Colin Cowdrey
Michael Colin Cowdrey, Baron Cowdrey of Tonbridge, (24 December 19324 December 2000) was an English first-class cricketer who played for Oxford University (1952–1954), Kent County Cricket Club (1950–1976) and England (1954–1975). Universally known as Colin Cowdrey, he "delighted crowds throughout the world with his style and elegance", and was the first cricketer to play 100 Test matches, celebrating the occasion with 104 against Australia in 1968. In all he played 114 Tests, making 7,624 runs at an average of 44.06, overtaking Wally Hammond as the most prolific Test batsman, and taking 120 catches as a fielder, breaking another Hammond record. Cowdrey made 22 Test centuries (an England record until 2013) and was the first batsman to make centuries against the six other Test playing countries of his era; Australia, South Africa, the West Indies, New Zealand, India and Pakistan, making hundreds against them all both home and away. He toured Australia six times in 1954–55, 1958–59, 1962–63, 1965–66, 1970–71 and 1974–75, equalling Colin Blythe's record, and in his last Test fans hung out a banner 'M.C.G. FANS THANK COLIN – 6 TOURS'.
Colin Cowdrey
Cowdrey was a prodigy who learned to bat as soon as he could walk thanks to his cricket-mad father. When he arrived at Tonbridge School he was placed immediately in the First XI even though he was only 13, and became the youngest cricketer to play at Lord's. He was a fine strokemaker who possessed a full array of stokes around the wicket "a masterly batsman with an excellent technique he... delighted crowds throughout the world with his style and elegance". His favourite stroke was the most pleasing – the cover drive, his son Chris Cowdrey was always asked "Why don't you caress the ball through extra cover like your father?" and replied "If I could, I would". Cowdrey also liked to experiment with new grips and unconventional strokes, to the annoyance of purists who thought his technique was already near perfect and Cowdrey himself noted that "I have not been a good player when the going is easy... unless the match provided a problem to solve, a theory to test, a hurdle to leap, a challenge worthy of battle, I have never been fully plugged in".