily as a slow left-hander, he never looked like being a success in that role, and his fifteen wickets cost 40.46 runs each, but in 1949 he showed distinct promise as a left-handed bat, scoring 436 runs with an average of 43.60 and making 121 against Leicestershire at Edgbaston, when he and Dollery put on 178 for the fifth wicket. However, even this did not secure him a regular place, and in 1951 he became the county's coach, a post he retained until his return to his native Jamaica in 1982.

TAYLOR, REGINALD MINSHALL, died in Johannesburg in January 1984, aged 74. For Essex between 1931 and 1946 he scored 6,755 runs, with an average of 20.59 and took 92 wickets at 31.88. But most of those who remember him will feel that as a batsman he should have achieved more than he did. Only twice did he get his 1,000 runs, his average never reached 25, and he scored only five centuries. With a sound method and elegant strokes, which made him a pleasure to watch, he constantly got out, whether from over-confidence or from a lapse of concentration, just when he should have been setting himself to build one of the big innings of which he always looked capable. Arthur Shrewsbury used to say that when a batsman had made 30, he should play himself in again. Had Taylor adopted this policy he might have made twice as many runs.

After a match or two in 1931, he got a regular place in 1932: his big performance was an innings of 106 against Yorkshire at Scarborough, and in those days a hundred against Yorkshire meant something. He and Nichols put on 153 for the sixth wicket in two hours. In 1933 he made his thousand runs and improved his average slightly, but in 1934 it dropped to 14 and in 1935 he did not appear for the county at all. Next year produced a partial recovery, and in 1937 he regained a regular place. In making 129 against Derbyshire at Colchester, he helped O'Connor to add 333 for the third wicket, a record for the county. In 1938 he made the highest score of his career, 193 against Sussex at Colchester. In 1939 his average dropped to 16, but he revealed unsuspected talents as a bowler of chinamen, capturing 56 wickets at 26.14. Against Kent he took five for 50 and against Somerset five for 23, and there were few innings in which he did not get one or two useful wickets. After serving in the war as an Air Force pilot with some distinction, he took a business appointment and played through 1946 as an amateur. In the first match he took seven for 99 against Somerset and in August made an admirable 143 against Warwickshire at Southend, but at the end of the season he emigrated to South Africa and his first-class career ended.

TEW, ANTHONY MARTIN, who died in hospital at Swindon on June 23, 1987, aged 78, was four years in the Winchester XI and, going up to Oxford, was immediately given a place in the University side in May 1928. However, he was dropped after two matches and did not receive another trial. Tall and strongly built, he was a fast-medium opener who could swing the ball and made some pace from the pitch, but against class batsmen he was steady and reliable rather than dangerous. He was later Superintendent of Constabulary for the Cleethorpes Division of Lincolnshire.

THOMPSON, EDDIE CLARKE, who died at Torquay on March 18, 1982,aged 75, played for Essex from 1926 to 1929. A sound left-hand batsman with a good style, he showed considerable promise, and it was thought that he needed only to increase the range of his scoring strokes and smarten up his fielding to become a valuable member of the side, especially as he could bowl a bit of slow left-hand. Unfortunately the improvement never came, and in 44 matches his highest score was 45 not out.

TOWNSEND, LESLIE HYDE, who died at Brisbane on January 30, 1986, aged 71, stood as umpire in the Fifth Test of the 1958-59 series between Australia and England after McInnes, who had umpired in the previous four Tests, had been passed over. McInnes, one of Australia's senior umpires, subsequently retired. In Australia's first innings, while standing at square leg, Townsend was called on to adjudicate when the leg-side bail was seen to be on the ground after McDonald had glanced Trueman fine for four. He ruled in the batsman's favour and McDonald, 12 at the time, went on to score 133. In all, he stood in 37 first-class matches, but Melbourne in 1958-59 was his only Test match.

TRENTHAM, HERBERT, MBE, who died at Darlington on January 20, 1987. aged 79, had played for Durham. Secretary and treasurer for 48 years of the North Yorkshire and South Durham League, and a qualified football referee, he was decorated in 1984 for services to local sport.

TYLER, LT-COL. ARTHUR WELLESLEY, who died at Farnham on January 23, 1985, aged 77, kept wicket for the Army in 1931 and 1932 and had played for Norfolk. He had been in the Cheltenham XI.

WADE, THOMAS HENRY, died in Colchester Hospital on July 25, 1987,aged 76. Batting left-handed and bowling right-arm, he was originally tried for Essex in 1929 as a slow off-spinner and met with considerable success. In one of his earliest matches he took four for 11 against Nottinghamshire, bowling four of their best batsmen, and followed it with four for 20 against Glamorgan. Later in the season he won a close match with Somerset at Chelmsford, taking five for 64 in the the second innings. His final record that summer was 33 wickets at 25.57. However, he never fulfilled this promise and, after four seasons in and out of the side, took to practising wicket-keeping. He was so successful that in June 1934 he displaced in the side J. R. Sheffield, a far better batsman and the most reliable professional 'keeper they had had for many years. Indeed, when Sheffield regained a place it was as a bat and a slip fieldsman. For a few years Wade had to give way when that great wicket-keeper, A. G. Powell, was available, but after ill health ended Powell's county career in 1937, he held the position unchallenged till 1950. In 1936 an unexpected honour came to him. He was on a private visit to Australia when the two wicket-keepers on G. O. Allen's MCC side, Ames and Duckworth (and indeed a third possible 'keeper, Fagg) became casualties, and he was called in to keep against South Australia and Victoria. He acquitted himself so well and was so popular that he was awarded the rare distinction of an MCC touring cap. By 1950 fibrositis was beginning to trouble him and he retired at the end of the season, having received almost £4,000 for his benefit, at that time a record for Essex. Altogether he caught 414 batsmen and stumped 178, besides taking 48 wickets at 29.54. He never fulfilled the hopes that had once been entertained of his batting, but he played many useful innings of 40 or 50 and scored in all 5,024 runs with an average of 14.73. His highest score was 96.

WALKER, MALCOLM, who died in a motorcycle accident in August 1986, aged 52, went to Somerset in 1952 principally as an off-spinner, but for a time he looked to have possibilities as an opening batsman. In 1955, when he was 21, promoted to open the second innings against Essex at Romford, he hit 100 in three and a quarter hours, even though he was later discovered to be suffering from appendicitis. That same season he took five for 45 at Bristol as Gloucestershire sought a second-innings declaration, but these were to remain his best batting and bowling figures. Langford's success on his return from National Service blocked Walker's bowling prospects and there was no place for him as a batsman. In 29 matches, from 1952 until 1958, he scored 574 runs, with an average of 11.71, and took 28 wickets at 34.85. He had played several times for Yorkshire II in 1950.

WALTER, IAN MALCOLM, who died in Wellington on July 17, 1987, aged 39, had been Television New Zealand's cricket producer since 1978. As such, he was instrumental in responding to and arousing the upsurge of interest in the game in New Zealand in the 1980s. His style of presentation sought a middle road between that of the BBC and the bolder delivery of Australian commercial television. As a left-handed batsman he represented New Zealand Under-20 and New Zealand Universities, and in 1973, when official scorer for the New Zealand touring team, he played for them against Scotland, scoring a quiet, undefeated 7.

WEST, ALBERT RICHARD, who died at his native place, Earl Shilton, on June 8, 1985, aged 64, was a slow left-arm bowler of considerable possibilities, but he did little on his three appearances for Leicestershire in 1939.

WILKINSON, FRANCIS WILLIAM, who died at Ely on October 26, 1987, aged 92, was a Cambridgeshire all-rounder who, in his only first-class match, for Minor Counties against Oxford University at Oxford in 1939, when he was 43, had to withdraw because of injury after bowling nine overs, in which he took one wicket. An Oxford undergraduate, D. J. F. Watson, took his place in the field and subsequently batted twice for him, an unusual occurrence which has not since been repeated in English first-class cricket. Watson himself played twice for the University that season and was killed in a flying accident while training in the United States in 1943.

YEATES, HERBERT NELSON McRAE, died at Kangaroo Point, Queensland, on March 28, 1987, aged 76. He was selected just the once for Queensland, against Victoria in Brisbane in 1930-31, but continuous rain led to the match being abandoned without a ball bowled. He was a right-hand bat and leg-spinner whose brother, S. F. M. Yeates, later played three times for the state.