Colin Cowdrey
Cowdrey won a Heath Harrison Exhibition award and a place at Brasenose College at Oxford University to study geography in the autumn of 1951. He played for the Oxford University Cricket Club in 1952 and 1953 at the start of the season and the rest of the summer for Kent. He made 50 and 57 for the Gentlemen vs the 1953 Australians at Lords. In 1954 he captained Oxford University and was a surprise choice for the MCC tour of Australia, replacing Willie Watson. Len Hutton later told him that his selection was a gamble, but it was thought that his technique would be good on the hard Australian wickets. At 21, Cowdrey was the youngest man in the side and the schoolboy photographs used in the brochures made him appear younger. He had yet to make a century in the County Championship, go on tour or play a Test, though he was made twelfth man for the Fourth Test against Pakistan and fielded for 20 minutes, but was so nervous he could barely watch.
Mandy Mitchell-Innes
Mitchell-Innes made his debut for Somerset while he was still a schoolboy at Sedbergh School in 1931. He subsequently went to Oxford University and appeared in the annual match against Cambridge in each of his four years. His total of 3,319 first-class runs is a record for the Oxford University team, and he is regarded as one of the best university cricketers ever. After completing each year at Oxford, he returned to play for Somerset. He played his best years of cricket while at university, passing 1,000 runs in the season during three of his four years there. After graduating from university, he joined the Sudan Political Service and missed the 1938 cricket season entirely. His was only available for Somerset during periods of leave thereafter, often playing for around four to six weeks. In 1948, he was one of three players to captain Somerset when the county struggled to appoint anyone on a permanent basis. He played his last first-class matches in 1949.