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.
Michael Ridley (cricketer)
Ridley was born at Oxford in January 1947. He was later educated at Clifton College, before going up to St Edmund Hall, Oxford. While studying at Oxford, Ridley made his debut in first-class cricket for Oxford University against Worcestershire at Oxford in 1967. The following year, he found himself playing a first-class match for Ireland against the Marylebone Cricket Club at Dublin. He continued to play first-class cricket for Oxford University until 1970, making a total of 22 first-class appearances for the university. He scored a total of 944 runs in his matches for Oxford, at an average of 24.20, with a highest score of 79. One of eight first-class half centuries he made, this score came against Leicestershire in 1968. He later played minor counties cricket for Berkshire from 1972–1973. Outside of cricket, Ridley worked as a schoolteacher, eventually becoming headmaster of Denstone College, and later the Royal Belfast Academical Institution.