When did Michael Colin Cowdrey play cricket for Oxford?
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.
Colin Cowdrey
Cowdrey replaced Trevor Bailey as Peter May's vice-captain for the tour of Australia. He was not confident that he could lead the veteran England team in May's absence, but this was Bailey's last tour and Cowdrey needed to be tested as a future England captain. The disastrous 1958-59 Ashes series began well enough with Cowdrey scoring of 65 not out, 78 and 100 not out against the state teams, but when deputising as captain Cowdrey was run out by Ian Huntington after he stepped forward after an lbw appeal. Later on the tour he struck 101 runs in 84 minutes with 10 boundaries to win a jovial match against the Prime Minister's XI by four wickets. England lost the first two Tests, but Cowdrey's 100 not out saved the Third Test at the Sydney Cricket Ground, adding 182 with May (92) and spending 80 minutes in the 90s. Cowdrey's 84 could not save the Fourth Test at the Adelaide Oval, and he was bowled by the 'Blond Giant' Gordon Rorke, whose seven foot stride and his long drag took him three yards down the wicket before he released the ball, and Cowdrey joked "I was frightened that he might tread on my toes". The Fifth Test saw Cowdrey in fine form with seven boundaries in his 44, but he was run out when he trotted in for a single, even though the umpire was unsighted by the wicket-keeper Wally Grout. Cowdrey took strike again unaware of his dismissal until he was asked to depart. England lost the Test as Australia recovered the Ashes 4–0. Cowdrey made only 20 runs (10.00) in the follow up tour of New Zealand, which England won 1–0.
Oxford
Oxford University Cricket Club is Oxford's most famous club with more than 300 Oxford players gaining international honours, including Colin Cowdrey, Douglas Jardine and Imran Khan.
Cornelius Coward
Coward made his debut for Lancashire on 7 August 1865, against Middlesex in a cricket ground at Islington. Middlesex won the toss and batted first, reaching 226 and dismissing Lancashire for 112 with Coward making 23. Following on, Coward was run out for a duck, with Lancashire's 130 all out leaving Middlesex only 17 to win, which they reached without losing a wicket, and with a day still remaining in the game. Coward did not play another match in the 1865 season, however he became a more regular fixture in the 1866 season, with five appearances for his county. He scored 183 runs at 20.33, including his career-best 85. This score came in a 5 July 1866 match at Old Trafford, where Coward came in to bat with Lancashire on 48/6. He took Lancashire to 181 before becoming the last wicket to fall. He scored four more in the second innings, but could not prevent a 54-run defeat by Middlesex. His abilities with the bat earned him places in the United All England Eleven sides as well as both Gentlemen and Players' teams. He would go on to score 81 runs from three matches for the United All England Eleven side.
Colin Cowdrey
After the disastrous First Test in Brisbane the tour selectors sent back to London for the 41-year-old Cowdrey as a replacement batsmen. Cowdrey was highly regarded by the MCC team and in particular by Mike Denness, who had succeeded him as captain of Kent. In his 20-year Test career he had faced the Australian fast bowlers Keith Miller, Ray Lindwall, Alan Davidson, Ian Meckiff, Gordon Rorke and even the young Dennis Lillee. Although the Australian press was aghast at such a recall – Cowdrey had not played a Test in four years – the tourists were keen to have a man with the technique and strength of purpose to play the fastest of bowlers. He arrived in Perth with the wives of the MCC team after a 19-hour delay in Bombay, too late to play a practice match, and was called up for the Second Test two days after he arrived and with three hours in the nets. This was his sixth tour of Australia matching the record of the Lancashire spinner Johnny Briggs. Cowdrey walked to the crease to an ovation from the 16,000 crowd at the WACA, but not from Jeff Thomson. His greeting of "How good to meet you" was rebuffed with "That's not going to help you fatso, piss off."
Walter Money
From 1868 to 1871 he was at Cambridge University and he played in the University Match against Oxford University in all four seasons, captaining the team in 1870. Money's personal contribution to this game was not great, but it was a sensational game, known widely as "Cobden's Match" on account of the feat of the Cambridge bowler Frank Cobden, who, with Oxford requiring three runs to win, took the last three wickets in three balls, a hat-trick, to win the match for Cambridge. Money had had his own personal triumph in the University Match of the previous year, 1869, when his bowling figures of six for 24 and five for 35 were instrumental in another Cambridge victory. Those were the best bowling figures of his first-class career, but though his bowling fell away in 1870 his batting developed and he scored the only two centuries of his career in that season. The higher was an innings of 134 against Surrey, for whom he had played in a couple of games in the 1869 season. A more prominent innings was his unbeaten 109, following a first-innings top score of 70, for the Gentlemen in the Gentlemen v Players match at The Oval; W. G. Grace, just nine days older than Money, made 215 in the same second innings. Where Grace went on in first-class cricket for a further 38 years, however, Money played only four further matches, three of them for Cambridge University in 1871; the University Match that year was his last first-class game and he was twice a victim of Samuel Butler, who took all 10 wickets in Cambridge's first innings and 15 in the match.
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.
Michael Mills (cricketer)
Mills continued to play for Cambridge University in the 1947 and 1948 seasons, winning his Blue in both years, but did not play any further games for Warwickshire. He captained Oxford in 1948. His bowling became more expensive and his batting, though often useful, did not develop: he had a career average, over 50 completed first-class innings, of almost 15 runs per innings, but his highest score was only 44. He did not play any further first-class cricket after leaving Cambridge University. He also won Blues for squash and fives.
Michael James (cricketer, born 1934)
Michael James was educated at St John's School, Leatherhead, and Trinity College, Cambridge. He was a regular member of the Cambridge University team from 1956 to 1958, scoring 1969 runs in 45 first-class matches at an average of 27.34. His highest score was 168 against Gloucestershire in 1957, when he "dominated the cricket, on-driving and pulling powerfully during a fine display lasting four hours and including six 6's and seventeen 4's". Cambridge won the match by an innings in two days.
William Yardley (cricketer)
Yardley played cricket for Kent from 1868 to 1878, but his most famous deeds were for Cambridge University, for whom he played from 1869 to 1872. Two of his three hundreds were made in the University Match. His 100 in 1870 was the first in the history of the fixture and his 130 in 1872 was his career highest score. The 1870 fixture was "Cobden's Match", when F.C. Cobden's taking of the last three Oxford wickets in consecutive balls gave Cambridge victory by 2 runs, but Cobden's heroics would not have been possible but for Yardley's contribution.
Colin Cowdrey
Cowdrey became unaccountably obsessed with defence. His introspective nature made him over-receptive to sterile theory, such as playing with the pad; and lack of self-confidence prevented him from breaking out of his chains. "There were moments," wrote Alan Ross after watching him bat against South Africa at Cape Town in 1957, "when one wanted to send him out a double Scotch and instruct him to take the cotton wool off his bat and really hit it". 
The generosity of the white South African hosts towards the MCC team was almost their undoing Cowdrey remembering "If we were not actually killed by kindness we were certainly reduced to something well short of the fitness that a Test team must maintain ... Our standards dropped alarmingly. It was not fatal at the time for in 1956 South Africa did not have the cricketing resources to expose our indulgence". It was enough to turn a 2–0 lead for the tourists into a 2–2 draw against Clive van Ryneveld's energetic team. The all-rounder Trevor Bailey opened the innings with Peterson and Cowdrey returned to batting at number 5, where he made 331 runs (33.10). He made 59 and took three catches in the First Test at the New Wanderers in Johannesburg and made his second Test century – 101 in 369 minutes – in the Second at Cape Town, which England won by an innings, and batted for 200 minutes making 55 in the second innings of the Fourth back at Johannesburg when Hugh Tayfield took 9/113 in South Africa's 17 run win.
Michael England
Born at Midgham, Berkshire, England, was educated at Eton College, where he was in the Eton XI in 1936 and 1937. It was in 1936 that he made his debut for Berkshire in the Minor Counties Championship against Hertfordshire, though his schooling commitments limited him to one appearance each in 1936 and 1937. He later attended Magdalen College, Oxford, while studying there he made his first-class debut for Oxford University Cricket Club against Leicestershire in 1938. In this match, he scored 11 runs in Oxford University's first-innings, before being dismissed by William Flamson, while in their second-innings he wasn't required to bat. In Leicestershire's first-innings, he took 2 catches behind the stumps, with the match ending in a draw. He made a second first-class appearance for the university the following season against the Minor Counties. He scored 5 runs in Oxford University's first-innings, before being dismissed by Francis Appleyard, while in their second-innings he scored 43 not out. He also took a further two catches behind the stumps, with the match ending in a Minor Counties victory by 4 wickets. His appearances in the team were limited due to the number of wicket-keepers that were used by Oxford University during this time, such as Robin Whetherly, Hector Jelf, Peter Blagg and Manning Clark.
Malcolm Jardine
Malcolm Robert Jardine (8 June 1869 – 16 January 1947) was an English first-class cricketer who played 46 matches, mainly for Oxford University. Although his first-class record was not impressive, he scored 140 in the University Match of 1892 using an unorthodox batting method. He played a few matches for Middlesex but later went to work in India, in effect ending his English first-class career. He played first-class cricket in India for the Europeans and after a successful legal career, returned to England. His son Douglas went on to play cricket for Oxford, Surrey and England, captaining the latter two and being associated with the use of Bodyline bowling.
Kent County Cricket Club
The rebuilding of the side continued under David Clark's captaincy – Clark would later become chairman the club. Colin Cowdrey, the first man to play 100 Test matches made his Kent debut in 1950 and was appointed captain in 1957, following Doug Wright who was the first professional to captain Kent. Wright took over 2,000 wickets with his brisk leg breaks and googlies between 1932 and 1957 and became the only player to take seven hat-tricks – six of them taken for Kent.
Cornelius Coward
Cornelius Coward (27 January 1838 – 15 July 1903) was an English cricketer. A talented fielder and right-handed batsman, popularly known as Kerr, Coward played 49 first-class matches for Lancashire County Cricket Club between 1865 and 1876. He scored 1,210 runs in the middle order for Lancashire, before retiring to play club cricket for his home town of Preston – who he also coached – as well as becoming a cricket umpire for 98 matches, a licensed victualler and a teacher at the Roman Catholic institutions of Stonyhurst College in Lancashire and Clongowes Wood College in Ireland.
Colin Cowdrey
In 1950, the spinners Sonny Ramadhin and Alf Valentine had confounded the England batsmen to give the West Indies a 3–1 series win. Ramadhin still exerted his hold, taking 7/49 to dismiss England for 186 in the first innings of the First Test at Edgbaston. The West Indies made 474 and Cowdrey joined Peter May at 113/3 in the second innings, still 175 runs behind. May wrote of Cowdrey's "steadying influence on me when I was charging down the wicket and trying to hit everyone into the car park. I recall he calmed me down and said occupation of the crease was the vital requirement!" Cowdrey ruthlessly padded away any ball from Ramadhin outside off stump, where he could not be given out leg before wicket. "It was typical of Cowdrey that he should work out the theory so punctiliously", but his tactic became popular with less talented batsmen to the complaints of purists and detriment of the game. May made 285 not out and Cowdrey 154, his first Test century in England, and together they added 411 runs in 511 minutes, the third highest stand in Test cricket at the time, the highest for the fourth wicket until 2009, the highest stand ever made for England and the highest stand against the West Indies by any team.
Colin McDonald (Australian cricketer)
An opening batsman, he made his Test debut in the 5th Test against West Indies at Sydney in January 1952, alongside fellow debutants George Thoms, also an opening batsman, and Richie Benaud. Uniquely, Thoms and McDonald also opened the batting for the same state team, Victoria, and the same club team, Melbourne University that season. Thoms retired from cricket to concentrate on his medical career as a gynaecologist, and McDonald formed a successful opening partnership with Jim Burke. McDonald played in two stints for the Melbourne Cricket Club.
Michael Sutton (cricketer)
Sutton played for the Oxford University side again in 10 matches in 1947 but his bowling was less effective and the English-born Canadian off-spin bowler Basil Robinson was preferred in the team for the 1947 University match. In 1948 he played his one first-class match for Somerset and in 1954 he played once in the Minor Counties for Devon as well as in two other minor matches.
Colin Cowdrey
Following his retirement in 1976, Cowdrey worked closely behind the scenes at Kent, became President of the MCC in 1986 and was Chairman of the International Cricket Council from 1989–1993, when referees and neutral umpires were introduced to international cricket.
Cowdrey Lecture
The event was first hosted in 2001, following the death of its eponym Late Lord Colin Cowdrey, in December 2000. Colin Cowdrey is reported to have been instrumental in adapting the Captains' Charter as the Spirit of Cricket and subsequently adding it as the preamble to the Laws of Cricket.
Colin Cowdrey
May returned in 1961 and was expected to take back his captaincy, but declared himself unfit. Cowdrey was hurriedly brought to Lords and was told he would take over only a few days before the First Test. Although Richie Benaud had beaten England 4–0 in the last Ashes series the 1961 Australians were considered to be the weakest sent to England with Benaud and Alan Davidson struggling with injuries and many players unused to English conditions. They nearly upset England in the First Test at Edgbaston, leading by 321 runs in the first innings and Ted Dexter had to save the game with an innings of 180. Before the Second Test at Lords Cowdrey made 149 and 121 for Kent against the tourists and was 7 runs from victory when the game ended. May returned to the England team, but insisted that Cowdrey be captain despite pressure from the selectors. Benuad was unable to play, but the Australians under Neil Harvey rose to the occasion, Davidson taking 5/42 in the first innings, Bill Lawry making his maiden Test century of 130 and Garth McKenzie taking 5/37 to clear up the second innings in their 5 wicket victory. May agreed to lead England in the Third Test at Headingley and Cowdrey made 93 and 22 in a low scoring match as Fred Trueman took 11/93 to even the series. Cowdrey missed the Fourth Test at Old Trafford with a fever, where Australia won a nail-biting match to retain the Ashes. May thought England would have won if Cowdrey had played, even if he wasn't fit, but he returned for the drawn Fifth Test at the Oval.
Colin Cowdrey
The Ashes series had been a disappointment and Cowdrey decided to miss the tough tour of India and Pakistan, which was led by Ted Dexter. He lost to India 2–0, but beat Pakistan 1–0 and made 712 Test runs (71.20) on the tour, including his highest Test score of 205. May returned to play for Surrey, but refused to play for England and retired from cricket after a few games in 1963. When Pakistan toured England in 1962 Dexter was made captain for the First Test, winning by an innings and 24 runs (Cowdrey making 159) and the Second Test, which was won by 9 wickets. Cowdrey replaced him in the Third Test as the selectors considered their options for the forthcoming tour of Australia and he won by an innings and 117 runs. When Cowdrey was made captain in the final Gentleman v Players match at Lord's it looked like he would be chosen, but he was forced to withdraw because of kidney stones and Dexter was put in charge. However, he found a new rival in the old Sussex captain the Reverend David Sheppard, who was willing to take a sabbatical from his church mission in the East End in order to tour Australia. Sheppard made 112 for the Gentlemen and was chosen for the tour, but Dexter was confirmed as captain for the last two Tests against Pakistan and the forthcoming tour of Australia and New Zealand with Cowdrey as vice-captain. Cowdrey recovered to open the batting in the Fifth Test and make his highest Test score of 182, adding 238 with Dexter (172) and ending the series with 409 runs (81.80).
Colin Cowdrey
Mike Smith was kept as captain for only the First Test of the 1966 series against a West Indian side held together by the superb all round skills of their captain Gary Sobers. Sobers won the toss at Old Trafford, batted first and caught England on a spinning wicket for an innings victory, Cowdrey making 69 in the debacle. Smith was dismissed as captain and dropped from the side due to his well-known weakness to the West Indian fast bowlers. Cowdrey was placed in charge, which he accepted reluctantly due to the shoddy treatment of his friend and predecessor. In the Second Test at Lords England were 86 runs ahead in the first innings with the West Indies 95/5 when Sobers and his cousin David Holford added 274 to save the game. Cowdrey was criticised for not surrounding Sobers with fielders at the beginning of his innings, but he maintained that by spreading the field he encouraged him to make the strokes which could have got him out, but there was little doubt that the plan failed.
Colin Cowdrey
Cowdrey continued to play for Kent under Mike Denness (who succeeded Ray Illingworth as England captain in 1973) and the county continued its success. It came 2nd in the County Championship in 1972, 4th in 1973, but slipped to 10th in 1974, but won the John Player League in 1972 and 1973, the Benson and Hedges Cup in 1973 (Cowdrey hitting a cheeky 25 not out) and the Gillette Cup again in 1974, beating Lancashire by 4 wickets in the final. With his Test career seemingly over he was appointed a CBE by the Prime Minister Ted Heath in 1972. Cowdrey's great milestone was his 100th first-class century, 100 not out against Surrey at Maidstone on 4 July 1974, after which he had a celebratory luncheon at Lords with ex-prime minister Sir Alec Douglas-Home as the guest speaker.
Colin Cowdrey
With a pair of centuries against the strongest state side in Australia Cowdrey was called up for his debut in the First Test at Brisbane, even though he made 4 and 0 against Queensland. Hutton put Australia in to bat and saw them pile up 601/8. The only good news was that Cowdrey took the first of his record 120 Test catches to dismiss both Australian openers Les Favell and Arthur Morris. When England finally got to bat on the third day they promptly collapsed to 25/4, but Cowdrey made 40 and added 72 for the 5th wicket with Trevor Bailey. This did not prevent the follow on, where Cowdrey made 10, and England lost by an innings.
Colin Cowdrey
England was to tour India and Pakistan again and Cowdrey was asked to captain the tour, but declined as his arm had not fully healed. Ted Dexter also took a rest and M.J.K. Smith led the team, which soon ran into difficulties as illness and injury reduced them to ten men and they considered calling up the broadcaster Henry Blofeld. Cowdrey was contacted by Lord's to recommend a replacement batsman and as the batsmen he would have suggested were contracted to play in South Africa he volunteered to join the team himself. On arrival he was immediately chosen for the Third Test without any match practice (this happened again in Australia in 1974–75), but took three catches and made 107 and 13 not out for a draw. He made 151 in the Fourth Test and 38 in the Fifth to end with 309 runs (103.00) and England survived the series 0–0, the first full Test series which England drew all their matches, but the third time India had managed this.
Michael Anderson (cricketer, born 1916)
Michael Anderson (11 December 1916 – 10 May 1940) is an English first-class cricketer who played his games for Cambridge University Cricket Club and the Free Foresters. His highest score of 60 came when playing for the Free Foresters in the match against Cambridge University.
He also played 2 Minor Counties Championship games for Hertfordshire Cricket Club.
James Rogers (cricketer)
Born at Kendal, Rogers was educated at Sedbergh School, before going up to University College, Oxford to study modern history. While studying at Oxford he played first-class cricket for Oxford University, making his debut against Glamorgan at Oxford in 1979. He played first-class cricket for Oxford from 1979–1981, making a total of 26 appearances at first-class level. Rogers ended his first-class career having scored a total of 693 runs at an average of 16.50, with a highest score of 54. He also bowled eight overs with his slow bowling across his career, taking a single wicket and conceding 39 runs. In the same year he made his debut for Oxford, Rogers also made a single appearance in minor counties cricket for Cumberland against Durham at Millom in the Minor Counties Championship. After graduating from University College he became a solicitor.
Simon Halliday
Halliday's first-class cricket appearances were with Oxford University from 1980 to 1982 and In all he made 348 first-class runs at 29.00 but only passed 50 once in his 14 innings. This was when he scored 113 not out against Kent in 1982, with a bowling lineup consisting of English Test cricketers Graham Dilley and Bob Woolmer. He also played cricket for Dorset from 1981 to 1987, including 38 Minor Counties Championship matches and 3 one-day matches in the National Westminster Bank Trophy.
Colin Cowdrey
After the poor tour of Australia the previous year a revamped England team was taken to the Caribbean under the management of the forthright Walter Robins. Cowdrey was roped in to open the innings with Geoff Pullar as May thought he was the best player of fast bowling. Even though it was not to Cowdrey's liking he made 491 runs (54.55) and two centuries. England won the Second Test by 256 runs despite play being held up by a riot, but May suffered an internal injury and had to go to hospital every morning before play. May soldiered on, but Cowdrey knew he would soon be in charge and was so affected by nerves before the Third Test that he "would have given anything not to have played". To face the fast bowlers he wore rubber padding sewn into his shirt and recovered to make 114 and 97 despite Wes Hall taking 7/69 in England's first innings of 277, no one else making over 30. May had to fly home for treatment (and was unfit to play for 18 months) so Cowdrey took charge in the Fourth Test, winning the toss and top scoring with 65 in England's 295 as Hall took 6/90. The West Indies overtook this with 402, but Ted Dexter (110) and Raman Subba Row (100) saved the match. In the Fifth Test Brian Statham flew home to his sick son, but Cowdrey won the toss and again chose to bat, top scoring with 119 in England's 393.
Colin Cowdrey
Cowdrey's father, Ernest Arthur Cowdrey, played for the Surrey County Cricket Club Second XI and Berkshire County Cricket Club in the Minor Counties, but lacked the talent to enter first-class cricket and his father made him join a bank. Ernest Cowdrey had been born in Calcutta, moved to India to run a tea plantation and played the 1926–27 MCC touring team for the Madras Europeans XI and top scored with 48. His mother, Molly Cowdrey (née Taylor), played tennis and hockey.
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.
Colin McCool
Colin Leslie McCool (9 December 1916 – 5 April 1986) was an Australian cricketer who played in 14 Tests from 1946 to 1950. McCool, born in Paddington, New South Wales, was an all-rounder who bowled leg spin and googlies with a round arm action and as a lower order batsman was regarded as effective square of the wicket and against spin bowling. He made his Test début against New Zealand in 1946, taking a wicket with his second delivery. He was part of Donald Bradman's "Invincibles" team that toured England in 1948 but injury saw him miss selection in any of the Test matches.
Michael Rose (cricketer)
Michael Harrison Rose (born 8 April 1942 in Hereford) is an English former cricketer active from 1963 to 1964 who played for Cambridge University(1962-1964), Leicestershire(1963-1964), and Marylebone Cricket Club (1964). He appeared in 31 first-class matches as a right-handed batsman who scored 808 runs with a highest score of 86.
Colin Cowdrey
In 1945 he went to Alf Gover's Cricket School for three weeks and his father enrolled him at Tonbridge School where he could qualify for Kent, Gover telling the Tonbridge coach Ewart Astill that Cowdrey should join the First XI immediately, a rarity for first year pupils. In the team trial match he was 4 years younger than the other boys, but took 17 wickets with his leg spin and became an established part of the team. Still only 13 in July 1946 he became the youngest player to play at Lord's, for Tonbridge against Clifton, making 75 and 44 and taking 3/58 and 5/33 to win the match by two runs. Tonbridge later established the Cowdrey Scholarships for sporting excellence in his memory.
Colin McCool with the Australian cricket team in England in 1948
Following the resumption of cricket after World War II, McCool had started his Test career strongly. After making his debut in a one-off Test against New Zealand in 1945–46, he played in all five Tests against England during the 1946–47 home season, scoring 272 runs at an average of 54.40 and taking 18 wickets at just over 27 apiece. "Wisden" said his batting featured "wristy cuts" and "vigorous hooks", adding that there were "few better players of spin bowling on a difficult pitch". "Wisden" judged his slow and loopy leg spin "a clever mixture of leg-breaks and googlies". However, when India toured Australia for the first time in 1947–48, McCool played in three Tests without much success, scoring only 46 runs and taking only four wickets. As a result, he was dropped for the last Test.
Simon Porter
Porter made his debut for Oxfordshire before playing for Oxford University, first appearing in the 1971 Minor Counties Championship against Wiltshire. Porter played Minor counties cricket for Oxfordshire from 1971 to 1988 which included 118 Minor Counties Championship matches and 9 MCCA Knockout Trophy matches. He played his first List A match for Oxfordshire against Cornwall in the 1975 Gillette Cup. He played 7 further List A matches for Oxfordshire, the last of which came against Leicestershire in the 1987 NatWest Trophy. In his 8 List A matches for the county, he scored 55 runs at an average of 9.16, with a high score of 44. He took 9 wickets at a bowling average of 45.33, with best figures of 3/58.
Cuthbert Ottaway
Though Ottaway represented Gentlemen against Players three times (in 1870, 1872 and 1876) – the highest honour available to a cricketer in the years before the advent of Tests – he is perhaps better known for playing in four Varsity Matches against Cambridge. The most notable of these was the first, in 1870 – a game still remembered as "Cobden's Match". Scoring 69 in Oxford's second innings and taking an exceptional catch one-handed at long on, Ottaway played a full part in helping his teammates to a position in which, with three wickets remaining, they needed to score four runs to win the game. Bets were taken among the spectators at 100–1 on for Oxford to win from this position, but they were thwarted by the Cambridge bowler Frank Cobden, who – having conceded one run from the first ball of his four-ball over – took a hat-trick with his last three balls to leave Ottaway's team two runs short of a tie and three short of the total required for victory. "By superior bowling and infinitely superior fielding," commented Geoffrey Bolton's "History of the OUCC", "Oxford reached a position where they could not lose; and they lost."
Gerald Sly
Sly made a single first-class appearance for Sussex against Oxford University at the County Ground, Hove in 1953. He didn't bat in this match, but did take the wicket of Colin Cowdrey in Oxford University's first-innings. The match ended in a draw. This was his only major appearance for Sussex.
Aidan Crawley
Crawley made his first-class cricket debut in May 1927, playing for Oxford University against Harlequins. Later the same year he made his County Championship debut for Kent County Cricket Club against Worcestershire as an amateur cricketer. The bulk of Crawley's first-class cricket career was in the late 1920s and early 1930s. He made at least ten first-class appearances in each year between 1927 and 1932 and made a total of 87 first-class appearances, the majority during this period. He played a total of 39 times for Oxford and 33 for Kent as well as eight times for Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) as well as making a few appearances for other teams such as the Free Foresters.
Walter McBride
McBride made his first-class debut for Oxford University in the 1925 season against Middlesex at University Parks, Oxford. He played 16 first-class matches for Oxford University between 1925 and 1928, with his final match for the University coming in the 1928 season against the Marylebone Cricket Club. In McBride's 16 first-class matches for the University he scored 251 runs at a batting average of 11.40, with a single half century score of 51 against Free Foresters in 1927. With the ball, McBride took 32 wickets for the University at a bowling average of 27.81, with two five wicket hauls and best figures of 5/57 against the Free Foresters in 1926. In the field McBride took 12 catches. McBride was awarded a Blue for cricket in 1926.
Graham Cowdrey
Graham Robert Cowdrey (born 27 June 1964) is a former English cricketer. He is the third son of the cricketer Colin Cowdrey and his first wife Penny Chiesman. He was born in Farnborough in 1964 and educated at Wellesley House and Tonbridge School. After one year as a student at Hatfield College, Durham, Cowdrey chose to embark on a professional career. He played for Kent County Cricket Club as an attacking batsman in first-class and List A cricket from 1984 to 1998.
Colin Cowdrey
Australia had held the Ashes since 1958–59 and Cowdrey was keen to return them to England, but he was frustrated by the damp summer. There was no excuse for the First Test at Old Trafford where Australia made 357 and England fell from 86/0 to 165 all out to the part-time off-spin of Bob Cowper (4/48) and lost by 159 runs, though Basil D'Oliveira made 87 not out in the second innings. The Second Test was the 200th between the two countries and Colin Milburn hammered 83 and Cowdrey 45 in England's 351/7 while Australia were hustled out for 78 after a freak hail storm whitened the ground. 15 hours were lost to the weather and after following on Australia salvaged a draw with 127/4.
Colin Cowdrey
Cowdrey was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 1972, received a knighthood in 1992, and became a life peer as Baron Cowdrey of Tonbridge, of Tonbridge in the County of Kent in 1997, on the recommendation of outgoing Prime Minister John Major, to whom he had become a personal friend and confidant. Cowdrey was one of only two cricketers to be given a life peerage for their services to the game, the other being Learie Constantine in 1969.
Mike Cawdron
Mike Cawdron (born 7 October 1974) was an English cricketer. He was a left-handed batsman and a right-arm medium-pace bowler. During his five years in first-class cricket, he played for Gloucestershire and Northamptonshire, representing the latter in Twenty20 cricket during 2003.
Michael Eagar (cricketer)
Michael Antony Eagar (born 20 March 1934) is an English former cricketer. He played for Oxford University and Gloucestershire between 1956 and 1961.
Mike Edwards (cricketer)
Michael John Edwards (born 1 March 1940) is a former English cricketer who played for Cambridge University from 1960 to 1962 and for Surrey from 1961 to 1974. He was a batsman who had only limited success until he became an opener in 1966. He was also a fine short-leg fielder.
Fabian Cowdrey
Cowdrey was awarded a first-team contract in October 2011 before making his First XI debut for Kent in May 2012 against Oxford MCCU. He made his first-class cricket debut playing for Cardiff MCC University against Glamorgan in April 2013 before making his competitive debut for Kent later the same summer in the 2013 Friends Life t20. He appeared for the county in the 2013 Yorkshire Bank 40 later in the season before making his first-class debut for Kent in June 2014.
Michael Carberry
Carberry began playing for the Surrey Seconds in 1998, while the following season he made his List A debut for the Surrey Cricket Board against Norfolk in the 1999 NatWest Trophy. He scored 19 runs in the match, which the Surrey Cricket Board won. He played in the team's following round match against Cheshire, with Carberry being dismissed for 4 runs by Christopher Hall, in a match which ended in victory for Cheshire. He spent two further years in the Surrey Seconds, before making his first-class debut for the county against Leicestershire. He played 6 first-class matches in 2001, scoring 311 runs and scoring his maiden half century, against Glamorgan. He also made his List A debut for Surrey against Leicestershire, with the match following immediately after his first-class debut. The following season he made only one first-class appearance, against Cambridge UCCE, in a season in which Surrey won their 19th County Championship. He did, however, score his maiden first-class century in the match against Cambridge UCCE, making 153 not out. He found more opportunities that season in List A cricket, playing a handful of matches, though without success. However, with opportunities limited at Surrey, Carberry joined Kent for the 2003 season.
Mike Hendrick
Michael Hendrick (born 22 October 1948) is a former English cricketer, who played in thirty Tests and twenty two ODIs for England from 1973 to 1981. He played for Derbyshire from 1969 to 1981, and for Nottinghamshire from 1982 to 1984.
Dudley Owen-Thomas
In 1971 he was secretary of the Cambridge University Cricket Club, and scored 747 runs at 49.80, "hitting the ball with the full sweep of the bat". In the second match of the season he made 108 not out against Leicestershire, adding 175 for the third wicket with his captain, Majid Khan, to take Cambridge to a seven-wicket victory. In the match against Oxford University he scored 146 in just under four hours to enable Khan to declare; the match ended in a draw with Oxford nine wickets down. In 1972, once again secretary to Khan, he made 373 runs at 41.44, and in his last match, against Oxford, he scored 114 in a match when nobody else passed 51, and helped Cambridge to an innings victory, their first victory in the series since 1958 after 11 of the previous 12 matches had been drawn. In 10 matches for Surrey later that season he scored two centuries, and he finished the first-class season with 962 runs at 35.62. He was named the Cricket Writers' Club Young Cricketer of the Year for 1972.
Colin Griffiths (cricketer)
Colin Griffiths (9 December 1930 – 14 September 2004) was an English cricketer. He played for Essex between 1951 and 1953.
Colin Milburn
Colin Milburn (nicknamed Ollie; 23 October 1941 – 28 February 1990) was an English cricketer, who played in nine Test matches for England, before an accident led to the loss of much of his sight and prompted his retirement.
List of Oxford University Cricket Club players
This is a list in alphabetical order of cricketers who have played for Oxford University Cricket Club (OUCC) in top-class matches since the club was first recorded in 1827. OUCC teams have always had important or first-class cricket status. In 1973 the team also played official List A cricket matches.
Mike Cawdron
He played extensively in the Second XI championship between 1992, where he debuted for Gloucestershire in August but failed to make too much of an impression, finishing the match with a mere single run to his credit. Thereon, he played regularly from 1999 onwards. Though he spent season 2002 out of the game, he played first-class cricket for five years, scoring decently throughout, and finishing with a workable average of 14. He finished his career in 2004, playing for Northamptonshire for his last two years. Michael Cawdron was the master in charge of cricket, Rackets Professional and teacher of Mathematics at Haileybury School. In September 2016, he was appointed teacher of Mathematics at Wellington College.
Colin Cowdrey
The Third Test at Edgbaston was Cowdrey's 100th, the first time that anyone had completed a century of Tests. He celebrated by making 104, using Boycott as a runner after straining his leg. He became the second batsman after Wally Hammond to make 7,000 Test runs, but England took 172.5 overs to make 409 and though Australia only made 222 the match was drawn. Both Cowdrey and the Australian captain Bill Lawry were unfit for the Fourth Test, which was drawn when England finished on 230/4 needing 326. Australia's 1–0 lead ensured that they held onto the Ashes, but Cowdrey went to the Fifth Test determined to at least even the series. As the ball was swinging at the Oval that season he wanted the bowlers Tom Cartwright and Barry Knight, but they were both unfit and the opener Roger Prideaux caught a virus of the eve of the Test. D'Oliveira was an all-rounder who could swing the ball so Cowdrey asked for him to cover both needs and he made a politically important 158 in England's 494. Australia made 325 and dismissed England for 181, but collapsed to 85/5 at lunch on the last day needing 352 to win when a deluge flooded the Oval. The players started packing their bags, but Cowdrey called on the crowd to help the groundstaff dry the ground. "Like a modern-day King Canute he rolled up his trousers, waded into the water...and supervised the mopping up operations of hundreds of volunteers", Derek Underwood took 7/50 and England won by 226 runs with six minutes to spare. Kent came second to Yorkshire again in the County Championship, winning more matches, but falling behind on bonus points.
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.
Michael Taylor (Irish cricketer)
Michael Hugh Taylor (born 6 December 1988 in Ballymena, County Antrim) is an Irish first-class cricketer who played for Cambridge University Cricket Club from 2008 to 2014.
He received his B.A. and M.Phil. and Ph.D. in History as a student of Gonville and Caius College at Cambridge University, and was a member of the Gonville and Caius team that won the 2015 University Challenge.
Timothy Orrell
Orrell's cricketing career started in 1986, when he played a game in an Oxford and Cambridge Festival tournament, for a Lancashire side which run out ten-wicket winners. Orrell played his debut Second XI Championship season in 1989, and played two matches in the Benson and Hedges Cup competition of 1990 for Combined Universities.
History of English amateur cricket
In 1706, William Goldwin (1682–1747) published his "Musae Juveniles", which included a Latin poem called "In Certamen Pilae" (On a Ball Game). This has 95 lines and is about a rural cricket match. Goldwin himself attended Eton and then graduated to King's College, Cambridge in 1700. It is almost certain that he encountered cricket at both establishments. There is a reference to cricket at Cambridge University in 1710 while Samuel Johnson recorded that he played cricket at Oxford University in 1729. In 1760, the Reverend James Woodforde played for "the Winchester against the Eaton ("sic")" at Oxford.
Michael Barnwell
Lionel Michael Lowry Barnwell (born 12 August 1943 in Crewkerne) is an English former first-class cricketer who played for Cambridge University, Somerset and Eastern Province.
Colin Cowdrey
In the First Test he overtook Wally Hammond's record of 7,249 runs to become the most prolific Test batsmen, a record he held for a year when it was overtaken by Gary Sobers. Cowdrey made only 1 run in the inaugural One Day International at Melbourne and was dropped for the Fourth Test, had his cap stolen while fielding in the Fifth Test and was dropped again for the Sixth and Seventh Tests. Illingworth won an argumentative series 2–0 and regained the Ashes, but Cowdrey only made 82 runs (20.50) in the series. They carried on to New Zealand, Cowdrey missed the First Test and needed a runner to make 54 and 45 in the Second Test at Auckland, coming in at 63/4 in the second innings when New Zealand had a real chance of winning their first victory against England, but he added 76 with Alan Knott (96), and the danger was averted.
Colin Cowdrey
There was no tour in 1966–67 and Cowdrey was not picked for the first four Tests of the summer, instead concentrating on Kent's chances in the County Championship. He was recalled for the Second Test against Pakistan, opening the innings, and made 14 and 2 not out in the 10 wicket victory. The Third Test at the Oval was won as well, but Close had been found guilty of time-wasting in a county match and accosting a spectator who complained of gamesmanship. He was fired as soon as the Test was won and the selectors announced that Cowdrey was to lead the MCC tour of the West Indies, although he disliked the politics and press attention. On a happier note Kent came second in the County Championship to Yorkshire and won their first one-day competition, the Gillette Cup final against Somerset in front of 20,000 fans at Lord's. Cowdrey won the toss and batted first, Kent making 193 with man of the match Mike Denness scoring 50 and Brian Luckhurst 54. Somerset were bowled out for 161 with Derek Underwood taking 3/41 for a 32 run victory.
Colin McCool with the Australian cricket team in England in 1948
McCool was rested as Australia defeated Essex by an innings and 451 runs, its largest winning margin for the summer. During this match, the other batsmen set a world record by scoring 721 on the first day, the most first-class runs compiled in a day’s play. He returned for the innings victory against Oxford University. McCool made his first substantial contribution with the bat, coming in at 5/214 and scoring 50 in a 91-run partnership with Loxton as Australia made 431. He removed Indian Test cricketer Abdul Hafeez Kardar in the first innings, before taking 3/29 in the second as Australia won by an innings.
John Knott (cricketer)
Knott attended Tonbridge School and made his first-class cricket debut for Kent in 1921 after completing school, appearing in a County Championship against Nottinghamshire. He attended Oxford University, gaining a cricket Blue and playing in three varsity matches between 1922 and 1924. He continued playing for Kent during his years at university before becoming a teacher at Tonbridge where he was master-in-charge of cricket, coaching, amongst others, Colin Cowdrey.
Cowdrey Cricket Club
Tonbridge Printers Cricket Club was founded in 1948, to provide cricket for the working men of Tonbridge. The club trained and played at the Racecourse Sportsground, now Tonbridge Park. At the club's 50-year anniversary in 1998, the committee elected for a name change. It was decided that the club should honour Colin Cowdrey, Baron of Tonbridge, one of the finest batsmen ever to play for Kent and England. Today, Cowdrey CC plays competitive cricket in Division IV of the Kent League (both 1st and 2nd XIs), fielding up to three sides on a Saturday and two on a Sunday.
John Halliday (cricketer)
Halliday was educated at the City of Oxford High School for Boys, where he excelled at cricket. He debuted for Oxfordshire in the 1932 Minor Counties Championship, and, while studying at Merton College, Oxford, made his debut in first-class cricket for the university cricket team in 1934 against Gloucestershire. Making five first-class appearances for the university in 1934, Halliday was also selected to play for the Minor Counties cricket team "against" Oxford University in that same year. He played first-class cricket for university until 1937, making a total of 25 appearances. Though unable to recapture his form as a schoolboy cricketer, Halliday nonetheless scored a total of 766 runs at an average of 23.21, making eight half centuries and top-scoring with 87. As a bowler, he took 18 wickets at an average of 37.66, with best figures of 3/11. Halliday's minor counties career with Oxfordshire continued until 1939, making sixty appearances. He was elected county captain in 1938.
Colin Maiden
Born in Auckland in 1933, Maiden attended Auckland Grammar School where he played in the school's 1st XV rugby union team. He then attended Auckland University College completing a Bachelor and Master of Engineering, graduating with the latter degree in 1956. In 1955 he was awarded a Rhodes Scholarship to attend the University of Oxford, where he completed his doctorate in 1957. While at Oxford, Maiden was awarded a tennis Blue.
Colin Cowdrey
Dexter declared himself unavailable for the 1964–65 tour of South Africa as he contested the Cardiff South East seat in the 1964 General Election. Cowdrey did not tour, though he did go to the West Indies with the International Cavaliers, and Mike Smith was made captain, though Dexter joined him as vice-captain after losing to Jim Callaghan. After his 1–0 victory in South Africa Smith was retained as captain and as Dexter broke his leg while parking his car Cowdrey was made vice-captain again. He made 85 in the First Test against New Zealand, 119 in the Second and 13 in the Third as England easily won the series 3–0. South Africa were a tougher prospect with Graeme Pollock making 125 in the Second Test at Trent Bridge and his brother Peter Pollock taking 10/87, Cowdrey came in at 63/3 and made 105 of the 142 runs added while he was at the crease, but it was the only time England lost a Test in which he made a century. He made 58 and 78 not out in the Third Test and 327 runs (65.40), but South Africa won 1–0, their last Test series against England for 29 years. Cowdrey took Kent up to 5th place in the County Championship, compared with 7th in the previous season.
Colin Cowdrey
Though seen as Peter May's natural successor, Cowdrey failed to hold onto the England captaincy for any length of time as he suffered a number of inconvenient injuries. Gall-stones in 1962 gave the captaincy to Ted Dexter, a broken arm to Mike Smith in 1963 and a ruptured Achilles tendon to Ray Illingworth in 1969, and in each case the temporary replacement was retained after Cowdrey had recovered. It was a great disappointment to him that he never led the MCC tour of Australia despite six tours there, four times as vice-captain. After losing the First Test against Australia in 1968 he won 1 and drew 6 of the next 7 Tests, which Illingworth extended to a record run of 27 Tests without defeat until the last Test of 1971.
1947 English cricket season
The 1947 University Match between Oxford University and Cambridge University was played at Lord's over three days from 5 to 8 July and was drawn. Oxford batted first and amassed 457 with Kent's Tony Pawson scoring a chanceless 135 before being run out. Geoffrey Keighley made 99 and Test batsman Martin Donnelly 81. Cambridge could manage only 201 in reply as Oxford's other Test player Abdul Hafeez Kardar took four for 50. Following on, Cambridge rallied to 314 for four and ensured the draw, Guy Willatt scoring 90 and Trevor Bailey 60 not out.
Robin O'Brien
His most prolific season was in 1956, when he scored 796 runs, second only to Ted Dexter. He also scored both of his first-class centuries in this season, with 107 against Lancashire and 146 against Oxford University. In addition to his 35 first-class matches for Cambridge University, O'Brien also played four for Ireland to 1958, scoring 164 runs and registering one half century. He also made one first-class appearance for the Marylebone Cricket Club "against" Cambridge University in 1958. He gained his cricket blue in 1955, also winning blues in field hockey and golf. O'Brien undertook his National Service with the Royal Army Ordnance Corps while at Cambridge, serving with the rank of Second Lieutenant.
Brian Boobbyer
All his first-class cricket was played for Oxford University, for whom he played 40 first-class matches between 1949 and 1952. He scored 1970 runs in all at an average of 26.98, including two centuries and with a highest score of 126. Both centuries were scored against Sussex. His best season was his last, when he scored 802 runs in 13 first-class matches at an average of 34.86. He made his first appearance in the annual University Match against Cambridge in his first season of 1949, and thus was awarded his Blue. He scored what proved to be a match-winning 80 in the 1951 match. The "Daily Telegraph", in its obituary, described him as "a doughty rather than a spectacular cricketer" (though adding that this could not be said of his rugby). Middlesex were interested in signing him as an opening batsman had he not given up the game.
Michael Barnwell
At cricket, Barnwell was a middle-order right-handed batsman and an occasional right-arm medium-pace bowler. After captaining the first XI at Repton in 1963, he played four times for Cambridge University in 1965 and 1966 without gaining a regular place, and six times for Somerset in 1967 and 1968. His only seasons of regular first-class cricket were for Eastern Province in South Africa when he opened the innings for a side that included the Pollock brothers and Tony Greig. His one century in top-class cricket came in his only List A match: 124 against Orange Free State in the quarter-final of the Gillette Cup in 1970–71. He left first-class cricket at the end of the 1970–71 season.
Michael Bradley (cricketer)
Michael Ewart Bradley (born 29 March 1934) is an English former cricketer who played nine first-class games for Worcestershire in the early 1950s. He was born in Halesowen and attended Halesowen Grammar School.
Bradley made his debut against Combined Services at Worcester in June 1951, and though he did not bowl in the first innings, he claimed 3-84 in the second; his third wicket was that of Jim Parks. A couple of weeks later he played against Scotland and took five wickets in the match. In the second innings of this game Hugo Yarnold stumped six Scottish batsmen — this remains a first-class record — and Bradley took two of those wickets. (Yarnold also caught another man in the same innings off Bradley's bowling.)
Timothy Taylor (cricketer)
Taylor made his debut in county cricket for Cheshire in the 1980 Minor Counties Championship against Durham. He began studies at Magdalen College, Oxford, in 1979, and in 1981 made his first-class debut for Oxford University Cricket Club against Leicestershire. He made 7 further first-class appearances for the university, the last of which came in the 1981 University Match against Cambridge University. In his 7 first-class matches for the university, he took 24 wickets at an average of 35.91, with best figures of 5/81. These figures, one of two five wicket hauls he took for Oxford, came against Middlesex in 1981. While attending the university, he played for a combined Oxford and Cambridge Universities team against the touring Sri Lankans in 1981. He played a further two first-class matches in that season against the Sri Lankans, one for the Minor Counties and another for Lancashire. He made two further first-class appearances in 1981 for Lancashire, both in the County Championship against Leicestershire and Derbyshire.
Michael Magill
Magill was born Sevenoaks on 28 September 1915. He was educated at Eton College, before going up to Brasenose College, Oxford. He made his debut in first-class cricket for Oxford University against the Minor Counties cricket team at Oxford in 1938. Magill took a five wicket haul on debut, with 5/57 in the Minor Counties first-innings, figures which helped to contribute toward an Oxford University victory by 230 runs. He made a further appearance in first-class matches for Oxford University in 1938 against Leicestershire, in which he made a score of 80. Magill also made a first-class appearance for the Free Foresters "against" Oxford University in June 1938. He toured the West Indies with a combined Oxford and Cambridge Universities cricket team in August 1938, making two first-class appearances against Jamaica.
Michael Munday
He made his Minor Counties debut for Cornwall while playing for Truro School in 2001 and played for them regularly in 2001 and 2002 before playing in the Somerset 2nd XI in late 2002. He played for Oxford University from 2003 to 2006 playing each season in the Varsity match against Cambridge University. His debut First-class match was for Oxford against Middlesex in which his first wickets were future England internationals, Andrew Strauss and Owais Shah.
Frank Cobden
Frank Carroll Cobden (14 October 1849 – 7 December 1932) was an English cricketer who played for Cambridge University and the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC). In the University Match of 1870 he famously took a hat-trick comprising the last three Oxford University batsmen when Oxford required only three more runs to win. Thus Cambridge University won by two runs a match which they had seemed certain to lose. This feat led to the 1870 match becoming known as "Cobden's Match".
Mark Lowrey (cricketer)
Lowrey made his first-class debut for Cambridge University against Northamptonshire in 1990. From 1990 to 1991, he represented the University in 20 first-class matches, the last of which came against Oxford University. In his 20 first-class matches for the University, he scored 597 runs at a batting average of 19.90, with 3 half centuries and a high score of 72. In the field he took 3 catches. With the ball he took 19 wickets at a bowling average of 51.52, with best figures of 3/31.
Colin Drybrough
Born in East Melbourne in Victoria, Australia, Drybrough attended Highgate School in North London from 1950 to 1957 and scored 128 not out at Lord's for the Southern Schools against The Rest and captained the Public Schools against the Combined Services. In 1957 he was awarded the Cricket Society Prize for the most promising young cricketer of the year. Drybrough played for Middlesex Second XI in 1957, scoring 101 not out against Kent Second XI and 67 and 88 not out against Suffolk. He first appeared in first-class cricket for Middlesex in 1958 in matches against Oxford University and Cambridge University.
Colin Cowdrey
Cowdrey played what he thought was his last Test against Pakistan at Edgbaston, making 14 and 34. He was now 38 and a serious bout of pneumonia meant he could not play for half the season, though his 15th year as Kent captain equalled Lord Harris's record and maded him the longest serving post-war captain in county cricket. His vice-captain and successor Mike Denness led Kent for most of the season; they fell to 4th in the County Championship and were the finalists in the Gillette Cup, but Cowdrey was unable to play and they lost to Lancashire by 24 runs.
Ian Curtis (cricketer)
Curtis made his first-class debut for Oxford University against Somerset in 1980. He made 16 further first-class appearances for the university, the last of which came against Cambridge University in 1982. A bowler, Curtis took 33 wickets at an average of 41.90, with best figures of 5/140. These figures, his only five wicket haul for the university, came against Glamorgan in 1982. While studying at Oxford, he made his List A debut for Combined Universities against Northamptonshire in the 1980 Benson & Hedges Cup. He made 6 further List A appearances for the team, the last of which came against Glamorgan in the 1982 Benson & Hedges Cup. In his 7 List A matches for the team, he took just 3 wickets at an average of 60.33, with best figures of 1/18.
Colin Cowdrey
Basil D'Oliveira was a Cape Coloured who emigrated to England so he could play first-class cricket from which he was banned in South Africa. When he was not included in the MCC team for South Africa after his match-winning century there was a press storm in what was known as the D'Oliveira affair. It appeared that he was omitted as he was unacceptable to the South African government, then at the height of apartheid. Cowdrey and the selectors maintained that he had not been chosen for purely cricketing reasons, but when Cartwright was declared unfit they brought in D'Oliveira, who was the first reserve. To President Vorster of South Africa it looked like the MCC was caving in to anti-apartheid pressure and he cancelled the tour. Cowdrey offered to fly to South Africa to mediate, but it would be 26 years before England next played South Africa.
Cambridge UCCE and Cambridge University in 2005
Economical bowling and poor hitting saw Cambridge get a relatively easy target of 191 against an Oxford side including former England U-19 player Michael Munday. However, the match at Lord's was close right till the end, former Nottinghamshire bowler Tom Savill smacking 33 off 20 balls after having taken four for 28 with the ball. Munday, meanwhile, was inexplicably left to only bowl five overs - which went for 18 runs.
(Cricinfo scorecard)
Colin Cannonier
Cannonier was born in Basseterre, and educated at Basseterre High School. He made his first-class cricket debut for the Leeward Islands during the 1995–96 Busta Cup, and played a total of four times in his first season, including in his team's defeat of Trinidad and Tobago in the competition final. Cannonier was awarded a scholarship to the University of the West Indies in 1996, and consequently did not again appear for the Leeward Islands until the 1999–00 Red Stripe Bowl (a limited-overs competition). The 2000–01 season was his last with the Leewards, but in the 2002–03 Red Stripe Bowl he represented the "Rest of Leeward Islands" side that played during Antigua and Barbuda's period as a separate team. Cannonier's final high-level cricket matches came at the Stanford 20/20 competition in 2006 and 2008, where he represented the Saint Kitts national team. He never made the Saint Kitts national football team, but did captain his club side, Basseterre's Newtown United.
David Jowett
He made his debut for Dorset in minor counties cricket against Cornwall in August 1952 (though his minor counties debut proper had come in 1948 when he played twice for Gloucestershire Second XI in the Minor Counties Championship). After studying at Sherborne School, Jowett went up to St John's College, Oxford. It was there that he made his debut in first-class cricket for Oxford University in May 1952 against Yorkshire at Oxford. His first wicket in first-class cricket was Len Hutton. He played first-class cricket for Oxford University from 1952–1955, making 46 appearances. He scored 566 runs for Oxford University in first-class cricket at an average of 12.57, with a highest score of 57 not out, one of two occasions he passed fifty. As an off break bowler, he took 118 wickets for the university, which came at a bowling average of 32.20. He took five wickets or more in an innings three times, with best figures of 7/132 coming against Surrey in 1954 at Guildford. Besides playing first-class cricket for Oxford University, Jowett also three matches for the Marylebone Cricket Club, and one match for the Free Foresters. Jowett was never on the winning side in any of his fifty first-class matches. His minor counties career with Dorset continued until 1960, with Jowett making 64 appearances in the Minor Counties Championship for the county.
Oxford University Cricket Club
The earliest reference to cricket at Oxford is in 1673. OUCC made its known debut in the 1827 University Match. In terms of extant clubs being involved, this is the oldest major fixture in the world: i.e., although some inter-county fixtures are much older, none of the current county clubs were founded before 1839 (the oldest known current fixture is Kent "versus" Surrey).
Richard Coughtrie
born 1 September 1988, North Shields, Northumberland, Coughtrie made his first-class debut for Oxford UCCE in April 2009 opening the batting scoring 4 and taking two catches in a drawn match. He made debut for Gloucestershire after making a host of second XI appearances against Derbyshire in April 2011. He scored 20 in the first innings, however didn't keep wicket due to first option Jonathan Batty playing. Gloucestershire beat Derbyshire by seven wickets. Coughtrie scored 47 not out in 69 balls in a three-day University match against Cardiff UCCE in April 2011. Coughtrie made 45 in the first innings in a drawn match against Essex in May 2011. In August 2011, Coughtrie made his first-class top score as he made 54 not out to top score in the Gloucestershire first innings against Derbyshire in a seven wicket loss.
Michael Heal
Michael George Heal (born 8 September 1948) is a former English first-class cricketer who played for Oxford University in the late 1960s and early 1970s, winning a Blue in 1970 and 1972. He also played for Gloucestershire's Second XI, and had one List A outing for their first team in 1973. He was born in Bristol.
Colin White (cricketer)
Born at Chiswick in April 1937, White later attended Cranleigh School, where he played for the school cricket team. After leaving Cranleigh, he went up to the University of Cambridge. It was there that he made his debut in first-class cricket for Cambridge University Cricket Club against Surrey at Fenner's in 1958. In his sixth match of 1958 against the touring New Zealanders, White was hit in the mouth by a delivery from Bob Blair. However, two weeks later he was back playing, making a further nine first-class appearances in 1958. Thereafter, he only appeared sporadically in 1958 and 1959, making seven further appearances. White made a total of 22 first-class appearances for the university, scoring a total of 549 runs at an average of just 14.83. His highest score of 64, one of two half centuries he made, came against Nottinghamshire in 1960. He made a final appearance in first-class cricket for the Free Foresters in 1961. After graduating from Cambridge, he became a banker. White died at Epsom in February 2012.
History of English amateur cricket
About the early days of the two university clubs, H. S. Altham (himself an Oxford "blue") states that OUCC played on "that part of Cowley Common that was called the Magdalen Ground, so-called because it had been appropriated by the Magdalen College Choir School, whose headmaster made it over" (to OUCC). Cowley Common is in fact some distance from the University itself and so "the cricketers used to enjoy a ride out across the fences!" OUCC moved to The Parks, its present venue, in 1881.
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".
Colin Cowdrey
In 1997 a cricket club in Cowdrey's hometown Tonbridge was renamed in his honour; Cowdrey Cricket Club (formerly Tonbridge Printers CC) plays in the Kent League (Division IV 2017), and can be found here
University of Oxford
Rowers from Oxford who have won gold at the Olympics or World Championships include Michael Blomquist, Ed Coode, Chris Davidge, Hugh Edwards, Jason Flickinger, Tim Foster, Christopher Liwski, Matthew Pinsent, Pete Reed, Jonny Searle, Andrew Triggs Hodge, Jake Wetzel, Michael Wherley, and Barney Williams. Many Oxford graduates have also risen to the highest echelon in cricket: Harry Altham, Bernard Bosanquet (inventor of the googly), Colin Cowdrey, Gerry Crutchley, Jamie Dalrymple, Martin Donnelly, R. E. Foster (the only man to captain England at both cricket and football), C. B. Fry, George Harris (also served in the House of Lords), Douglas Jardine, Malcolm Jardine, Imran Khan, Alan Melville, Iftikhar Ali Khan Pataudi, Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi, M. J. K. Smith, and Pelham Warner.
Chris Cowdrey
After a good season for Kent in County cricket in 1984, Cowdrey was selected for England's 1984–85 tour of India, led by his friend David Gower, ostensibly taking Ian Botham's place after Botham had opted out of the tour. In the First Test in Bombay he was fielding at short leg when Gower asked him to bowl. Although he forgot to take off his shin pads he bowled Kapil Dev with his fourth ball, the 19th England bowler to take a wicket in his first over. His father was listening to Test Match Special in his car and was so surprised that he drove the wrong way down a one-way street. Following the tour, where he had scored 96 runs and taken four wickets Cowdrey was not selected by England until 1988, and the infamous "summer of four captains". In that year Cowdrey, who had taken Kent to the top of the Championship table, was given the job to lead the Test side in the fourth Test of a five match series against the West Indies. The West Indies by that point were 2–0 up, claiming a convincing innings and 156 run victory in the previous test. "We believe Cowdrey's style of leadership is what is now required", claimed England's chairman of selectors Peter May, who was also Cowdrey's godfather, amid charges of favouritism. England lost heavily by ten wickets, and his chance to prove his detractors wrong in the final Test never came, as he was injured after the one appearance and never chosen to captain or play for England again.
Michael Morgan (cricketer, born 1932)
The son of the surgeon Sir Clifford Naunton Morgan and his wife Ena Muriel Evans, he was born at Marylebone in May 1932 and was educated at Marlborough College. From Marlborough he went up to the University of Cambridge, where he studied medicine. He debuted in minor counties cricket for Berkshire in the 1950 Minor Counties Championship, before making his first-class debut for Cambridge University the following year against Middlesex at Fenner's. He did not again in first-class cricket for Cambridge until 1954, when he made twelve appearances, including against the touring Pakistanis. Playing as a right-arm fast-medium bowler, he took 26 wickets for the university at an average of 38.73, with best figures of 5/58. His only five wicket haul in first-class cricket came against the Marylebone Cricket Club.
Mike Beddow
Alan Michael Beddow (born 12 October 1941, St Helens) is a former English cricketer who was active from 1962 to 1966. He made his first-class debut in 1962 and appeared in 33 matches as a right-handed batsman who bowled right arm medium pace, playing for Lancashire. He scored 775 runs with a highest score of 112* and took fifteen wickets with a best performance of three for 10.
Richard Coughtrie
Richard Coughtrie (born 1 September 1988) is an English born Scottish cricketer, a wicket-keeper-batsman who most recently played for Gloucestershire. He made his first-class debut for Oxford UCCE against Worcestershire in April 2009. Coughtrie is currently studying at Oxford Brookes University. Coughtrie signed a two-year contract with Gloucestershire in November 2010.
Colin Cowdrey
The MCC Spirit of Cricket Cowdrey Lecture was inaugurated in 2001 in memory of the late Lord Cowdrey, who with Ted Dexter was instrumental in the Spirit of Cricket being included as the Preamble to the 2000 Code of the Laws of Cricket. Famous cricket personalities share their own experiences on the Spirit Of Cricket.
Colin Cowdrey
At the start of his career the England batting was fragile and Cowdrey never forgot that his wicket was too important to throw away, sometimes treating bowlers too cautiously for a man of his great talents, John Arlott commenting "Cowdrey could sink into pits of uncertainty when the fire ceased to burn, allowing himself to be dominated by bowlers inferior to him in skill". Cowdrey himself thought that "the proudest thing in my career was that I kept surviving", playing Lindwall and Miller at 21 and Lillee and Thomson at 41, still able to move immaculately into line even though he hadn't played for months. His quick reflexes also made him an outstanding slip, whose 120 catches was a Test record for a fielder. In his youth, Cowdrey was a useful leg-spinner at club level, but only took 63 first-class wickets at a cost of 51.21 apiece. He claimed if Alan Knott hadn't misread a googly he would have picked up a Test wicket, though his son Chris wrote "I can't see Knotty losing sleep over that one". In Cowdrey's last Test at Melbourne the fans famously hung out a banner 'M.C.G. FANS THANK COLIN – 6 TOURS', with Cowdrey "wearing a large straw sun-hat ... signing endless autographs, posing for photographs and exchanging friendly talk with young and old in the way that has made him as popular a cricketer as has ever visited Australia".