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.
John Tillard
Tillard was enlisted into the British Army as an Emergency Commission in the King's Royal Rifle Corps in 1943. He held the rank of 2nd Lieutenant throughout World War II, following the war he was promoted to Lieutenant in April 1947. Tillard made a single first-class cricket appearance for Sussex against Oxford University at the University Parks in 1949. In Sussex's first-innings, he was dismissed for 3 runs by Abdul Kardar, while in their second-innings he was dismissed for a duck by George Chesterton. Oxford University won the match by an innings and 9 runs. This was his only major appearance for Sussex. By 1951, he was promoted to Captain, while still serving at this time in the King's Royal Rifle Corps. He continued to serve in the Army until at least 1957, the year in which he played for the British Army cricket team against Oxford University, though the match wasn't rated as first-class.