Obituaries in 1978

AINSWORTH, LT.-CDR. MICHAEL LIONEL YEOWARD, died suddenly while playing cricket on August 28th, aged 56. Four seasons in the Shrewsbury XI and captain in 1941, he played with considerable success for Worcestershire from 1948 to 1950. In his first innings for the county he made 71 v Kent, a month or two later 43 and 48 v Yorkshire and in the return match, which followed immediately, 85 and 32, while he finished the season with 100 exactly v Warwickshire. This brought him out top of the county averages with 34.53. The next summer, playing throughout August, he made 60 and 69 not out v Hampshire, 72 v Middlesex and 96 v Kent, an innings surprisingly ended by his being bowled by Ames, but which had much to do with his side winning by an innings. One match in 1950 concluded his county career, but he continued for many years to play for the Navy and for the Free Foresters against the University. His two highest scores in first-class cricket were 106 for Free Foresters v Cambridge in 1958 and 137 in the same match the following year. A tall man, who made full use of his height, he was a fine front-of-the-wicket batsman and a particularly good off-driver. On retiring from the Navy, he joined the staff at Ludgrove School, Wokingham, under the former Yorkshire captain, A. T. Barber.

ANDERSON, CECIL A. (JACK) who was shot to death by assailants at his home in Kingston, Jamaica, on April 30, was one of the most experienced and respected of cricket writers in the West Indies. His untimely death two days after his 68th birthday caused shock throughout the Caribbean. The incident occurred shortly after he had returned home after watching the third day of the Test Match between West Indies and Australia at Sabina Park. For years his cricket commentaries written with common sense and a deep devotion to the game as a whole were widely read. He became a special contributor to the Daily Gleaner, Jamaica in 1933, worked his way up to a sub-editor and was then transferred to the Gleaner's sister newspaper, the Evening Star where he was City Editor at the time of his retirement in 1976. His writing appeared in several newspapers and magazines and, for years, he was West Indian correspondent for Wisden. He visited England on several West Indies tours.

BENNETT, CECIL TRISTRAM (TRIS) who died on February 3, aged 75, enjoyed a run of eight consecutive years in the Harrow and Cambridge XI's between 1917 and 1925 and finished as captain at both places. A split hand while playing against Sussex at Hove caused him to miss the University match of 1924. He never really lived up to his youthful promise as a batsman and in 85 innings in first-class cricket - he also played for Surrey and Middlesex- his highest score was 88. Was a member in 1925-6 of the MCC team in the West Indies. A brilliant slip fielder, he kept goal for Cambridge against Oxford in 1925.

BOUGHTY, SIR RICHARD JAMES, 10th BART., who died at Quarley, near Andover on October 3rd, aged 53, kept wicket for Eton in 1943 and later made a few appearances for Sussex II.

BOWEN, MAJOR ROWLAND, who died suddenly at his home at Buckfastleigh, Devon, on September 4th, aged 62, was one of the most learned of cricket historians. Educated at Westminster, he never claimed to have been a good player himself, but he founded in 1963 The Cricket Quarterly and was its Editor until he closed it down in 1971. Plenty of space in this was allotted to contemporary cricket problems, on which his views were often highly controversial, but the value of the set lies in the vast number of contributions, whether by himself or by other scholarly researchers, on abstruse points of cricket history. He himself published in 1970 Cricket: a History.

BURROWS, THOMAS (TOMMIE) EDWARD, who died suddenly on March 15, aged 72, was a noted figure behind the scenes in almost all grades of cricket and his services were recognised when he received the Queen's Jubilee Medal in June 1977. He lived at Knutsford and was chairman of Lancashire CCC for ten years, a founder member of the Cricket Council and National Cricket Association and a member of the MCC Committee for nine years. He was also a past-president of the Manchester and District Cricket Association; member of the MCC Youth Cricket Council for ten years under the chairmanship of Harry Altham until it was transferred to the NCA Junior and Youth Committee, of which he was chairman since its formation in 1952, and a member of the Lancashire Youth Cricket Council; hon. administrator of the NCA Proficiency Award Scheme for boys; in at the birth of the Lancashire and Cheshire Cricket Society and President from 1956 to 1975; president of the Lancashire Schools CA since 1959 and vice-president of ESCA.

COLEMAN, CHARLES ALFRED RICHARD, who died at Market Harborough on June 14, aged 71, played for Leicestershire from 1926 to 1935 without ever quite getting a secure place in the side. He was a useful all-rounder, a hard hitting bat whose highest score and only century was 114 in two-and-a-quarter hours v Gloucestershire at Cheltenham in 1930 and a fast-medium bowler with a high windmill action. Altogether he made 2,403 runs with an average of 15.02 and took 100 wickets at 35.76. Later he had professional engagements in Scotland and from 1946 to 1949 was one of the first class umpires and officiated more than once in Test matches.

DICKINSON, GEORGE RITCHIE, who died in April, aged 74, played for New Zealand in the first two Tests against Harold Gilligan's side in 1929-30. A genuinely fast bowler, he took in these five wickets for 134 runs and had the distinction of dismissing Woolley twice. His only other Test appearance was two years later v South Africa, when he took three for 111. He played for Otago.

DYSON, ARNOLD HERBERT, died at Goldsborough in Yorkshire, his native county, on June 7 after a short illness, aged 72. Playing for Glamorgan from 1927 to 1948, he contributed his full share to raising them from a side normally near the bottom of the table to champion county in his last year. Few things are more important to a team than a reliable opening pair and this Glamorgan had for the first time in Dyson and Emrys Davies. On 32 occasions they put up more than a hundred for the first wicket and in 1947 actually did so in three consecutive innings. Altogether Dyson scored 17,922 runs with an average of 27.15. He made 24 hundreds, five times carried his bat through a completed innings and in ten seasons exceeded 1,000 runs. His highest score was 208 v Surrey at The Oval in 1932. In his young days he was a good outfield and later was outstanding at slip or short leg; moreover he was a shrewd thinker whose advice was often valuable to his captain. He was always immaculately turned out and his batting was as neat and tidy as his appearance. A radically orthodox player, he was a particularly good driver and cutter and was never bothered by pace. Though he was not normally regarded as a quick scorer, he could go fast enough when necessary. In 1937 on the first day of the season he made a hundred before lunch against Kent and in 1947 he and Emrys Davies put on 116 for the first wicket in 47 minutes to beat Sussex. He was an admirable runner between the wickets, quick off the mark and always on the look out for that second run, especially to third man, which so many batsmen miss. Essentially a county player, he made 305 consecutive appearances in the championship between 1930 and 1947. Later he was for many years coach at Oundle.

ELWORTHY, FRANK WILLIAM, who died in Johannesburg on March 15, at the age of 84 was one of the dwindling band who played first-class cricket in South Africa before World War I. He made his début for Transvaal in 1912-13 at the age of 19 and was a fairly regular member of the team until 1921-22, making one final appearance eight years later in 1929-30. A googly bowler, he was good enough to be selected for one of the unofficial Tests against the Australian Imperial Forces XI in 1919-20.

FOSTER, NEVILLE JOHN ACLAND, who died at Malvern on January 8, aged 87, was the youngest and the last survivor of seven brothers who did so much for Worcestershire that the side got the nickname of Fostershire. He did not get into the eleven at Malvern and, as he spent most of his life in Malaya, his county cricket was confined to three matches in 1914 and five in 1923. In 1914 he did little, but in 1923 showed clearly in a series of useful innings, the highest of them being 40 not out against Derbyshire, that he had his share of the family eye and wrists. Unfortunately he was kept out of several matches by a strain. Later he captained the Federated Malay States. In 1908 with his brother M.K. he won the Public Schools rackets for Malvern: he was the fifth of the brothers to play in a winning pair, a record which no other family has approached.

GENTRY, JACK SYDNEY BATES, CIE, CBE, died at Loxwood, Sussex, after years of ill-health, on April 16, aged 78. He had the distinction, rare until recent years, of representing three first-class counties. After begin in the XI at Christ's Hospital, he made one appearance for Hampshire in 1919, eight for Surrey in 1922 and two in 1923 and one for Essex, the county of his birth, in 1925. For Surrey in 1922 he took 31 wickets with an average of 21.54 and came second in their averages. A slow left-hander, he was extremely accurate, but lacked the spin of the great bowlers and was in fact more effective on hard wickets than on soft. The consistency of his performances suggested that he could have been valuable had he been able to play regularly.

GHOPADE, JAYSINGH, who died in Baroda on March 29 aged 47, was for some years regarded as one of the best all-rounders in India, a beautiful stroke player, who was always looking for runs, a useful leg-spinner and a magnificent field in the covers. But it must be said that, for a player of this reputation, his performances in the highest class were disappointing. A member of the sides in the West Indies in 1952-3 and in England in 1959, he played in eight Tests between 1953 and 1959, and in these his batting average was only 15 and his highest score 41 against England at Lord's, when he helped Contractor to add 83 for the fourth wicket. Moreover, India being rich at that time in leg-spin, he was seldom given a bowl and never took a wicket in a Test. Indeed on the 1959 tour of England his total record was only 833 runs with an average of 23.80, highest score 70 against Derbyshire, and he took only two wickets. However such was his reputation as a fieldsman that he was almost always twelfth man in any match in which he was not playing. He always played in spectacles. At the time of his death he was chairman of the Indian Selection Committee.

GILBERT, EDWARD, who was the best remembered aboriginal cricketer to play first-class cricket in Australia, had been long absent from the scene of his sometimes sensational fast bowling feats of the 1930s and in ill health for many years before his death in the Wolston Park Hospital near Brisbane on January 9, 1978, aged 69. Nevertheless, this notably quiet but well spoken product of Queensland's Cherbourg Aboriginal Settlement has remained a legend down through the years. After successfully graduating through the Queensland Colts XI in 1930, Eddie Gilbert quickly reached the headlines in the 1931 Sheffield Shield match against N.S.W. in Brisbane by his first over dismissals, of Wendell Bill and Bradman without scoring. Both were caught by wicketkeeper Len Waterman within seven deliveries, but not before one ball rising from a green-top had flicked off Sir Donald's cap and another knocked the bat from his hands! Sir Donald has since recalled that the six deliveries he faced on this occasion were the fastest experienced during his career.

Lightly built and only a little over five feet seven inches in height, Gilbert possessed exceptionally long arms and could bowl at great pace off a run sometimes no longer than four paces. It was this, allied with a somewhat whippy forearm action, which led to suggestions that his right arm bent on occasions during a pronounced arc action which finished with his hand almost touching the ground and his head at knee level. Strong advocacy for Gilbert's Test selection was nullified by the suspect action, a view several times shared and acted on by senior umpires. Nevertheless, the same officials completely accepted his delivery on most other occasions. Several films were taken without conclusive decision and controversy continued throughout Gilbert's career which was undoubtedly affected by the publicity. He faded out of the game in 1936 after showing fine form while taking six wickets in his final match - against Victoria at the Brisbane Cricket Ground in 1936. In nineteen Shield matches, he took 73 wickets at an average of 29.75, while a further fourteen wickets were gained in Queensland matches against touring MCC, West Indies and South African sides.

GUARD, GHULAM MUSTAFA, died at Ahmedabad on March 13, aged 52. A left-hand medium pace bowler, who represented Bombay, he played for India in the first Test against the West Indies in 1958-9 and in the third Test against Australia in the following season. He opened the bowling on both occasions, but met with no particular success.

HOLLANDS, RICHARD LYNTON, who died in Guy's Hospital on March 3, aged 72, was a noted sports journalist who covered cricket mainly in the south of England for the London Evening Standard and the Daily Telegraph. For over 40 years he was hockey correspondent of the Daily Telegraph and he edited Hockey News for 21 years until 1972. During the war he served as a major in the RASC.

HONE, SIR BRIAN, OBE, who died in Paris on May 28, aged 70, was the noted Australian educationalist who enjoyed a brief but successful first class cricket career between 1928 and leaving his home city, Adelaide, as its 1930 Rhodes Scholar. In that time, Sir Brian scored 860 runs at an average of 50.58, including three excellent Sheffield Shield centuries. A determined player, possessed of a good defence, he won cricket and tennis Blues at Oxford and, on joining the staff of Marlborough College as head of the English Department, he played with success for Wiltshire in the Minor Counties Competition when the opportunity presented itself, topping the side's batting averages between 1937 and 1939. Returning to Australia as Headmaster of Sydney's Cranbrook School in 1940, Sir Brian became Headmaster of Melbourne Grammar School in 1950, a post he filled with distinction until retirement in 1970. He was later to be Deputy Chancellor of Monash University in 1973-1974 and Chairman of the Commonwealth Secondary Schools Libraries Committee between 1971 and 1974.

HUMPHERSON, VICTOR WILLIAM, who died on October 19, aged 82, played a number of time for Worcestershire from 1921 to 1923. A right-hand medium pace bowler, he took five for 50 in the first innings against Gloucestershire at Clifton in 1921.

JEWELL, MAURICE FREDERICK STEWART, CBE, who died on May 28, aged 92, did notable work for Worcestershire cricket. Those whose memories start in 1946 or later have no conception how much some counties at the bottom of the championship before 1914 and between the wars owed to certain amateurs, often only moderate players who could never have kept a place in a good county side, but who year after year gave up their summer to keeping their county going, captaining it themselves and somehow collecting an eleven for each match, being rewarded at the end with perhaps two or three wins, perhaps less. It was due largely to the devoted labours of such as these that no first-class county ever had to pack up, though some in those days came pretty near it. In this category Jewell stood high. Far his best summer personally was 1926 when he was 41 and made 920 runs with an average of 27.05, including the only two centuries of his career, oddly enough one in each match against Hampshire. A better indication of his status is given by the figures for his full career of twenty-four years - 4,014 runs, average 18.37 and 104 wickets at 33.15. He was a batsman disposed to attack, but with a fair defence, and a useful slow left-hand change bowler. Another indication of the services he rendered is that he was captain of the side in 1920-21, 1926 and 1928-29- in other words he was prepared to step into the breach when no one else would. A shrewd captain and a disciplinarian, he was also tireless in raising money for the club during the winter. Later he was President from 1950 to 1955 and had been a Life Member since 1956. He had a curious career. Born in Chile, he played for Worcestershire first in 1909. In 1911 he played a few matches for Surrey II and in 1914 and 1919 for Sussex. In 1919 he also played for Worcestershire, who did not that year enter for the championship, and thus provides one of the few instances in modern times of a man representing two counties in one season. He continued to play for Worcestershire till 1933 and in his last innings scored 55 v Oxford University. Two brothers of his attained some distinction - A.N. played for Worcestershire and the Orange Free State and kept for the Gentlemen at the Oval in 1920; J.E. played for Surrey II and the Orange Free State and his son, J.M.H., played for Worcestershire in 1939. Maurice Jewell himself and W. H.Taylor, who preceded him as captain of the county side, married sisters.

LEESE, LT.-GEN. SIR OLIVER, BART., KCB, CBE, DSO, who attained great distinction as a soldier in World War II, died on January 20, aged 82. In 1914 he was twelfth man for Eton, having played for the side as a batsman with only very moderate success throughout the season. Later he played much I. Zingari, Eton Rambler, Butterfly and Regimental cricket. In 1965 he was President of the MCC and had the unenviable task of presiding at the acrimonious General Meetings called to consider the ambitious rebuilding schemes in which the club was then involved. He was also President of Warwickshire from 1959 to 1976 and had been President of Shropshire since 1962. From 1968 to 1973 he was President of the Cricket Society.

LEWIS, HARRY LOGAN, who died at Waltham St Lawrence on June 2, aged 83, did great work for Berkshire cricket. Between 1924 and 1946 he made 3,617 runs for the county with an average of 21.66, scored two centuries and in 1933 captained the side. He was Hon. Secretary from 1947 to 1973 and was actually 76 when he played his last game of cricket, for the Berkshire Gentlemen. He was also well-known in the hockey world as an England selector and had reached the semi-finals of the English table-tennis championship.

LOCK, HERBERT CHRISTMAS( BERT), who died on May 18, aged 75, will be remembered as groundsman for years at the Oval and as the man who in the winter of 1945-46 accomplished the superhuman task of getting the ground fit again for cricket after six years of disuse and maltreatment. A medium-pace right hander, he had many trials for Surrey between 1926 and 1932, but, though he took lots of wickets for the Second XI, could never make the grade in the First. From 1934 to 1939 he bowled with great success for Devon. He was a member of the Hon. L. H. Tennyson's side to Jamaica in 1926-27, but achieved very little there. He finished his career as Official Inspector of Pitches for the TCCB.

MARSHALL, LESLIE PHILLIPS, MD, died on February 28, aged 84. Eleven appearances for Somerset, spread over eighteen years, 1913-31, did not give him much chance of acclimatising himself to first-class cricket and his most successful match was his last when he contributed 29 and 37 against New Zealand, both at a time when runs were badly needed. He and his brother, A.G., who also played for the county, were a very formidable pair in the Taunton School XI shortly before World War I.

MENZIES, SIR ROBERT GORDON, the famous Australian statesman, who died at his home in Melbourne on May 15, aged 83, was a very great lover of cricket indeed and had much to say in his autobiography, Afternoon Light, on how much it had meant to him. A close friend of many of the Australian players, between 1965, when he was appointed Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports, and the breakdown of his health in 1971, he spent much of each summer in England and was constantly to be found watching, specially on Kent grounds. He was President of the Kent County Cricket Club in 1968 and was a member of I. Zingari and of the Band of Brothers.

MORGAN, JOHN HINDS the noted Welsh cricket journalist, died on April 8, a few weeks before his eightieth birthday. He had reported Glamorgan County matches since their entry into first-class cricket in 1921, not only for Wisden, but the old Cricket Reporting Agency and the Press Association. As Alderman J. H. Morgan he was Lord Mayor of Cardiff in 1957-58 and during his year in office Glamorgan presented him with a county player's tie and made him the first honorary playing member of the club. In the 1949 Wisden Jack Morgan told of Glamorgan's March of Progress and in the 1970 edition he again looked back into Glamorgan's past.

OATES, LT.-COL. JOHN SHERBROOKE COAPE, DSO, MC, died on February 24, aged 83. The Harrow wicket-keeper in 1913, he was later a Free Forester. His father, Col. W. C. Oates had played for Nottinghamshire and his grandfather, Capt. W. H. C. Oates, had been the Secretary of the County Cricket Club.

PAINE, GEORGE ALFRED EDWARD, who died at Solihull on March 30, aged 69, was for a short time pretty near the full England side as a slow left-hander and would probably have been picked had anything happened to Verity. In 1934, a season not on the whole helpful to bowlers of his type, he headed the first-class averages with 156 wickets at 17.07. His father and grandfather had both been employed at Lord's and he himself, born at Paddington, was engaged on the Lord's staff and in 1926 played five matches for Middlesex. In only one of these did he meet with any success taking five for 77 and three for 25 against Warwickshire, who were so much impressed with his possibilities that, with the consent of Middlesex, they invited him to qualify for them. As a result of this he was a regular member of their side from 1929 to 1938.

In his earlier years though useful he was often expensive, but he wisely concentrated on improving his length, the first essential in a slow left-hander, and gradually acquired more spin, though he never became one of the great spinners and was always a little too inclined to bowl defensively. Still in 1931 for Warwickshire he took 127 wickets at 19.20 and in 1932 136 at 18.93 and after a slight setback in 1933, when his wickets were more expensive, reached his peak in 1934. That winter, going with the MCC to the West Indies, he played in four Tests and had, for a bowler of his type there, a highly respectable record, but on his return his decline was as steady and as rapid as his advance had been. He began to be troubled with rheumatism. In 1935 115 wickets cost him 22.27 each and averages of 28, 30 and 28 in the next three seasons tell their own tale. In 1936 he was in fact kept out of the side for much of the summer by ill-health. At the end of 1938 he failed to agree with the county on terms and left them for league cricket, only reappearing for one match in an emergency in 1947.

Considerably slower than Verity, he stood over six foot and made the most of his height. Altogether in first-class cricket he took 1,021 wickets at an average of 22.85. A right-handed batsman, he made himself into a useful seven or eight and was a good field whether in the slips or to his own bowling. For many years he was groundsman and coach at Solihull School and later became a leading authority on non-turf wickets. He was also a skilled woodworker and photographer, who made considerable contributions in these lines to the adornment of the County Cricket Club's buildings at Edgbaston. Above all he was a man of whom one never heard anybody say an unkind word.

POTTINGER, GEORGE, who died at his home in Hampstead Garden suburb on February 26, aged 72, travelled the country for many years as cricket correspondent of the Exchange Telegraph Company. While his name was unknown to the public he was popular with cricket officials, players and Test and county scorers with whom he was in constant contact.

REDDY, S. J. had a heart attack and died in Cape Town on January 29. Thus passed a most dedicated administrator and writer in the cause of multi-racial cricket. Not surprisingly he was a great friend of Rashid Varachia, the President of the S.A. Cricket Union, for they shared ideals. Reddy was constantly involved in cricket administration, as the first Secretary of the then E.P. Cricket Federation, as Secretary and later President of the S.A. Indian Cricket Union which was disbanded when SACBOC came into being in 1957, and finally - his most important post - as Secretary of SACBOC from 1970 to 1975.

ROBERTS, ALBERT WILLIAM, who died in Clyde, N.Z. on May 13 aged 68, was a member of the 1937 New Zealand side in England. Regarded at the outset of his career simply as a bat, he owed his place in the first Test against Harold Gilligan's team in 1929-30, to a couple of useful innings at a crisis for Canterbury against the tourists. Two years later he played in both Tests against the South Africans in New Zealand and in the first made 54. However by 1937 he had developed into a good medium-pace opener who could swing the ball and get considerable pace from the pitch. Unfortunately that summer shoulder trouble, and later a damaged finger, took the life out of his bowling and left it for the most part merely negative. Even so, with 62 wickets at 26 runs each and 510 runs with an average of 25.50, he was an extremely useful member of the side, especially, as he was a brilliant slip. Moreover he had a way of getting runs when they were wanted; in the Lord's Test he made 66 not out and at the Oval 50, both very valuable innings which left him at the top of the Test match batting averages. The second Test he had missed through injury. His highest score during the season was 82 v Sussex. He was no stylist, but had a strong defence and could hit hard in front of the wicket. In all in his five Tests spread over seven years he scored 248 runs with an average of 27.55.

ROCK, Dr HARRY OWEN, who died in Sydney on March 10, aged 81, had a unique career. His six first-class matches, spread over three Australian seasons, 1924 to 1927, produced 758 runs with an average of 94.75; his four Sheffield Shield matches 560 runs, average 112. In his first match for New South Wales he scored 127 and 27 not out, and in his next 235 and 51: then room had to be found for Collins, Bardsley, Taylor, Andrews and Kelleway and he was omitted! Two more Sheffield Sheild matches and one against Western Australia, in which he scored 151, with a Test Trial match in 1926-7 completed his career. Qualifying as a doctor and practising in Newcastle, he was lost to Australian cricket: otherwise he must surely have ranked among the great. Though slightly built, he was a tremendous driver and had a wonderful gift of placing the ball and a basic soundness of technique which enabled him, as an opening batsman, to score at a great pace without taking undue risks. He was a son of C. W. Rock, the Cambridge blue and Warwickshire player.

ROE, WILLIAM NICHOLLS, MC, died at Henley-on-Thames on September 22, aged 79. A member of the Eton XI in 1916, he was severely wounded in the war, but despite this handicap he played with considerable success for Buckinghamshire and in 1924 scored 115 for them against Bedfordshire. He was for many years a master at Eton, where he succeeded R. A. Young in charge of the cricket. He was son of the well-known Cambridge blue and Somerset cricketer, W. N. Roe.

SALMON, GORDON HEDLEY, died at Exmouth on June 13, aged 83. He played a good deal for Leicestershire from 1913 to 1924 as a batsman. So badly wounded in his left arm during the Great War that it was doubtful whether he would ever be able to play again, he recovered sufficiently to do much useful work for the county, though he was never able to play regularly. His highest score was 72 v Glamorgan at Swansea in 1921. From 1940 to 1946 he was Leicestershire's representative at Lord's.

SEDDON, DUDLEY CECIL, a representative player for New South Wales at cricket between 1926 and 1929 and as a fine Rugby League centre, died in Sydney on April 18, at the age of 75. Best known in more recent years for his work as a cricket administrator, Seddon acted as a N.S.W. selector for 20 years from 1947 and was an Australian Selector from 1954 until replaced by Neil Harvey in 1967. Snow Seddon was a stalwart of the Petersham Club and, in four Sheffield Shield appearances, he scored 185 runs at an average of 27.85. But it was the enthusiasm and thoroughness with which he moved far and wide to seek out junior cricket talent that was the forte of this gentlemanly and well liked member of the Sydney cricket fraternity.

SKEET, CHALLEN HASLER LUFKIN, who died after a long illness on April 20, aged 82, will be remembered as one of the great fieldsmen of his time and also for one notable innings which helped to decide the county championship. Four years in the XI at St Paul's, he headed the batting averages in his last two years and in his last, 1914, the bowling averages as well. A fastish slinger, he never bowled seriously later. A solid bat rather than a stroke player, after a good trial for Oxford in 1919, he got his blue in 1920 in a particularly strong side, partly as the reward of some consistent scoring, but even more so for his superlative fielding, especially at cover or in the outfield. As R. C. Robertson-Glasgow said, he had a throw that would have satisfied Sydney.

After the University match, he became a regular member of the Middlesex side, but fifteen innings had produced only 168 runs when it came to the second innings of the last match ( Sir Pelham Warner's last county match for Middlesex) against Surrey at Lord's, on which the championship hung. Middlesex were 73 behind on the first innings, and, when Skeet and Lee went in on the second evening with forty awkward minutes to play out time the odds against Surrey losing must have been considerable. In fact both batsmen made centuries, Skeet 106, the first wicket did not fall till after lunch next day, when the score was 208, and Middlesex won a sensational victory and the championship.

Going out to the Sudan, Skeet was soon lost to first-class cricket, a few matches for Middlesex in 1922 concluding his career. Of one catch in particular Sir Pelham used to talk. At Edgbaston G. A. Rotherham hit Lee higher than Sir Pelham had ever seen a ball hit: he thought it must rival the famous blow off which G. F. Grace caught Bonner at The Oval in 1880, and the Rev. E. F. Waddy felt sure there must have been snow on the ball when it descended. Skeet had to run twenty yards and then wait almost half a minute before it arrived safely in his hands.

SMITH, HORACE CLITHEROE (CLYDE), ISO, OBE, who died at Hobart on April 6, in his eighty-fifth year, lived long enough to hear the news of Tasmania's admission to the Interstate Sheffield Shield Competition - an event he had canvassed for most of the fifty years span during which he was a member of the Australian Board of Cricket Control. A man of many parts in Tasmanian Government, community and sporting life, Clyde Smith was Chairman of the Tasmanian Cricket Association for 35 of the 52 years he served on its Committee of Management. After early success as a batsman at Queen's College, Smith starred with the South Hobart Club - on one occasion scoring a century for his School in the morning and the Club in the afternoon. While a State player and Captain, he won the fielding trophy in the match against H. L. Collins Australian XI in Hobart. First elected to the Australian Cricket Board as long ago as 1919, Smith managed the Australian team which toured New Zealand in 1960.

SUTCLIFFE, HERBERT

This Obituary will be found in the feature section of the Almanack.

SWEETLAND, EDWARD HENRY, who died at his home in Sussex on July 18, aged 75, kept wicket for Middlesex in a couple of matches in 1927 in the absence of Price. He was for some years on the staff at Lord's and played occasionally for the MCC in first-class matches.

TARBOX, CHARLES VICTOR (PERCY), died in hospital on June 15, aged 84. Between 1921 and 1929 he scored 5,824 runs for Worcestershire with an average of 15.87 and took 375 wickets at 35.25. These figures do not look much, but they represent valuable service to a county which was never far from the bottom of the table and Tarbox was always picking up a few wickets and making useful scores. A medium-pace right-hand bowler, he never fulfilled the promise of his first season when, in the second innings against Somerset at Worcester, he took seven for 55 and, in the return at Taunton in the two innings, ten for 158. His two highest scores and his only centuries were 109 in 1927 v Nottinghamshire at Trent Bridge and 103 not out in 1925 v Warwickshire at Edgbaston. In 1929 he lost his form so badly that he was not re-engaged, but he later played with considerable success for Hertfordshire, the county of his birth.

TAYLOR, MALCOLM L., died in hospital at Wimborne on March 14 after a short illness, aged 73. Making his first appearance for Lancashire in 1924, he was by 1926 arousing high hopes. The county's batting at that time was immensely powerful, but for the most part desperately dull and Lancashire supporters looked back wistfully to the days of MacLaren, J. T. Tyldesley and Spooner. It was to their school rather than that of his contemporaries that Taylor belonged. A left-hander, he was a beautiful stylist with a wide range of strokes, which he delighted in using, and he had been instructed by his coach, J. T. Tyldesley, that he ought never to allow a fast bowler to bowl to him without a man out straight. It will be remembered that as late as 1904 in the Badminton volume on cricket, when Tyldesley was in his prime, the plan of a field set for a fast bowler shows a man by the screen. But though he did fairly well and was for a season or two a regular member of the side, Taylor never fulfilled his promise. He never acquired the soundness in defence necessary to support his attacking powers and moreover towards the end of his time he took to batting in spectacles. His highest score and his only century was 107 not out against Oxford in 1930. At the end of 1931 he left the county and went as coach to Canford, where he learnt tennis and taught that as well as cricket and remained until 1969. From 1934 to 1948 he made many runs for Dorset. He was a man who everywhere won the affection and respect of those with whom he came in contact.

TUTTON, CLIFFORD EARL, who died at Port Shepstone on March 24 at the age of 73 was a splendid all-round sportsman. At Durban High School he opened the batting with Jack Siedle, a life-long friend, who was later to be South Africa's regular opening batsman. They were such a terror to opposing schools that the rest of the team rarely got an innings.

WALMSLEY, WALTER THOMAS, who died suddenly in New Zealand on February 25, aged 61, was a much travelled Australian all-round cricketer who made good use of limited opportunities, including the establishment of long standing records in Queensland and Tasmania while embarking on a successful coaching career. After early years spent with the Sydney Western Surburbs Club, Walmsley gained further experience in Lancashire League before transferring to Tasmania as the coach of its Northern area. Walmsley scored 180 against the 1948 Indian touring side, this remaining as a State record for International matches. None the less valuable was a long unbeaten defensive innings of 41 which staved off Tasmania's defeat in Hobart two months later at the hands of the powerful 1948 Australian team, then en route to England.

Transferring to Brisbane as official QCA coach in the 1948-49 season, Walmsley became a valuable member of the Queensland Sheffield Shield team, his well flighted leg spinners gathering 95 wickets. In addition, he still holds the State's ninth and tenth wicket partnerships - the former being 152 scored with the late Wally Grout against N.S.W. in 1956-57 and the last wicket stand with fellow spin bowler John Freeman against the same State a year later. A deeply dedicated cricketer, Walmsley effectively carried his experience into coaching duties in which he showed marked ability to impart the basic principles to his many charges in a most infectious manner. After transferring to reside in New Zealand, Wal Walmsley frequently returned to Australia to attend Test series- often accompanied by some members of his large family of children - his last visit being the January 1978 Australia v India Test match at the Sydney Cricket Ground.

WILLS, ARNOLD CASS LYCETT, died on February 28, aged 71. A member of the Harrow XI in 1925, when he was second in both the batting and the bowling averages, he did not get a trial at Cambridge, but between 1926 and 1929 played several valuable innings for Northamptonshire. In his first match, v Leicestershire at Northampton, coming in at 75 for six, he made 47 and helped Jupp to add 110. Next year his innings of 68 contributed largely to his county beating the first New Zealand touring side.

WILLIAMS, BENJAMIN HUNTSMAN, was killed in Rhodesia on August 3 when the vehicle in which he was travelling came under a rocket attack from terrorists. He is the first first-class cricketer to have lost his life in the present conflict. Huntsman Williams, a left-arm fast-medium bowler, won Rhodesian Nuffield and South African Schools' Caps in 1961 and 1962 and, while still a schoolboy, played for Rhodesian Country Districts against the visiting New Zealand team in 1961-62, taking four wickets for 89 in the first innings. He made his first-class debut in 1966-67 and was a regular member of the Rhodesian team in 1969-70 when he took four wickets for 56 against Transvaal in Salisbury, his best analysis. Thereafter he played no more. His total career covered 8 first-class matches. Born in Bulawayo on June 10, 1944, he was 34.