Obituaries in 1992

ARCHER, DAVID MYRTON, who died on October 24, 1992 in hospital in Barbados after a short illness, aged 61, was the most experienced umpire in the West Indies. Unusually, he had the advantage of having played first-class cricket: he represented the Windward Islands in the Shell Shield Tournament in 1966-67. Archer was born in Barbados where he once produced an outstanding performance in club cricket, taking 17 wickets in a day, including all ten in an innings. He made his début as a Test umpire in the Bridgetown Test against England in 1980-81 and stood in 28 Tests in all, his last being West Indies' inaugural match against South Africa in April 1992. In 1982 he umpired in ten matches in England and he was chosen as the West Indian representative in the 1987-88 World Cup when the idea of independent umpires received its first major trial. He had a well-deserved reputation as an excellent decision-maker; however, like other West Indian umpires of the period he was content to let the players dictate what constituted fair play in the broadest sense. Archer was also a publican who ran the Umpire's Inn in Barbados, which was popular with cricketers and many others.

BAKER, EDWARD STANLEY, who died at Great Dunmow, Essex, on March 15, 1992, aged 81, was an amateur wicket-keeper who played in 32 matches for Worcestershire in 1933 and 1934. In 1934, he played virtually all season, the idea being to relieve Bernard Quaife from his duties behind the stumps so he could concentrate on his batting. In all Baker had 40 dismissals, five of which were stumpings.

BANERJEE, SUDANGSU ABINASH, who died on September 14, 1992, aged 72, after a long illness, was the first Bengali player to represent India in Test cricket, five weeks before his namesake S. N. Banerjee. He was a right-arm medium-paced line-and-length bowler who played in the Third Test of the 1948-49 series against John Goddard's West Indians in Calcutta, when he opened the bowling, dismissed Denis Atkinson with his fifth ball and finished with first-innings figures of four for 120. He also held three catches and was evidently unlucky not to be picked again. Montu Banerjee was born in Calcutta, and played for Bengal, Bihar and Maharashtra in the Ranji Trophy. He took 92 first-class wickets, at an average of 23.28.

BICK, DONALD ALBERT, who died from a heart attack at Ware in Hertfordshire, on January 13, 1992, aged 55, was on the Middlesex staff from 1954 to 1967, where he was happy to stay as Fred Titmus's off-spinning understudy. Almost any other county would have been glad to give a player of his ability regular first-team cricket but he was not an ambitious man and preferred his family and his garden to the possibility of advancement. Early on, there were hopes that he might develop into a genuine batsman but, although he looked sound enough, he could not resist the temptation to attack too soon. In the end he had to settle for a place in the bottom half of the order and he never scored more than the entertaining 85 he made for Colonel L. C. Stevens's XI against Cambridge University at Eastbourne in 1960. His bowling was always steady, but he never developed the spin and guile that might have disturbed the best players. He twice returned figures of five for 22: against Yorkshire at Scarborough in 1959 and in 1965 against the University at Cambridge. That year Bick won a regular place at last, took 61 wickets and was awarded his cap. In all he made 2,221 runs in 147 matches, averaging 13.96, and took 234 wickets at 27.70. He held 35 catches. On leaving Lord's he played for Hertfordshire (1968-74) and, for a number of years, was coach at the City of London School. He was an easy-going, humorous man, remembered by team-mates for the difficulty he found in saying an unkind word about anyone, no matter what the provocation.

BOWLEY, HERRICK BROWETT, who died in December 1991, aged 80, was born at Kirby Muxloe. He played in 13 matches for Leicestershire as a leg-spinner--11 of them in an extended trial in 1937. He had a minor triumph against Hampshire at Leicester with four for 17 in 13.2 overs, but he was never again able to approach that sort of form. His 17 wickets cost 54.05 each. His elder brother Fred also played for the county.

BUSE, HERBERT FRANCIS THOMAS, the Somerset all-rounder, died in hospital in Bath on February 23, 1992, aged 81. Bertie Buse played in 304 first-class matches between 1929 and 1953. He will be best remembered for the disaster that attended his benefit match at Bath in 1953, which was the last but one first-class match in England to be completed in a day. Somerset were bowled out for 55 and 79 and lost to Lancashire by an innings and 24; Buse helped cause his own misfortune by taking six for 41.

In Somerset Buse will be recalled with enormous affection for his deeds in the preceding seasons when equally heavy defeats were not unknown, though they were rarely quite so spectacular. A right-hand bat with an obdurate defence, he was in his element shoring up his side's innings when it was threatening to disintegrate. His main scoring stroke was a curious and very personal dab/ cut which somehow escaped the clutches of the slips and flew off in the direction of third man. He also bowled right-arm at medium pace or a little above and was much more formidable than his neat, fastidious run-up suggested. At the last moment before delivery he would spring into life and send down a late, waspish out-swinger or, as an occasional surprise, an in-swinger. John Arlott likened his approach to that of a butler bringing in the tea, though Buse never took too kindly to this. He did took rather prim on the field, but he was a steely competitor who delighted in tormenting high-class batsmen.

Buse was born in Bristol, but moved to Bath and was working in a solicitor's office there when he made his first-class début as an 18-year-old. Sharing the new ball against Surrey at The Oval with Arthur Wellard, he rose to the occasion with an opening spell of 6-1-22-0 against Hobbs and Sandham and played two determined innings. Thereafter he was given few chances of making an impression until 1938 when he contributed 1,067 runs and 61 wickets and took more catches than anyone except Luckes, the wicket-keeper. His figures were even better in 1939, when he took eight for 41 against Derbyshire. And he quickly rediscovered his touch after the war. He helped Bill Andrews bowl out the 1946 Indian touring team for 64 immediately after they had made 533 for three at Hove. In 1948 he had his best year with the bat, making 1,279 runs, more than any Somerset player except Gimblett. The following year he began the season by taking seven for 26 at Taunton in the second innings of Freddie Brown's first match as Northamptonshire captain when Brown's team, needing 64 to win, scraped home by two wickets.

Though he always looked inscrutable, he was much loved within the county and throughout the game. In all he made 10,623 runs, including seven hundreds, at an average of 22.69. He passed 1,000 runs in a season five times, captured 657 wickets at a cost of 28.77 and held 151 catches. He was a useful rugby full back and an accomplished performer at table tennis and billiards.

CHEGWYN, JOHN WILLIAM, MBE, who died on May 26, 1992, aged 83, was best known for his work spreading cricket to the small towns of rural Australia. He would take along a few stars, play the locals and hold informal coaching clinics. His policy was simple. On the field we give of our best, he would say, and off the field we accept your hospitality. Before that, Jack Chegwyn had made his name as a high-class middle-order batsman, but he was only able to play five matches for New South Wales in 1940-41 and 1941-42 before the war intervened. He made 375 first-class runs at an average of 46.87 and scored 103 against a South Australian attack including Clarrie Grimmett. He was appointed MBE for his services to cricket and was a New South Wales selector for a quarter of a century.

CORDNER, LAURENCE OSMASTON, died on July 11, 1992 at Penshurst, Victoria, at the age of 81. Larry Cordner was a leg-break and googly bowler and lower-order batsman who played in three first-class matches for Victoria in the early 1930s. Against the West Indians in 1930-31 he took three wickets for 154, including those of Roach and Headley. Batting No. 10 in the second innings, he made 30 not out, helping his side to a draw when they had nine wickets down.

CORNELIUS, JUDGE ALVIN ROBERTS, who died in Lahore on December 21, 1991, aged 88, was a founding father of Pakistan cricket. He was a founder member of the Cricket Board of Pakistan and served as vice-president from 1948 to 1953, playing a major role in the negotiations that led to his country being accepted as a full member of the Imperial Cricket Conference in 1952. He formed the Eaglets Society to foster young players, pending a proper structure for first-class cricket in Pakistan, and was honoured with life membership of MCC. He was a former chief justice of Pakistan.

DARLING, LEONARD STUART, the Australian left-handed batsman who played in 12 Test matches between the wars, died at Adelaide on June 24, 1992, aged 82. Len Darling was athletically built and a graceful, dashing player with a fine array of attacking strokes which he used to good effect in the Sheffield Shield for Victoria from 1931-32 to 1936-37. He had few chances to show what he could do at Test level, but looked the part more than once before his sudden retirement at the end of 1936-37.

Darling, who was born at South Yarra in Victoria, played in his first senior match as a 17-year-old in 1926-27, but had to wait until 1928-29 before making his début in the Shield at Sydney in an amazing match. Victoria fought off defeat after New South Wales had declared at 713 for six, leaving Bradman 340 not out. Victoria inevitably followed on but, helped by 96 from Darling, gained an honourable draw. That season he hit 87 at Melbourne against an MCC team containing Larwood, Tate, Freeman and Geary in their attack. He made no showing again until 1931-32 when he made his maiden hundred and averaged 48.88 in the Shield. Next year he came right to the fore, averaging 69.14 in state matches with three hundreds, and was brought in to bolster Australia's beleaguered Test team for the last two Tests of the Bodyline series at Brisbane and Sydney. At Brisbane he was run out for 39 in the second innings; and at Sydney his attacking 85 was top score in a total of 435. Many thought he was less bothered by the onslaught of Larwood and company than anyone else except Stan McCabe. In 1933-34 he made his highest score, 188 against Queensland, and his 93 at Sydney in the final Shield match of the season enabled Victoria to draw and thus take the trophy by a single point.

In England in 1934 the other batsmen were dwarfed by Bradman and Ponsford. Darling played in the first four Tests, but achieved little, and Wisden commented on his tendency to flick at balls moving away. In other matches he played some delightful innings and made 1,022 runs on the tour at 34.06. Back at home in 1934-35, he was in brilliant form, hitting three hundreds in successive matches, and was an automatic choice for the 1935-36 tour of South Africa. There he had a much better series and averaged 45.80. Against England in 1936-37, Australia experimented with several young batsman and Darling was only included for the famous New Year Test at Melbourne; in front of a 65,000 crowd he held two brilliant catches to dispose Hammond and Leyland. At the end of the season, when he was only 27, he suddenly retired and moved to Adelaide; it was believed that marriage played an important part in his decision. He eventually became sales manager of the Adelaide Quarrying Company. In 100 first-class matches he made 5,780 runs for an average of 42.50, which included 16 hundreds. His total in 12 Tests was 474 runs at 27.88. He was a superb fielder in any position and a moderate right-arm medium-pace bowler, whose 32 first-class wickets cost exactly 47. If ever there has been a better team man than Darls, wrote Bill O'Reilly, I have not yet had the pleasure of meeting him.

DAVIES, JACK GALE WILMOT, OBE, who died at Cambridge on November 5, 1992, aged 81, was a remarkable man who achieved many distinctions both within cricket and outside it. He had many of the Renaissance Man qualities of C. B. Fry; but he was a shy person and often those who knew him well in one field were quite unaware of his achievements elsewhere. Perhaps his greatest cricketing feat was to cause the dismissals of both Hutton and Bradman for ducks in one week when playing for Cambridge University in May 1934. Against Yorkshire he ran out the young Hutton, who was making his first-class début and had pushed a ball to cover expecting to score his first run. The significance of this only became apparent with the years. But six days later he caused a sensation by clean bowling Bradman for his first-ever nought in England with a ball that went straight on and hit off stump. A large crowd at Fenner's was not entirely pleased with Davies.

The rest of his playing career, though a little anticlimactic, was still very successful, but conducted in old-fashioned amateur way. He was a stylish and dashing right-hand batsman, mostly in the middle order (though he had a notably successful period as an opener for Kent in 1946), a slow off-break bowler capable of running through an innings and a brilliant cover point. He had an outstanding school career at Tonbridge both inside and outside the classroom. He was a member of the cricket XI for four years, and captain in 1930, when he took 30 wickets and made 780 runs at 45.88; Wisden said he was rather too careless to be really brilliant.

Davies won a Classical Scholarship to St John's College, Cambridge and was all set for a Blue in 1931, but he sprained his ankle before the Lord's match and was forced to drop out. His place went to A. T. Ratcliffe, who scored 201. Davies played little in 1932 but finally earned recognition a year later, due to some steady bowling, and in 1934 he began to fulfil his batting promise with an outstanding 133 against Surrey at The Oval soon after his acts of lèse majesté at Fenner's. Davies then took eight wickets in the University match, including five for 43 in the first innings, which might have given Cambridge victory except that his captian, J. H. Human, did not bring him on until he had tried six other bowlers and the score was 318 for three. He also found time to take a first-class honours degree in classics - an unusual achievement for a cricket Blue, especially in that era - play rugby for Blackheath and Kent and win the Syriax Cup, the rugby fives singles championship, three times.

He played occasional matches for Kent before the war, taking seven for 20 against Essex at Tunbridge Wells in 1936, and getting the side out of trouble with 89 against Leicestershire on the same ground a year later. In 1946 he played regularly, was promoted to open, scored three centuries, including 168 at Worcester when he carried the team to victory, and made 1,246 runs, though he was a colonel at the time and had important War Office duties. He maintained his form well until he finally gave up in 1951; he played his final first-class match when he was almost 50, for MCC in 1961 against, appropriately, Cambridge. In 153 matches he scored 5,982 runs, averaging 23.92, and took 258 wickets at 30.41.

In 1939 Davies took a degree at the National Institute of Industrial Psychology and he became Chief Psychologyist, Directorate for the Selection of Personnel, at the War Office. He later served at the United Nations. In 1952 he was appointed Secretary of the Cambridge University Appointments Board, and thereafter he became a father figure to generations of Cambridge cricketers. He was elected Treasurer of the Cambridge Cricket Club in 1958 and for many years Davies and the groundsman Cyril Coote were the embodiment of the continuing traditions of Cambridge cricket. He was also Treasurer (1976-80) and President (1985-86) of MCC and was made an Honorary Vice-President in 1988. From 1969 to 1976 he was an executive director of the Bank of England. As late as 1990, he reported a couple of cricket matches from Fenner's for the Daily Telegraph. The sharpness of his mind was obvious to anyone who worked with him in committee, whatever the subject. His engaging laugh prevented his intelligence becoming too intimidating.

DESHON, MAJOR DAVID PETER TOWER, who collapsed and died at Heathrow Airport on January 18, 1992, aged 68, was a cricketer who might have gone far in the first-class game if he had been able to give the time to it. He was a right-handed batsman with a keen eye and quick footwork. At Sherborne School he made 1,570 runs from 1939 to 1941 for an average of 52.33 and he handsomely confirmed his ability in 1941 with a brilliant hundred before lunch at Lord's for South Public Schools against North Public Schools. He dominated a partnership of 173 for the second wicket with Trevor Bailey, who made 63. Deshon captained The Army after the war and played four matches for Somerset between 1947 and 1953 without being able to repeat such form.

DINES, WILLIAM JAMES, who died at Gidea Park, Essex on June 16, 1992, at the age of 75, played as a professional in 20 matches for Essex between 1947 and 1949. He was engaged primarily as a right-arm medium-paced bowler, and in his first Championship match - against Northamptonshire at Ilford in May 1947- took two wickets in his second over and dismissed Jack Timms soon afterwards. He never again found wickets so easy to come by, but he held on to his place until July by playing a number of important late-order innings. His 15 first-class wickets cost 65.33 each; he made 431 runs at an average of 18.73.

DITCHFIELD, WILLIAM GEORGE, who died at Dunedin, New Zealand, on March 21, 1991, aged 87, was Otago's oldest surviving first-class cricketer. A right-hand opening bat and right-arm medium-pace bowler, he played a single game against Wellington at Carisbrook in 1933-34, not without distinction. He scored 55 and shared an opening stand of 94 with V. G. Cavanagh to help set up a 199-run victory.

DOS SANTOS, SIR ERROL LIONEL, who died in November 1992, at the age of 102, was an influential administrator both in the pre-independence Trinidadian government and in West Indian cricket. He was President of the West Indies Cricket Board of Control from 1954 to 1970 and was particularly involved in the development of Queen's Park Oval in Port-of-Spain into a major arena. He was also instrumental in manoeuvring John Goddard into the captaincy for both the 1950 and 1957 tours of England, ahead of Sir Errol's fellow Trinidadian Jeff Stollmeyer. He was appointed CBE in 1939 and received a knighthood in 1946. A fervent Anglophile, he later moved to England.

EDGAR, ARTHUR JOHN, died on April 21, 1992, aged 67. A right-hand batsman and wicket-keeper, he kept for Wellington in three first-class matches in 1955-56, while T. G. MacMahon was on tour in India and Pakistan. His son Bruce played 39 Tests for New Zealand.

ELLIS, PERCY ARTHUR, who died on April 25, 1992, aged 85, at Lilydale, Victoria, played in three first-class matches for his state in 1930-31 as a batsman. He hit 59 against Tasmania at Hobart, following this with 47 as an opener for a weakened team against the West Indian tourists at Melbourne. His total of 149 runs came at an average of 29.80.

EVEREST, JAMES KERSE, who died in Hamilton on September 28, 1992, aged 74, was a left-handed opening batsman whose first-class career was stunted because Northern Districts were not admitted into the Plunket Shield until 1956. He made 69 in their first game against Auckland and 104 in the fourth against Canterbury. He was named as Batsman of the Year by the 1957 New Zealand Cricket Almanack. By this time he was 39. In his three first-class seasons he made 809 runs for an average of 36.77, figures which helped to support earlier complaints that his ability and powers of concentration should have won him consideration for a Test place long before. In a Hawke Cup match for Waikato he hit 264 in 485 minutes against Manawatu, a competition record.

FELL, DESMOND ROBERT, who died on January 22, 1992, aged 79, was a left-handed opening batsman who played 38 times for Natal between 1931-32 and 1949-50 and was considered unlucky by some not to have been chosen for the South African tour of England in 1947. He played one match in England, for the Dominions team led by Learie Constantine against England at Lord's in 1945, which was described by Wisden as one of the finest games ever seen. Fell made 12 and 28. In his career, he made 1,958 first-class runs at 31.58 and scored five centuries. He later became an umpire and stood in the Test between South Africa and New Zealand at Durban in 1961-62.

FERNANDES, JUDE, Saurashtra's former Ranji Trophy player, died on September 22, 1992 at Rajkot after a long illness, aged 44. A right-arm medium-pace bowler, he made his first-class début in 1969-70. In a total of 23 matches he captured 56 wickets. His best performance was against Gujarat when he took five for 48.

FIDDLING, KENNETH, who died in the Royal Halifax Infirmary on June 19, 1992, aged 74, was a wicket-keeper who left Yorkshire to get a first-team place at Northamptonshire. Ken Fiddling was an important member of the team which rose dramatically from the foot of the table under Freddie Brown. He was born at Hebden Bridge and progressed to senior cricket via Todmorden and the Yorkshire Colts. He played in his first match for Yorkshire against Scotland at Harrogate in August 1938, as deputy for Arthur Wood, who was himself deputising for the injured Leslie Ames in Huttons's match at The Oval. Next year he made his Championship début against Derbyshire at Sheffield in memorable cicumstances when Smailes and the unknown Smurthwaite skittled out the opposition for 20. In 1946, P. A. Gibb was regarded as the first-choice keeper with the ageing Wood and Fiddling as his understudies. J. H. Nash, the Yorkshire secretary, thought Fiddling was brilliant but inconsistent, not a combination much appreciated in Yorkshire at the time. So in 1947 he moved to Northampton. Herbert Strudwick watched him and said he was the best wicket-keeper in England. He was keeping to an interesting and varied attack, which included Brown's own leg-breaks, and in 1951 he had 59 victims. After that, Fiddling began to be affected by ill health and injury. He missed much of 1952 through appendicitis, and a stress fracture forced him out of the game in 1953. He received a testimonial of £2,028. His batting, at No. 10 or 11, was mainly defensive; he passed fifty just once and scored 1,380 runs at 11.69. In 160 matches, 18 for Yorkshire, the rest for Northamptonshire, he made 302 dismissals, 76 of them stumpings. After retiring he went back to Yorkshire and played in the Bradford League.

FUSSELL, BASIL JOHN, was killed in a road accident on October 13, 1991, aged 55. Fussell was a right-handed batsman who was picked to play for Transvaal in a friendly against Border in 1957-58 and was out for nought in both innings. He did not play another first-class match for six seasons, until he played twice for Transvaal B. In the second game, he spectacularly redeemed his earlier failure by scoring 115 in 144 minutes against Orange Free State.

GHOSH, A. N., who died in Calcutta on November 25, 1991, aged 93, was a former President of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI). He also served as President and Treasurer of the Cricket Association of Bengal. He was made an honorary life member of MCC.

GRAY, ROGER IBBOTSON, QC, who died in October 1992, aged 71, was a lower-order right-hand bat and a right-arm medium-pace bowler. He appeared in one first-class match for Oxford University against the Free Foresters in 1947. He scored nought and 11 and took no wicket for 57 in the match. He was President of the Oxford Union and was later a Deputy High Court Judge.

GREENSTOCK, JOHN WILFRID, who died in hospital on February 2, 1992, aged 86, was an orthodox slow left-arm bowler who, without doing anything exceptional at Malvern, nevertheless went on to win a Blue at Oxford in 1925, 1926 and 1927. He also played 13 matches for Worcestershire, his father's county. He began with the reputation of being a fine fielder, and soon began to show a slow bowler's temperament by working patiently for his wickets. He was no great spinner of the ball, but was accurate and could flight it subtly. His best figures were five for 36 against The Army at Oxford in 1926. That same year at Lord's he frustrated Cambridge with five for 77 when they were trying to force the pace in the second innings. Greenstock took 139 wickets (113 for the University) at 26.34 and made 507 runs for an average of 9.38.

GRIEVES, KENNETH JOHN, died suddenly at his home in Rawtenstall on January 3, 1992, aged 66. For many years after the war Ken Grieves represented to English cricket followers the epitome of the Australian professional, ferociously hard on the field, delightfully charming off it. He played 452 matches for Lancashire between 1949 and 1964, scoring runs, taking wickets and - above all - snapping up close-to-the-wicket catches. Unusually for an Australian, he also played soccer and made 147 Football League appearances as a goalkeeper for Bury, Bolton and Stockport. Grieves was brought up in Sydney and stepped into the New South Wales team when first-class cricket was resumed in Australia on a non-competitive basis in 1945-46. He made a lively hundred against the Australian Services. However, he was less successful the following year when the Sheffield Shield resumed and in 1947 he accepted an offer to play for Rawtenstall in the Lancashire League. The club had been hoping to sign Keith Miller instead. Two years later Lancashire signed Grieves and he was an immediate success. He made 128 and took five for 64 against the New Zealanders at Old Trafford and it looked as though he might achieve the double. However, the captain, Nigel Howard, like some of his successors, appeared to undervalue and underuse Grieves's leg-spin, and he finished with 1,407 runs and 63 wickets. In the wetter summers that followed 1949, his fallibilities began to be exposed. He was no stylist, preferring the cut and pull to anything else, and attacking in general to defence. He still managed to pass 1,000 runs in all but two of his 15 seasons. His bowling was comparatively neglected but he more than made up for this with his close fielding on either side of the wicket, though Lancashire followers of the period recollect most the leg-trap he formed with Jack Ikin and Geoff Edrich when Roy Tattersall was bowling.

He took a record 555 catches for the county, 205 in the four seasons 1950 to 1953, 63 in the 1950 season alone, eight in a match against Sussex in 1951. In the hot summer of 1959 he achieved new batting heights: 2,253 runs, an unbeaten 202 against the Indians at Blackpool and an important innings of exactly 100 at The Oval that helped prevent Surrey winning an eighth consecutive Championship. He passed 1,500 runs again in 1961 but retired and went into business in 1962 when Lancashire, beginning a long period of decline and turmoil, turned to the club cricketer Joe Blackledge as their captain. This anachronistic move was not a success and Grieves came back to lead the side in 1963. Initially, there were signs of improvement but in 1964 the team went backwards again with dissent inside the team and growing anger amongst the members. Lancashire announced that they intended to build a new team who would pay a proper respect to the captain. Grieves was blamed, sacked as captain and went back to the leagues. He later returned to Old Trafford, served on the committee for 13 years and was elected a vice-president in December 1991. In his full career he compiled 22,454 runs at an average of 33.66, a total boosted by a successful tour of India and Ceylon in 1950-51 with Leslie Ames's Commonwealth Team, hit 29 centuries, held 608 catches and took 242 wickets at a cost of 29.78. His former team-mate Alan Wharton paid tribute to his loyalty, true sporting instincts and a sense of fun which never deserted him, even when the going was roughest.

HAINSWORTH, Dr SIDNEY BEETHAM, CBE, who died at Hull on October 24, 1992, aged 93, was chairman of J. H. Fenner & Co, which he transformed into a multi-national group, and a cricket enthusiast who promoted the Fenner Trophy at the Scarborough Festival. He was the prime mover in the erection of the Sutcliffe Memorial Gates at Headingley.

HARBORD, WILLIAM EDWARD, who died at Harrogate on July 28, 1992, aged 83, was the second-last player born outside Yorkshire to play for the county before the club removed its barriers for the 1992 season. Between Harbord's last game in 1935 and Sachin Tendulkar's first appearance 57 years later, there was only W. G. Keighley (1947-51), who was born in Nice. Harbord was born in Rutland, and played 16 games as an amateur between 1929 and 1935. He was educated at Eton and Oxford, where he failed to win a Blue though he made a century in The Parks playing for Yorkshire in 1930. He did not match this form again. However, he was chosen for MCC's tour to the West Indies in 1934-35 under R. E. S. Wyatt. Although this team, like others to the newly-fledged Test-playing countries at the time, was nowhere near full England strength, this remains a mysterious selection. He left the tour in the middle to go on a private trip to Miami, returning in time to escort Wyatt to hospital when his jaw was broken by Martindale in the opening over of England's innings in the fourth and final Test at Kingston. He was employed as twelfth man in the first two Tests and in four matches on tour made 81 runs. Harbord made 512 first-class runs for an average of 18.28; his change bowling was hardly used. He later became chairman of John Smith's Brewery and served for more than 20 years on the Yorkshire committee.

HARTLAND, IAN ROBERT, who died of cancer in Christchurch, New Zealand, in March 1992, aged 52, played as an opening batsman and right-arm medium-pace bowler for Canterbury in 16 matches from 1960-61 to 1965-66. Representing New Zealand Colts in 1960-61 against a young MCC team (almost all of whom became Test players) he hit 62. His most successful season was 1964-65, when he averaged 37.00 and played a major part in Canterbury winning the Plunket Shield. He lost form the following season and did not play again. He finished with 613 career runs at 24.52. Hartland lived to see his son, Blair, open the innings for New Zealand against England on his Test debut at Christchurch in January 1992.

HAYGARTH, NIGEL, who died on August 31, 1992, aged 60, was a devoted servant of the Cricket Society for 41 years, as a player for 30 of those years and an administrator for 20. He was elected to the executive committee in 1971 and became chairman in 1983, resigning only when he became seriously ill. He was in the Uppingham XI as a boy, heading the bowling averages in 1950 with 15 wickets at 12.86 and making useful runs.

HAYHURST, ALBERT, who died at Reading on November 8, 1991, aged 86, played in seven first-class matches as a professional for Warwickshire in 1934 and 1935. He was a right-arm fast-medium bowler and lower-order batsman. He played for Buckinghamshire from 1948 to 1953 and for Luton Town and Reading at centre-half in the Football League.

HEATLEY, JOHN, died of cancer on December 8, 1991, aged 56. He was elected to the Nottinghamshire Committee in 1967 when only 32 and gave unbroken service until 1989. He became the youngest chairman in the club's history in 1978, serving for five years. Heatley was a great enthusiast and moderniser who played a major role in the revamping of the county team and ground in the late 1970s and in bringing Phil Carling to Trent Bridge in 1978 with the then novel title of chief executive. He thus helped pioneer the modern pattern of cricket administration. He was well-known locally for his deeds as opening batsman and wicket-keeper for Radcliffe-on-Trent.

HOWA, HASSAN, the South African cricket administrator, died in Cape town on February 12, 1992, aged 69. Hassan Howa came from a mixture of Indian, Turkish and Scottish stock that ought to have defeated even the South African government. It led to him being classified as "coloured" and forcibly removed from the centre of Cape Town to a distant suburb when the Coloured area, District Six, was demolished. For many years, he led the opposition to sporting apartheid in general and the South African cricket establishment in particular. He was president of the Western Province Cricket Board, the South African Cricket Board and the highly politicised umbrella organisation, the South African Council on Sport (SACOS), which developed the policy of No Normal sport in An Abnormal Society. When the whites-only South African Cricket Association began talking to Howa's organisation in 1977 he withdrew from an agreement when, he said, it became clear he was required to act as a front man while the whites carried on more or less as before.

His enemies, and there were plenty, said personal vanity was more of a factor. Ten years later, when he resumed talks with the head of white-led cricket, Ali Bacher, he was ousted as president of the Western Province Board and SACOS by militants. In his last few years, when he was suffering regular heart attacks and operated mainly from his armchair, he was regarded as a compromiser by left-wingers and as inflexible and outdated by the figures close to the African National Congress who helped South Africa resume its place in world cricket. He withheld his blessing from the new United Cricket Board, which he thought had been put together with indecent haste, and to the end refused to visit the ground at Newlands. He was an enthusiastic cricketer in his youth, but the politics inevitably overshadowed everything else later. He was courageous in the face of both injustice and illness and when the strife has passed into history he will be remembered with far more affection than venom.

INGLE, REGINALD ADDINGTON, who died on December 19, 1992, aged 89, was one of the many amateurs who appeared for Somerset between the wars. Unlike some, he justified his place and he went on to be captain from 1932 to 1937. Reggie Ingle came from a family of lawyers in Bath, was in the XI at Oundle from 1920 to 1922 and, even though he failed to get a Blue at Cambridge, became a Somerset player as a 19-year-old in 1923. He made a fifty in his first match, against Essex, but struggled after that until he made a hundred in each innings - 117 and 100 not out - against Middlesex in the opening game of 1928. He passed 1,000 runs both that year and again in 1932, his first season as captain. R. C. Robertson-Glasgow wrote that he needed to be angry to be at his best, in which case he could be "ripped from a pleasing suggestion of stylishness to the very suburbs of greatness". He was not often angry, however, and though he batted courageously against some of the fastest bowlers of his day, including McDonald and Larwood, never became a consistent run-getter.

His easy-going temperament helped make him, among the professionals, a popular captain and, at first, a successful one: Somerset finished seventh in 1932, their highest position since 1919. The team mostly did less well after that and Ingle eventually resigned the captaincy, or was manoeuvred out of it, amid some bitterness. He played a few games in 1938 and 1939 but he rarely returned to the ground thereafter. Ingle made 9,829 runs in his career at 18.75, with ten centuries. He held 129 catches

JUDGE, PETER FRANCIS, who died on March 4, 1992, aged 75, was a skilful fastish medium right-arm bowler who made a remarkable entry into first-class cricket as a 17-year-old in August 1933, only weeks after he had left St Paul's School. Middlesex gave him a game against Surrey at The Oval; he took five for 77 in 37 overs and four for 62, one of the best first-class debuts a bowler has ever had. In the next game, against Derbyshire at Lord's, he rapidly dismissed the first three batsmen and finished with an analysis of 20-10-27-5. Everything after that was an anticlimax. He only played a handful of matches the following year and then disappeared from the first-class game until 1939 when he became a professional for Glamorgan, taking 69 wickets, including eight for 75 against Yorkshire at Bradford. In the war, he was in the RAF and played some first-class cricket in India. He then returned to Glamorgan and continued to take useful wickets, including seven for 23 on a drying Cardiff pitch against Derbyshire, before injury forced him to retire in 1947. The previous season Judge had the bizarre experience of being dismissed for nought twice inside a minute. In the game against the Indians at Cardiff, he was bowled by C. T. Sarwate at the end of the first innings, at which point Glamorgan followed on. But with little time left, the captain Johnnie Clay decided to give the crowd some entertainment, so he waived the ten minutes between innings, and reversed his batting order. The batsmen then at the crease stayed out there and Sarwate bowled Judge again, first ball.

JULIEN, SHANE WILLAN, who took his own life in Barbados on January 25, 1992, aged 36, was a tall, powerful right-handed batsman and a useful medium-pace bowler. He was born in Grenada and came to England to study at Trent College, near Nottingham, where he had an outstanding season in 1974 with 546 runs (average 54.60) and 37 wickets at 9.56. In the 1980s he represented three different West Indian teams, Barbados in a one-day game, and his native Windward Islands and the Leeward Islands in the Shell Shield. He was also member of the West Indies B team which toured Zimbabwe in 1983-84.

KAY, EDWIN, JP, who died on March 4, 1991, aged 81, was once described by the Manchester Guardian as "the Herbert Sutcliffe of the Lancashire Leagues", made his debut for Middleton when he was 15, against the bowling of S. Barnes, and never lost his place until he retired 30 years later; he scored a century on every ground in the Central Lancashire League. For some years opened with his identical twin John, who batted capless; otherwise only the Middleton scorer could tell them apart. In 1959 Edwin succeeded John as secretary of the League and held the post for 31 years. He was asked to play for Worcestershire in the 1930s but declined after being told the pay was £3 10s a week. He was President of Lancashire in 1983 and 1984 and head printer of Manchester Evening News.

LACEY, DONALD P., who died in Kingston, Jamaica, on November 26, 1991, aged 89, was a member of the Jamaica Cricket Board from 1929 to 1977 and President from 1969. He was also Hon. Secretary/Treasurer of the West Indies Cricket Board from 1945 to 1954. In 1948-49 he managed the first and highly successful tour of India by a full West Indies team. He was an honorary life member of MCC.

LOMAX, JAMES GEOFFREY, the Lancashire and Somerset all-rounder, died at Taunton on May 21, 1992, aged 67. Geoff Lomax was a dependable and versatile cricketer. He left first-class cricket in 1962, the year before the start of the one-day game in which he would probably have excelled. He could bat anywhere in the order, bowl right-handed at medium-fast and catch reliably. Lomax was born at Rochdale and started with Lancashire in 1949, making steady progress, was capped in 1952 but unexpectedly released the following year. He moved to the more relaxed cricketing climate of Taunton and in 1954 made a courageous hundred (his only other one was in 1962) against Frank Tyson in spite of an elbow injury. In 1958 he reached 1,000 for the first time and took 50 inexpensive wickets. He dominated the game against Nottinghamshire at Weston-super-Mare, making 80 and 53 as an opener and bringing off the hat-trick. He made 1,298 runs in 1959. The full details of Lomax's career are: 8,672 runs at 19.70, 316 wickets at 34.09 each and 238 catches. But figures cannot illustrate all the in-filling he did and his unselfish response to whatever the situation demanded, or the fact that he was a real gentleman.

McMAHON, NORMAN, who died on December 21, 1991, aged 69, was a long-serving officer of the Queensland Cricket Association. He was Chairman from 1967 to 1987 and a life member. He came to England on the ill-starred tour of 1977 as assistant manager to Len Maddocks.

McNAMARA, LISLE ERNEST, who died on July 21, 1991, aged 73, was an all-rounder and change bowler who played regular Currie Cup cricket for Griqualand West between 1936-37 and 1950-51. The highlight of his 35-match career was 119 out of a total of only 207 against Natal at Kimberley in 1946-47. It was his only hundred, though he made 80 not out against the Australian touring team in 1949-50. He scored a total of 1,387 runs at 23.50 and took 30 wickets at 37.72. His son also played for the province.

MAHONEY, RICHARD, BEM, died at Ipswich, Queensland, on June 20, 1992, aged 68. Ric Mahoney was the Queensland state junior coach who guided such prominent players as Greg Ritchie and Craig McDermott along the road to success. McDermott warmly acknowledged the help and encouragement he received from him during his long lean spell. Although he was included in the state squad in the 1940s, Mahoney never played a first-class match.

MAPPLEBECK, WALTER OLIVER, who died at Wellington, New Zealand, on April 27, 1992, aged 77, played in one first-class match for Canterbury in 1936-37 and three more in 1940-41 as a fast-medium right-arm bowler. He was not especially tall, but nevertheless generated real pace. He recalled, at his club's centennial celebration, a remark made to him by his captain Ian Cromb, after his first over at the top level: "This is a Plunket Shield match, not a Mothers' Union meeting!" Mapplebeck had the perfect reply, taking six for 43, five bowled. Four years later, he had another success with five for 59 against Wellington. In his four matches he captured 21 wickets at 21.76.

MARTIN, JOHN WESLEY, the New South Wales and Australian all-rounder, died from a heart attack on July 16, 1992, aged 60. He was one of the most popular post-war Australian first-class cricketers. Johnny Martin bowled left-arm googlies and hit hard and left-handed in the lower order. He played for New South Wales between 1956-57 and 1967-68, except for a single season (1958-59) when he tried his luck with South Australia. Soon after his debut he was chosen to go on a short non-Test tour to New Zealand, where he took six for 47 in the third representative match in Auckland. In 1957-58, supported by sympathetic captaincy, he made further progress with the ball, but exceeded all expectations as a batsman by thumping his way to a total of 414 runs in the Sheffield Shield for an average of 51.75, second only to Norman O'Neill. In 1959-60, he took 45 Shield wickets and the following year made the Test team against Frank Worrell's West Indians. He was twelfth man for the Tied Test at Brisbane and was then picked at Melbourne, where he scored an uninhibited 55 batting at No. 10 and removed Kanhai, Sobers and Worrell in four balls in the second innings. He found it difficult to scale such heights in Test cricket again, and his eight Tests were spread over five series, culminating in South Africa in 1966-67. He was picked for the tour to England in 1964 but the wickets were too low and slow for him.

Martin was a country boy, one of ten children whose father ran the post office and general store at Burrell Creek near the northern New South Wales coast. He practised and played endlessly on concrete wickets and eventually joined the Petersham club in Sydney, travelling the 300 miles every weekend for three years on the overnight train until he received the call to play for the state. He took 293 wickets for New South Wales, 17 in Tests and 445 in all at 31.17. He scored 3,970 runs, averaging 23.77. Though he was small, he could give the ball a tremendous clout and was reckoned to have hit more than 160 sixes for Petersham. He was known as "Little Fave" and indeed was everyone's favourite both because of his style of play and his general cheerfulness. He went back to Burrell Creek and took over his father's store.

MINSHULL-FOGG, JOHN, who died on July 30, 1992, aged 71, was a driving force behind the launch of the National Village Cricket Championship in 1972, the final of which has now become a regular and enjoyable part of the Lord's season. He wrote The Haig Book of Village Cricket, published in 1972. He continued his involvement and was a regular and valued contributor to both Wisden and the Daily Telegraph on village, school, youth and club cricket.

MORILD, JENS AKSIL, who died on November 5, 1991, aged 78, was the eldest of five Danish cricketing brothers. He scored more runs than any other Danish batsman in his era - 16,082 with 26 centuries - and played his last match when he was 75. This marked the 25th anniversary of the Danish Forty Club and his own 25 years as president.

MOTT-RADCLYFFE, Sir CHARLES EDWARD, who died in November 1992, aged 80, was an enthusiastic cricketer who turned out regularly for Eton Ramblers and the Free Foresters. He was MP for Windsor from 1942 to 1970 and captained the Lords and Commons XI from 1952 to 1970. His political career peaked with a period as a Conservative Party whip after the war. He always retained his zest for cricket.

NELSON, PETER JOHN MYTTON, who died at Canterbury on January 17, 1992, at the age of 73, was an amateur who played in two first-class matches in 1938 and 1946, batting left-handed and bowling left-arm fast-medium. He played for Northamptonshire against Cambridge in 1938 and had a useful match with scores of 32 and 20 not out. Eight years later, he appeared for Kent against his old county.

NIELSEN, KURT, who died in Aalborg, Denmark, on March 26, 1992, aged 78, founded the Dansk Cricket-Forbund, the Danish Cricket Association, in 1953, was President for 18 years and President-emeritus until his death. His leadership took Denmark to associate membership of ICC in 1966, and he was made an honorary life member of MCC.

O'DALY, GUY NOLAN, who died on September 29, 1991, aged 83, was a right-arm fast-medium bowler. In his only first-class match, for Glamorgan against Cambridge University at Swansea in June 1938, he was out for nine, then broke down after sending down seven overs for 17 runs without taking a wicket. He took no further part in the match. He was sometimes known as Guy Daly.

OLIVER, JOHN ARCHIBALD RALPH, who died on February 24, 1992, aged 73, played in 152 matches for Bedfordshire from 1935 to 1961 and in one first-class match in 1951 for the Minor Counties against Kent at Canterbury, when he made 84 not out. He also appeared several times for Northamptonshire in the non-Championship year of 1945. He was a stylish right-handed opening batsman and dual purpose bowler (medium pace and off-spin) who, like many gifted amateurs, found Minor County cricket exactly to his taste. Oliver made more than 6,000 runs for Bedfordshire and took 230 wickets. He was Chairman of the County Club for 19 years and served on the executive committee of the Minor Counties Cricket Association for more than 30. He also played county hockey and soccer for the Corinthian Casuals.

PANDOVE, DHRUV MAHENDER, was killed in a car accident near New Delhi on January 31, 1992. He was an attractive left-handed batsman, full of promise, and at 18 was already being tipped for Test honours. The Indian team observed, two minutes' silence for him before the start of play during the Fifth Test match against Australia in Perth. In November 1987, aged only 13, he made 94 for Punjab against Himachal Pradesh on his debut in the Ranji Trophy - an astonishing achievement - and a year later he hit 137 against Jammu and Kashmir in his third first-class match. He became the youngest player ever to have reached 1,000 runs in the Ranji Trophy when he scored 170, his second century, against Services a few weeks before his death. His father, M. P. Pandove, was formerly captain of Punjab and is now secretary of the Punjab Cricket Association.

PAYN, LESLIE WILLIAM, who died on May 2, 1992, at Scottburgh, Natal, aged 76, was an all-rounder who played for Natal from 1936-37 to 1952-53 as a hard-hitting right-handed bat and slow-medium left-arm bowler. In his first season at senior level, he took eight for 89 on debut against Orange Free State. That season he also made 103 against Transvaal and in doing so helped Dudley Nourse in a seventh-wicket partnership of 240. In 1946-47 he had match figures of seven for 64 in 63.2 overs against Orange Free State, which helped him win him a place on the 1947 tour of England. But he was unsuccessful on tour and though he twice did well against MCC in 1948-49, he never made the Test team. In 51 first-class matches Payn made 657 runs at an average of 14.28 and took 151 wickets at a cost of 25.78. He later became a hard-working organiser of cricket, especially in country areas, and took touring sides to Britain and South America.

PERKINS, ARTHUR LIONEL BERTIE, died on May 6, 1992 in Durban, South Africa, aged 86. Bertie Perkins played in six matches for Glamorgan between 1925 and 1933 as a right-handed amateur batsman. His highest score of 26 not out was made on his first-class debut against H. D. G. Leveson Gower's XI at Swansea.

PITCHFORD, LEONARD, who died on May 10, 1992 in a nursing home at Clydach, South Wales, aged 91, was a right-handed batsman who played in two matches for Glamorgan in 1935 as a professional. He scored heavily for Monmouthshire in the Minor Counties championship, making 247 not out against Dorset at Abercarn in 1933, and in 1935 he hit 226 for Glamorgan Second XI against Berkshire, averaging 70.71 for the season.

POORE, EDWARD, who died after being bitten by a rat at Haifa, Israel, on June 29, 1991, aged 42, was a popular and eccentric spectator on the grounds of the county circuit. He spent his time at English cricket grounds when he was not roaming the world's trouble-spots. When he died, he was helping to run a hostel in the Arab quarter of Jerusalem. His ponytail and frequently bare feet successfully disguised the fact that he went to Harrow and was a great-nephew of Brigadier General R. M. Poore, who once scored 304 for Hampshire.

REES-DAVIES, WILLIAM RUPERT, QC, who died in January 1992, aged 75, was the outstanding public school bowler in 1935 and the fastest seen at Eton since G. O. B. Allen. He took 34 wickets at 14.73, reserving his best form for the big occasions. In two games against Harrow and Winchester he had 14 victims and added a further 15 with impressive performances in the representative matches at Lord's. After such high promise, a Blue at Cambridge in 1936 seemed to be a certainty. But the burden of a reputation and the general air of expectancy undermined his confidence. He played seven matches but he was dogged by trouble with his inordinately long run-up. He did not turn out in 1937 and was fortunate to play at Lord's in 1938; Cambridge, with one of the weakest attacks for many years, had conceded a series of huge totals and he did not escape heavy punishment himself. In 15 first-class matches he captured 33 wickets at a cost of 43.42. His batting was negligible and he only managed 37 runs in 23 visits to the crease. Rees-Davies lost an arm in the war and afterwards was often in pain. He became a QC and was a Conservative MP for 30 years. He regularly proposed measures to liberalise gambling and thus became known in the House, with varying degrees of affection, as "the one-armed bandit".

RIMINGTON, STANLEY GARNET, who died on November 23, 1991, aged 99, made 91 in his only first-class appearance at Launceston in February 1922 for Victoria against Tasmania.

ROCHFORD, PETER, collapsed and died in a pub in Stroud on June 18, 1992, aged 63. He had been suffering from cancer. Rockford had a varied career in cricket in which his enthusiasm never matured into sustained success. In the 1950s he showed enormous promise as a wicket-keeper. He played for Yorkshire Second XI in 1950 and 1951, then moved to Gloucestershire where he made his first-class debut in 1952. By 1955 he had taken over from Andy Wilson as the regular keeper, even though he was not much of a batsman. He made 60 dismissals in both 1955 and 1956, when he helped the spinners, Sam Cook and "Bomber" Wells, take the county to third place. However, his career came to an abrupt close in 1957 following a clash with authority. He became a successful coach of young wicket-keepers, was a first-class umpire from 1975 to 1977, and wrote whenever he could for a variety of newspapers and cricket magazines. In his all too brief career he had 152 victims, 34 of them stumped.

SIMPSON, Col FRANK WILLIAM, DSO, OBE, died in August 1992, aged 83. He played in two first-class matches, as a right-handed opening batsman. In 1931 he captained The Army at Lord's against MCC, leading his side to victory by four wickets. In 1948 he scored 32 and 40 for Combined Services against Glamorgan at Pontypridd. He served with distinction in Normandy after the D-day landings.

SINGH, RAJA BHALENDRA, was born into Patiala's royal Sikh household on August 9, 1919 and died on April 16, 1992. He was the son of Bhupendra Singh, the legendary Maharaj of Patiala (who reportedly had 300 wives and concubines) and brother of the Yuvraj, Yadavendra Singh, who played in a Test match at Madras against England in 1933-34. Singh was given a trial in the Seniors' Match at Cambridge University in 1939, when his slow right-arm bowling produced a return of five for 40. On the strength of this he was included in the team against Northamptonshire. This was his only first-class match in England but in India he later played 12 matches for Southern Punjab and Patiala. A middle-order right-handed batsman, he made 392 runs for an average of 21.77, including 109 for Southern Punjab against Northern India at Patiala in 1943-44. He took 25 wickets at 27.00 apiece. He later became President of the Indian Olympic Association and was a member of the International Olympic Committee for 45 years.

SINGLETON, Sir EDWARD HENRY SIBBALD, died on September 6, 1992, aged 71. A right-handed all-rounder, "Tim" Singleton was a member of the Shrewsbury XI from 1937 to 1939, doing well enough to suggest that in normal circumstances he would have stood a good chance of a Blue. He did turn in some useful performances at Oxford in 1940, including six for 32 in the Freshmen's Trial and handy runs against an Anti-Aircraft XI. Singleton served as a pilot in the Fleet Air Arm from 1941 to 1945 and qualified as a solicitor in 1949. He was elected to the Council of the Law Society in 1961. In 1974 he became its youngest-ever President and, as was customary, received a knighthood the following year. Two of his brothers played for Worcestershire; his elder brother A.P. (Sandy) was captain in 1946.

SMITH, ARTHUR, who died on October 18, 1991, aged 79, sold scorecards and newspapers on Yorkshire grounds for more than 50 years. He was a much-loved institution at Headingley, where his gravelly voice shouting "Up-to-date scorecards" or "Green Final" was the inevitable background accompaniment to every great moment on the field.

SMITH, JOHN WESTWOOD ROWLEY, who died on December 12, 1991, aged 67, was a wicket-keeper and right-handed bat. Educated at Stoneygate and Repton, he played in two first-class matches for Leicestershire in 1950 and one in 1955. At Grace Road on his debut, he had the character-building experience of keeping through a West Indian innings of 682 for two declared (651 on the opening day). There were only 18 byes but not much passed the bat.

SNAPE, MAURICE DESMOND, died on April 17, 1992, aged 68. Desmond Snape was a right-hand batsman who played twice for Derbyshire in 1949 but failed to score a run or take a catch. He was left not out on nought against Sussex at Ilkeston and was then out for a pair against Warwickshire at Edgbaston.

SOMERVILLE, CHARLES ROSS, died in May 1992 in Ontario, aged 88. "Sandy" Somerville was a leading member of the Canadian team which carried out an 11-match tour of England during July and August 1922 - "a delightful holiday", Wisden called it - and made 92 against Free Foresters at The Oval, the highest score for the Canadians all tour. He was for many years the best amateur golfer in Canada and won the US Amateur Championship in 1932.

SPITTEL, MALCOLM, who died in 1992 in Australia, aged 76, played as an all-rounder for Ceylon. He captained his school, St Joseph's College, his club, the Nondescripts, and his country - against MCC in 1954-55. When Vijay Merchant took a side to Ceylon in 1945, Spittel scored a sparkling 124 against a top-class attack.

STEVENS, ROY GILBERT, who died on October 6, 1992, at the age of 59, was a left-handed batsman who played regularly for the Royal Navy. His one first-class match was for Combined Services against Ireland at Belfast in 1962. He was secretary of Somerset from 1975 to 1979 and of Sussex from 1980 to 1983. He cut a slightly old-fashioned figure at a time when clubs were starting to appoint marketing-oriented men rather than ex-officers as administrators.

SWAROOP KISHEN, who died on November 21, 1992, aged 62, was one of the best-known Indian Test umpires and undoubtedly the most distinctive. He was an exceptionally tubby man who looked like Alfred Hitchcock, chewed betel-nut and generally lent an air of jollity to some highly-charged cricket matches. He umpired in 17 Tests, equalling the Indian record held by B. Satyaji Rao, between 1978-79 and 1984-85, and acquired a reputation for exceptional fair-mindedness among touring players. This, however, was dissipated in his last Test, at Bombay in 1984-85, when, often after interminable pauses for thought, he gave out several England batsmen in bizarre circumstances. He had been a wicket-keeper at Delhi University and worked in the Auditor-General's office.

TOOMEY, FRANCIS JOACHIM, who had succeeded Bill Ditchfield (whose death is also recorded in this section) as Otago's oldest surviving first-class cricketer, died on March 14, 1992, aged 88. Frank Toomey was a wicket-keeper who played three games in 1934-35 and 1935-36. Standing up to the stumps, he got a badly cut eye against MCC in 1935-36 when Joe Hardstaff snicked a rising ball into his face. His replacement, G. H. Mills, went on to play 55 times.

TURK, KENNETH, who died on May 3, 1992, aged 67, was President of Hartley Wintney CC in north Hampshire and had played for the club for 40 years. He went out to bat at No. 11 for the club Second XI against Shepherd's Bush, hit a six, then collapsed on the field and died.

VAN ROSSEM, Capt. WILLEM, MVO, who died on December 9, 1991, aged 71, was the Netherlands' representative on the International Cricket Council from 1975 to 1988. He was President of the Flamingos and worked untiringly for the development of Dutch cricket. VAN TONDER, GIDEON JACOBUS, died on March 8, 1991, aged 84. Gielie van Tonder played two Currie Cup matches for Orange Free State in 1929-30, against Transvaal and Natal. He scored 0, 2, 0 and 0. He bowled against Natal and had figures of 14-1-64-0. He did not take a catch in either game. Free State lost them both, by an innings and 357 and an innings and 173.

VAN WEELDE, WALTER, died on November 20, 1992, aged 68. Wally van Weelde scored 13,920 runs and 27 centuries in Dutch cricket and was the outstanding batsman of his era. He had a reputation as the Dutch Denis Compton: for his prodigious scoring, his apparent insouciance and his zest for life. He played for the Netherlands 32 times and was part of the team that beat the Australians in 1964. He and his son Rob both captained the country and several other members of the family have been prominent in Dutch cricket.

WELLINGS, EVELYN MAITLAND, died in hospital at Basingstoke on September 10, 1992, aged 83, his ashes by his own request being cast into the Channel. E. M. ("Lyn") Wellings was cricket correspondent of the now-defunct London Evening News from 1938 to 1973 and was one of the most idiosyncratic of all writers on the game. He was a very good games player at school and university, and was successful both as a batsman and as a bowler of off-breaks and off-cutters. For Cheltenham against Haileybury at Lord's in 1927, he took seven for 113, bowling unchanged, and then carried his bat through his school's first innings for 44 not out, though Cheltenham still lost. At Oxford he won a golf Blue (he later reached the last 32 of the English Championship). He failed to make much impression as a cricketer in his first year at Oxford but won Blues in 1929 and 1931, taking five for 118 in the first innings of the Varsity match in 1929 and five for 25 in the second innings in 1931. He did not play in 1930 because of loss of form, according to the official history, though it was widely believed, in a year when Oxford was riven by factionalism, that he could not get on with the captain, P. G. T. Kingsley. This sort of falling-out was to be more of a pointer to his future than his successes on the field.

He played four matches for Surrey in 1931 and 36 first-class matches in all, making a century for H. D. G. Leveson Gower's XI against Cambridge in 1933 and finishing with 836 runs at 20.39 and 108 wickets at 30.14. More significantly, he took a job with the Daily Mirror and then moved to the Evening News and, as Ian Wooldridge put it, "dipped his pen in vitriol". Wellings reported more than 200 Tests with a trenchancy that has never been matched. He attacked inefficiency on or off the field in indignant terms. He hated one-day cricket, overseas players in county teams, South Africa's isolation, faulty technique and, in later years, everything to do with the Test and County Cricket Board. He was right more often than many people cared to admit but the tone of his argument was so forceful that it usually upset more people than it won over. From 1945 to 1972 he also wrote on Public Schools cricket for Wisden, which he did with a magisterial sweep that no one else can ever have brought to the subject.

He retired to Spain but returned to live in Hampshire and to write unmellowed articles for Wisden Cricket Monthly until shortly before his death. Personally, he was cantankerous and his temper became legendary amongst his colleagues. Once the telephonist who was supposed to send over his reports for successive editions of that day's Evening News failed to appear at The Oval, Wellings wrote his reports as usual but let them pile up on the desk and then posted them. A lesser journalist would have been fired instantly. A greater one would have behaved differently.

WESTERMAN, PETER, who played nine matches for Surrey in 1949 to 1951 as an amateur, died in March 1992, aged 71. He was a fastish right-arm bowler and a tail-end batsman. In his first match, against Gloucestershire at The Oval, he took five for 51 in 22 overs. A year later he had figures of five for 49 against Cambridge University, including the wicket of Peter May, bowled for one.

WICKSON, WILLIAM D., died aged 77 on April 15, 1992, only two days after becoming President of Surrey. He was a retired headmaster, who had been much involved with youth cricket and Corinthian Casuals FC.

WRIGHT, RONALD CHARLES BARTON, died on July 3, 1992, aged 89. "Roy" Wright was a left-handed batsman who played ten matches for Northamptonshire as an amateur between 1923 and 1931, scoring 160 runs with a highest score of 56 not out. His brother, A. J. B. Wright, also played for the county but they were not related to the three other Wrights who appeared for Northamptonshire between the wars.

YEATES, SIDNEY FERGUS MACRAE, who died on March 19, 1992, at Auchenflower, Brisbane, aged 79, played in three first-class matches for Queensland, all at Brisbane in 1933-34. Fergus Yeates was a leg-break and googly bowler. He only took six wickets at 60.16, but his three for 47 against South Australia helped Queensland to victory after a run of 12 defeats and a draw in 13 first-class matches.