Wisden Obituaries - 2014

ABDUR RAZZAQ, SYED, who died on February 5, aged 73, was a leg-spinner who played 24 first-class matches in Pakistan, mainly for Hyderabad, with a best of five for 46 against Khairpur in 1965-66. A useful batsman, despite starting with eight runs in nine innings, he made 51 against East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) at Karachi in November 1961.

AHSAN ZAHEER died on December 5, aged 60, after suffering a suspected heart attack while attending his brother's funeral in Dhaka. Ahsan was the first batsman to score a century in a senior match in independent Bangladesh, for Barisal against Comilla in the three-day final of the National Championship (not then first-class) at Dhaka's Bangabandhu Stadium in March 1975. He was also a familiar face on TV, commenting on cricket.

ALLEN, DAVID LEONARD RAYVERN, who died on October 9, aged 76, was a BBC radio producer who took immense pleasure in cricket, and left the game a remarkable legacy: as a long-standing member of MCC's Arts and Library committee, he was the driving force behind the club's Audio Archive Project, which since 2003 has accumulated more than 250 interviews. David Rayvern Allen conducted the first, with Sir Alec Bedser, recorded Muttiah Muralitharan last summer, and well over a hundred others in between. He was also a prolific author, especially effective in the intersection between cricket and entertainment. His most consequential works were biographies: of C. Aubrey Smith, the England captain who went to Hollywood, John Arlott and E. W. Swanton. He was a fine biographer: conscientious, readable, judicious; and he did not flinch from the less agreeable aspects of his subjects' characters. This came to the fore in his account of Swanton's behaviour as a prisoner of the Japanese, when some fellow POWs regarded him as lordly and selfinterested.

"There is no doubt that, at times, Jim could be his own worst enemy," he concluded. Allen was a gifted musician and could have made it his career - but the BBC intervened, and he had a long, happy time there, working on programmes as varied as That Was The Week That Was and Friday Night is Music Night. He was Wisden's Cricketana correspondent from 2004 to 2014.

ANGELL, FREDERICK LESLIE, died on October 9, aged 92. Les Angell appeared in 132 first-class matches for Somerset between 1947 and 1956, but may have made his greatest contribution in the 1970s, when he was playing for the Lansdown club in Bath. He had been asked to keep an eye on a young recruit there called Vivian Richards, while he qualified for Somerset. Against Clifton, the pair shared a big second-wicket stand, and Richards was delighted to receive an approving nod from Angell as they walked off at tea: "I admired his technique and the watchfulness with which he played the new ball on a difficult pitch," he wrote. "He was never in a hurry like me." Later, Angell's enthusiastic endorsement helped persuade Somerset to offer Richards a two-year contract. Angell had first played for Lansdown in his teens in the 1930s, and joined Somerset after the war, making his debut against Leicestershire at Bath in 1947. His surname and boyish appearance earned him the nickname "The Seraph", mangled by Arthur Wellard to "The Sheriff", which stuck. Small, neat and stylish, Angell was an ideal foil for the explosive hitting of Harold Gimblett. "Only once did I get in front of Harold with the scoring," he told Gimblett's biographer David Foot. "His reaction was not by what he said, but what he didn't say!" Released in 1952, Angell was hastily re-engaged two years later after Gimblett's sudden retirement. He responded with his best season, scoring 1,125 runs, including his only firstclass century, against the touring Pakistanis. His favourite innings, though, was 90 against a Yorkshire attack led by Fred Trueman at Taunton in 1955. Angell left first-class cricket in 1956, and returned to prolific scoring with Lansdown and work as an engineering draughtsman in Bath.

ANTHONY, CONGANAGEEDMOND BASIL, died on April 16, aged 76. Basil Anthony was an umpire from Colombo who stood in Sri Lanka's first Test against Australia, at Kandy in April 1983, and in two one-day internationals. He was general secretary of the Sri Lankan umpires' association, before emigrating to Australia.

APTE, ARVINDRAO LAXMANRAO, died on August 5, aged 79. Arvind Apte followed his older brother Madhav into the strong Bombay side of the 1950s. He backed up his maiden century - 141 against Gujarat in 1958-59 - with 149 against Baroda, both times opening with his brother, and won selection for India's 1959 tour of England. The pitches did not suit Apte's attacking style, although a fine 165 - his highest first-class score - against Derbyshire led to his inclusion in the Third Test at Headingley in place of the injured Nari Contractor. Apte failed twice, and was never picked again, despite two more hundreds on the trip. "He was such a nice bloke - very unassuming and friendly," said Contractor. "Another wicket down from the 1959 touring party."

ASHWATHAIYAPPA,KODIMANIYANDAMADAPPA,drowned in a river inKodagu in Karnataka on April 17, in an unsuccessful attempt to rescue his brother. He was 30, and a prominent club cricketer who had played three Ranji Trophy matches for Karnataka in 2001-02, scoring 62 on debut against Andhra.

ATTENBOROUGH, LORD (Richard Samuel), CBE, who died on August 24, five days short of his 91st birthday, was one of Britain's foremost actors and directors. Dickie Attenborough appeared in around 80 films, including Brighton Rock, The Great Escape and Jurassic Park, and collected two Oscars, as director and producer of Gandhi. He was always keen on cricket, featuring in a 1950s Pathe´ News short in which he was injured in a match at East Grinstead between Politicians and The Stage. He was the last survivor of the 100 actors and celebrities who founded the Lord's Taverners in 1950; one of their first acts was to invite the Duke of Edinburgh to be their honorary twelfth man.

AWASKER, HILLEL, died after being hit by a ball while umpiring in Ashdod, Israel, on November 29. He was 55. Coming two days after the death of Australia's Phillip Hughes in Sydney, the incident made worldwide headlines. Awasker was struck on the jaw by a straight-drive that cannoned off the stumps, and suffered a suspected heart attack while receiving attention. Born in Mumbai, Awasker (often Anglicised to Oscar) had emigrated to Israel in 1977, and enlivened the cricket community there. Big, broad-shouldered and always immaculately turned out, he missed the 1979 ICC Trophy because of military service, but played for Israel in the next six tournaments, between 1986 and 2001, often as captain. A left-arm spinner and enthusiastic batsman, he took three German wickets in 1998, eight years after slapping 66 against Gibraltar.

BADER JAFFRI, SYED, who died on April 6, aged 69, was a seamer who played six first-class matches for Karachi teams in the early 1970s, scoring 54 on debut against Khairpur, and taking four for 68 against the Pakistan Works Department. He sat on the Pakistan board's ad hoc committee, and chaired the Karachi City Cricket Association.

BARTLETT, JOHN NORTON, who died on June 8, aged 85, was a slow left-armer who did well for Oxford University in 1946. His 39 wickets at 31 that summer (in which he also appeared for Sussex, and for the Gentlemen against the Players) included five for 102 to spin Oxford to victory over a full-strength Lancashire team, and match figures of 35-20-28-7 to help beat Cambridge. Bartlett's studies were interrupted by national service and, when he returned to Oxford in 1949, he was less effective, although he did take a career-best five for 77 against Hampshire in the Parks the following year. He won another Blue at Lord's in 1951, dismissing Peter May and Raman Subba Row. Bartlett went into teaching, becoming headmaster of Winston Churchill's old prep school in Sussex.

BARUA, TAPAN KUMAR, who died on June 9, aged around 80, played 15 matches for Assam between 1954-55 and 1965-66. He also represented East Zone against the 1958-59 West Indian tourists, but had to retire hurt after being hit on the head by Wes Hall. Barua usually opened, and often captained Assam, but managed only two half-centuries, including 58 against Orissa at Cuttack in his final season. He later became a tea-planter.

BATH, BRIAN FRANCIS, who died on October 16, aged 67, was a consistent top-order batsman and occasional off-spinner, who came close to selection for South Africa's representative sides during their years of exclusion. "Bubbles" Bath hit 180 in his third first-class match, for Transvaal B against Griqualand West in 1966-67. After two more centuries in the B section, he was promoted to the full Transvaal side, soon nicknamed "the Mean Machine". His only first-class century for them came in his penultimate match, in 1973-74. Bath retired to concentrate on business, although he reappeared in a one-day semi-final against Natal in 1979-80 - and scored 57 on a lively Kingsmead track against Mike Procter and Vintcent van der Bijl. He stiffened up after his exertions and, following a rainbreak, was replaced in the field by a substitute - who took a vital catch. As Transvaal completed a narrow victory, an unamused Procter sidled over: "Nice catch, Bubbles…"

In April 1971, he had been part of a famous protest at the exclusion of non-white players from the planned tour of Australia (which never took place). He and Barry Richards opened for the Currie Cup champions Transvaal against the Rest of South Africa at Newlands; Richards defended the first ball from Procter, at which point all the players walked off, and handed a letter condemning the situation to a board official. In 1985, he became chairman of the Transvaal Cricket Board - but gave up the post after a year to emigrate to Australia.

BATTEN, HORACE LAMPARD, who died on December 7, aged 102, was a Northampton bootmaker, the fifth generation to run his family firm, crafting beautiful leather hunting and riding boots. His clients included the showjumper Harvey Smith, Darth Vader actor Dave Prowse, and Madame Citroe¨n of the car-manufacturing family, who was known to fly in from Paris for a pair of Batten's boots. But he had not wanted to take over the business at all: he wanted to be a cricketer. He joined the groundstaff at Wantage Road as a wicketkeeper-batsman in the 1930s, but was outraged at the injustice when an amateur he considered far less talented was picked for the first team. Instead he formed his own club in the village of Ravensthorpe, buying the land and creating the ground where he played and umpired for many years. "He was always juggling his family with the business and his cricket," said his son Timothy.

BEAGLEY, JOHN WILLIAM, died on March 14, aged 80. "Bugs" Beagley looked too slight to be a threat, but surprised batsmen with his pace and stamina. He took a wicket in his first over for South Australia in 1956-57, but quickly revealed a capacity for the long haul: in his next match, against New South Wales, he took six for 121 in 33 overs. In the early 1960s, Beagley moved from Adelaide to open a shoe shop in Darwin.

BELL, HENRY DAVEY, died on April 22, aged 89. Harry Bell was a regular for Durham from 1946 to 1962, and later played occasionally for Northumberland. He usually opened, and in 1960 hit 186 for Durham against Lancashire's Second XI, whose attack was led by future England seamer Peter Lever. Bell was better known as a footballer, playing more than 400 league matches in midfield for Middlesbrough and Darlington.

BIZZELL, GRAHAM MAURICE, who died on April 29, aged 72, showed such promise for Queensland in the early 1960s that he was mentioned as a possible Test batsman. A slightly built right-hander, he had a composed approach in which footwork, placement and timing removed the need for brute power. He made 82 on debut, against South Australia at the Gabba in 1961-62, an innings marked by his assured handling of Garry Sobers's variations. He began the 1963-64 season sharing three successive big stands with Peter Burge, the highest an unbroken 252 for the fourth wicket against Western Australia. Bizzell made 81 to Burge's 205. In the return match at Perth, Bizzell hit 101. Suddenly, though, the runs dried up: in 1964-65 he reached 20 only three times in 13 innings, and was dropped after two matches the following season. Bizzell did not dwell on the disappointment. By the time he was 32, he was the youngest secondary-school principal in Queensland.

BONDRE, VISHWANATH RAMACHANDRA, died on January 8, aged 77. Vishu Bondre played 28 first-class games in a decade from 1961-62, although the strength of the Bombay side meant only eight were in the Ranji Trophy (his matches were spread over five different seasons, in all of which Bombay won the title). A medium-pacer, Bondre took 40 wickets, including six for 116 against Gujarat at Surat in 1969-70. He hit 71 for Bandodkar's XI against Services in the Moin-ud-Dowlah Cup at Hyderabad in 1968-69.

BOWLEY, BRUCE LEONARD, OAM, died on May 14, aged 92. A useful all-rounder for South Australia over four seasons from 1947-48, Bowley hit 169 as opener against the 1951-52 West Indians. Although his long run-up suggested more pace than he delivered, he was also a handy new-ball bowler. Bowley's father, Len, played for South Australia in the 1920s, and both represented Kensington, Don Bradman's Adelaide club. The Don also signed Len up to paint the Bradman home, assisted by Bruce in short pants.

BROWN, JAMES, MBE, died on December 6, aged 83. Jimmy Brown, a polished wicketkeeper from Perth, was an almost constant presence behind the stumps for Scotland for two decades from his debut in 1953. He played 85 matches for the national side, 57 of them first-class and 53 as captain. Selected twice for the Gentlemen against the Players at Scarborough, Brown was also a useful batsman, and made 90 against Yorkshire at Paisley in 1957. That summer, he also made seven dismissals in an innings against Ireland. Dougie Barr, a long-time team-mate, described him as "a great wicketkeeper and a good bat, well liked by other players, and a very diplomatic captain". In domestic cricket Brown usually played for the strong Perthshire club, and ended up with 674 dismissals for them. He was appointed MBE for services to Scottish cricket in 1974.

BURGER, CHRISTOPHER GEORGE DE VILLIERS, who died on June 5, aged 78, was an attractive batsman who played two Tests for South Africa, at home to Australia in 1957-58. He had made a fine start in domestic cricket the previous season, earning a callup for a South African XI to play the England tourists, but bagged a pair. The following season was less spectacular, but 52 and 37 for Natal against the Australians won him a place in the last two Tests, in which he achieved little, although he got off the mark by thumping Richie Benaud for four. "He did have a bad failing against fast bowling," wrote his team-mate Roy McLean. "His high backlift too often did not give him time to play the swinging ball." But Burger continued to shine for Natal, making a career-best 131 against Eastern Province (and Peter Pollock) on New Year's Day in 1963.

BURLING, GORDON THOMAS, who died on June 6, aged 81, proofread Wisden for more than 20 years, dating back to 1987. His varied career included spells as a primary-school teacher, accountant and stationmaster-cum-level-crossing-attendant in Alresford, his Essex home. A unifying theme was an enduring love of figures, and he could remember the phone number of almost everyone he had called, or the smallest detail of the railway timetable. Although he concentrated on numerical content, rigorously checking every average or table, he often unearthed infelicities and typos overlooked by Wisden's editorial team. Peter Bather, the Almanack's production co-ordinator and a neighbour, remembers a generous and infinitely patient man. Dropping off a set of proofs one day, Bather found him steaming stamps from a mountain of envelopes: he had no interest in philately, but a friend had got behind with his hobby. His wife Jean was a devotee of Imran Khan, and for her Burling maintained a meticulous statistical summary of Imran's career. He remained steadfastly cheerful despite Jean's death in 2003, rarely without his characteristic bubbling laugh.

BYAM SHAW, FELIX DAVID, who died of meningococcal disease on July 19, aged 14, was a gifted all-rounder who captained Oxfordshire at several levels. A fly-half, central midfielder, Liverpool fan, languid batsman and rapid bowler, he approached every sport with enthusiasm. In his last few matches, he opened the batting for Eton Under-14s and the bowling for Oxfordshire Under-14s, for whom he took four top-order wickets in a Twenty20 game against Eton Under-15s. His coaches described him as "a great student of the game" and "always smiling, especially in fielding drills". As well as a bullet arm, he had a quick brain and a big heart, taking more pleasure in others' success. Oxfordshire's senior team observed a minute's silence before their match against Dorset. His memorial service in Oxford's Christ Church Cathedral was attended by some 900 people, many in Liverpool shirts emblazoned with "Byam Shaw 14"; the Eton choir led the singing of "You'll Never Walk Alone".

CHANMUGAM, DUNKIRK NEILENDRAN, died on April 22, aged 73. Neil Chanmugam, born a couple of weeks before the Dunkirk evacuation, was one of Sri Lanka's finest off-spinners, prominent in their pre-Test days. At a time when first-class cricket in what was then Ceylon was generally restricted to occasional matches against visiting teams, he took five for 63 against the 1961-62 MCC tourists, and four years later claimed five for 26 as Mike Smith's England side were shot out for 107. In August 1964 Chanmugam took four for 28 as Ceylon claimed their first win in an unofficial Test, against Pakistan. And he collected five for 47 against the Australians late in 1969. He also hit 72, in a last-wicket stand of 110 with Ian Pieris, against the 1966-67 West Indian tourists led by Garry Sobers. Chanmugam married the daughter of F. C. de Saram, a former Ceylon captain, and managed the side that first played a Test in England, at Lord's in 1984. His brother Dennis, a medium-pacer, was part of Sri Lanka's squad for the inaugural World Cup in England in 1975.

CRADDOCK, MYRTLE MAY (later Mrs Baylis), died on September 23, aged 94. A left-armer of unwavering patience and accuracy, "Crad" was an important part of Australia's attack after the Second World War. Her stock delivery was too quick to allow batsmen to use their feet, and she pinned them to the crease while probing for weaknesses. She could also drop her pace to bowl out of the back of the hand. Although she never took more than two wickets in a Test innings, all but two of her 16 victims came from the top half of the order. Norma Whiteman, a team-mate in her six Tests, remembered Craddock's ability "to land the ball on a sixpence, over after over"; her economy-rate was 1.51. She was less of a batsman but, at No. 10, did help steal the Second Test of the 1951 tour at Worcester from under England's noses.

In the winter of 1948 she became the first woman to represent Australia in two sports, when she won the first of ten netball caps, only a few months after her Test debut, also in New Zealand. In 2012, she was inducted into Netball Australia's Hall of Fame. Craddock acknowledged the changes in both her sports: "We thought we were fast, but the ones of today… Oh!"

CURTIS, LOUIS DAVID, died on September 17, aged 86. Late in January 1951, Freddie Brown's MCC team travelled to the Murray River town of Renmark for a two-day match against the South Australia Country XI, who were rolled for 84. But Lou Curtis, a 22-yearold farmer from Caliph, 50 miles away in the dry-farming Mallee country, scythed down five with his disconcertingly accurate late outswingers. He added another four next morning to finish with nine for 60, five of them bowled. Tim Wall, a former Australian fast bowler, tried to persuade Curtis to come to Adelaide for grade cricket, but he said: "Our busiest time of the year is in the summer. I feel it wouldn't be fair to my two brothers if I left the farm to play in town." A month later, after the Country Cricket Carnival in Adelaide, Curtis was selected for a Sheffield Shield match against Western Australia, but proved innocuous: he sent down only three overs out of 75 in the second innings, and never appeared again. He did tour England with a South Australian Country team in 1954, and played against the 1954-55 MCC tourists - but this time went wicketless. He later said: "You know, the best thing I've ever done was to grow the best hard wheat in Australia."

DE LISLE, CHARLES ANDREW EVERARD MARCH PHILLIPPS, who died of a gastric haemorrhage on October 1, aged 54, was a promising member of the Daily Telegraph's troupe of cricket writers in the late 1980s, and co-authored a book on the 1998-99 Ashes tour with Christopher Martin- Jenkins. But he drifted away from cricket - becoming deputy editor of the Telegraph's upmarket gossip column

Peterborough, then House of Lords correspondent - and from regular journalism, working instead as chief ghost writer of former prime minister Ted Heath's autobiography. His brother Tim became editor of Wisden Cricket Monthly and Wisden. Robert Hardman, who edited Peterborough, recalled: "There were always last-minute holes in the column, and frantic ring-rounds for a half-decent morsel of gossip to plug a gap. Amid the shouting, Charlie was a welcome, unflappable presence. And, when all else failed, his default solution was: 'I'll just put in a quick call to MCC…'"

DELISLE, GUSTAVE PETER SAPENNE, died on December 12, aged 79. A stylish batsman, Peter Delisle had three years in the Oxford XI, and enjoyed some success for Middlesex. He started with 59, and a stand of 145 with Colin Cowdrey, for Oxford against Kent in the Parks in 1954, but the runs dried up, and Cowdrey left him out of the Varsity Match. Delisle had more luck with Middlesex, making 82 against Glamorgan at Lord's, then 36 and 56 on a tricky Hove track. This came after a sobering introduction to county cricket: in his second match, against Northamptonshire at Lord's, Frank Tyson was working up a head of steam. In the last over of the second day, he broke Bill Edrich's cheek. "He went down in a welter of blood, and was carted off to hospital," remembered Tyson. Out came Delisle, just 19: "I swear he was green." But he survived, and the following year made 1,185 runs to earn his county cap, after 105 (his only Championship hundred) against Nottinghamshire at Trent Bridge. Born on St Kitts, and educated at Stonyhurst, Delisle was probably thought of at Lord's as a potential amateur captain, but he retired after the 1957 season, to join the Rifle Brigade. Earlier that summer, he had made his highest score of 130 against Cambridge at Fenner's.

DENNIS, KEITH STEVENSON, died on March 11 in Malaysia, a few hours after watching Jersey secure their second successive promotion in the World Cricket League. He was 71, and a staunch supporter of cricket on the island: he helped set up the Jersey Cricket Board in 2005, and was their chairman until 2012. In his youth he represented Middlesex Second XI, and had a lengthy club career with Finchley in north London. A long-standing playing member of MCC, he toured the United States with them in 2000.

DE SILVA, DANDENIYA HEMACHANDRA, died on April 25, aged 81. Hemachandra (or DH) de Silva came from a prolific cricket family: one of his brothers, Somachandra (DS), was a leg-spinner who played in 12 of Sri Lanka's early Tests, and later headed their cricket board; another, Premachandra (DP), represented Ceylon in pre-Test days. Hemachandra, who played two first-class games himself, was primarily an opening batsman for the Nomads club in Colombo, and for a time a national selector.

DICKSON WRIGHT, CLARISSA THERESA PHILOMENA AILEEN MARY JOSEPHINE AGNES ELSIE TRILBY LOUISE ESMERELDA, who died on March 15, aged 66, was one half of perhaps the unlikeliest duo of celebrity chefs. In the 1990s, Dickson Wright rode alongside her partner Jennifer Paterson in the sidecar of a vintage Triumph Thunderbird in Two Fat Ladies, stopping to make meals of startling calorie counts, while dispensing politically incorrect pearls on any topic under the sun. Dickson Wright grew up near Lord's and excelled at cricket at school, before passing umpiring exams and regularly taking charge of village matches in Sussex; a law student, she was the youngest woman to be called to the Bar. She put her knowledge of the game to good use in the second series of Two Fat Ladies by preparing the tea at the picturesque Warborough ground in Oxfordshire. Dickson Wright cooked a Rigo Jancsi cake, named after a Hungarian violinist involved in a celebrated sex scandal; it was subsequently adopted as the club cake. After some unflattering remarks about field-placings - "I'm surprised they only have one slip" - she umpired the closing overs.

DINSHAW, RUSI NAUSHERWAN, who died on March 24, aged 86, came closer than any other Parsee to playing for Pakistan: he went on their inaugural full tour, to India in 1952-53, but did not appear in the Tests. His two outings on that trip represented the last of his nine first-class matches. An elegant left-hander, Dinshaw made his debut for Sind against the 1948-49 West Indian tourists, and the following season played two unofficial Tests against Ceylon, and opposed a strong Commonwealth XI, led by Frank Worrell. Dinshaw later suffered health problems, and spent his last dozen years in hospital.

D'OLIVEIRA, DAMIAN BASIL, who died of cancer on June 29, aged 53, managed to match the popularity of his father - Basil D'Oliveira - at Worcester. Damian was not as good a player, although he did score nearly 10,000 first-class runs, with ten centuries. His best - 237 against Oxford University in the Parks in 1991 - was even higher than his dad's (227), though he mayhave been prouder of his 155 against Lancashire the previous year, after Worcestershire had slid to 86 for five. Part of the side that won back-to-back Championships in 1988 and 1989, as well as four one-day titles, the younger "Dolly" was also a superb fielder (he started out as a wicketkeeper, after his father brought a pair of Alan Knott's gloves back from a Test), and a useful purveyor of off-breaks. "He was part of the best slip cordon I've ever been involved in," remembered his county captain Phil Neale. "Steve Rhodes behind the stumps, Damian at first, Hicky at second, TomMoody and Beefy at third and fourth. Basically anything that got nicked got caught." D'Oliveira retired in 1995, taking over as captain/coach of the Second XI; in 2001 he was appointed Academy director. And, in the field of coaching, Damian finally outdid his father: Basil had been in charge when his son joined the staff, but was not a natural teacher. Damian had worked hard to carve out a county place, so empathised more with his charges: "He was a loveable guy, a really good coach," said Worcestershire's chief executive David Leatherdale. "He had that eye for a fantastic cricketer." The family name lives on at New Road: Damian's son Brett, a leg-spinning all-rounder, made his county debut in 2011, and was one of the squad which dedicated their Championship promotion in 2014 to their absent coach.

DOSSA, ANANDJI JAMNADAS, who died on September 22, a week after his 98th birthday, was a cricket statistician who worked with All India Radio for 16 years from 1956-57, and compiled several books. A player good enough to have been Bombay's twelfth man, Dossa was a co-founder (and first president) of the Association of Indian Cricket Statisticians and Scorers. The library at the Brabourne Stadium in Bombay is named after him. "It was a sheer delight to look at the meticulously handwritten treasures he had compiled over the years, documents and scrapbooks that comprise invaluable source material in trying to reconstruct India's cricket history," wrote historian Boria Majumdar.

DOWNTON, GEORGE CHARLES, who died on April 19, aged 85, kept wicket in eight matches for Kent in 1948, while Godfrey Evans was busy at the Ashes. Downton also played two first-class games for MCC in the 1950s, and represented the Club Cricket Conference against several touring teams. A stalwart of the Sevenoaks Vine club, he might have had more luck with another county, but transfers were rare. Around 30 years later, Downton's son Paul left Kent - where Alan Knott reigned supreme - to join Middlesex, and ended up winning 30 Test caps. He is now the ECB's managing director of cricket.

DOWSLEY, HARCOURT, died on October 30, aged 95. Until the 1960s, Victoria used matches against Tasmania to look at promising youngsters or reward long service. Harc Dowsley fell into both categories during a first-class career of five matches, all against Tasmania, split by the war. He exploited his frame - 6ft 3in and 14 stone - skilfully harnessing his reach and power. In February 1938, aged 18, he made 72 not out on debut at the MCG, in a match which also launched the career of Keith Miller. Next season Dowsley made 64 in an opening stand of 157 with Hec Oakley at Hobart, and continued that form in his final two games, in 1946-47. Subsequently, he captained Melbourne CC to the 1948-49 local premiership. Dowsley spent the war piloting Catalina flying boats in the western Pacific, harassing the enemy in such areas as Borneo and the Philippines, and ferrying service personnel back to Australia. He owned an import agency in Melbourne.

DUCKWORTH, CHRISTOPHER ANTHONY RUSSELL, who died on May 16, aged 81, was a stylish batsman and competent wicketkeeper who was John Waite's understudy on South Africa's 1955 and 1960 tours of England. He did not appear in a Test on either trip, but did play twice - as a batsman - during England's return series in 1956-57, managing only 28 runs in four innings. That call-up came after he hit 105 (his only century in 36 matches for his native Rhodesia) against Natal at Johannesburg. Duckworth had actually started with Natal, making 128 against Orange Free State in his second game as a 19-year-old in 1952-53, although his highest score of 158 came after opening at Northampton in 1955. Only the second Rhodesian to win a Test cap for South Africa, after Denis Tomlinson in 1935, Duckworth also played international hockey.

EDWARDS, ANTHONY, died on February 6 from injuries received in a motorcycle accident, aged 51. "Pacer" Edwards moved from his native Jamaica to Bermuda at the age of nine, and soon established a reputation for fearsome fast bowling, especially for Somerset in the island's showpiece Cup Match - and in the ICC Trophy, in which he collected 44 wickets in 23 games. In the opening fixture of the 1986 tournament in England he took six for 38 on a greentop against Fiji: "We had seven men back, it was like West Indies in the old days," said Bermuda's captain Arnold Manders.

ELLIS, JAMES, died on March 8, aged 82. In the mid-1960s, when the police series Z Cars was hugely popular, Jimmy Ellis was one of Britain's best-known actors. His Belfast brogue was heard in every episode between 1962 and 1978, as his Bert Lynch character rose from PC to inspector. Ellis's father was a sheet-metal worker in the shipyards, but always found time to take his son to see the touring team in Belfast. Ellis loved to turn out for the Lord's Taverners, and his off-spin once snared Denis Compton, caught behind by Jim Parks. "Jimmy never tired of telling the story," said Robin Walsh, the former president of Cricket Ireland. "As an encore he would recite the 1946 Indian touring team to England, never fluffing a line."

FERNANDO, PALAMANDADIGE LANTRA JAYANTHA, died of an apparent heart attack after his morning jog on June 23, aged 57. Lantra Fernando was a promising fast bowler who toured England in 1981, Sri Lanka's last trip before achieving Test status. However, his international chances were scuppered by his decision to join the Sri Lankan rebel tour of South Africa in 1981-82: all the players were banned for 25 years and, although that was later commuted, Fernando did not appear in another first-class game until 1988-89. He later played in the Netherlands, and coached their women's team.

FERRIES, KENNETH IAN, who died on July 25, aged 78, played only once for Western Australia, in 1961-62, as his medium-pacers lacked the zip to take full advantage of the famously quick Perth pitch of the 1960s. Instead "Ferret" Ferries fetched up in Christchurch, where he played for the St Albans club and became a useful replacement for Canterbury's Dick Motz and Bruce Taylor when they were on national duty. Tall and wiry, with a forward lean, and a pronounced drag and follow-through, Ferries was an accurate seamer who could move the ball both ways - and bowl for as long as his captain wanted. His figures were never sensational, but his best returns came in his later years, including a career-best five for 67 from 30 overs against Central Districts in 1973-74.

FIELD, DAVID WILLIAM, who died on July 4, aged 68, was cricket and boxing correspondent of the now-defunct news agency, Exchange Telegraph. He took over the cricket job from Geoff Wheeler in 1978, and was a regular presence at home Tests until ExTel merged with the Press Association in 1994. Field was a lively fast bowler in club cricket and - though his byline was hardly known to the public - a respected, much-liked member of the press corps, with an impish sense of humour.

FINN, CLIVE MICHAEL, who died on February 13, aged 74, was Sussex's official photographer from 1977 to 1992. His work featured prominently in the county's handbooks and several other publications, including Alan Ross's Ranji (1983), Christopher Lee's county history From the Sea End (1983), and The Longest Journey (2004), which chronicled Sussex's first Championship.

FLOOD, RAYMOND DAVID, died on March 13, aged 78. Ray Flood looked to have a secure place in the Hampshire side after scoring 780 runs in 1959, including his maiden century - 138 not out at Hove - following just three appearances in two seasons. "A short, sturdy, portly lad," observed John Arlott, "his strength lies in two strokes: a truly bucolic swing to, or over, midwicket, which he will gaily play even to a ball pitched outside his off stump, [and] the archaic square-cut off the front foot which he executes according to the ancient canons." But Flood's promise was unfulfilled: he suffered a bad knee injury in 1960 and played only once (hitting 72 against Oxford University). He was released at the end of the season, so missing out on Hampshire's maiden Championship-winning year in 1961. He played club cricket for Lyndhurst for another 30 seasons, averaging 50 in the Hampshire League when he was 50.

FREDERICK, MICHAEL CAMPBELL, who died on June 18, aged 87, had an unusual career which culminated in a solitary Test for West Indies, against England in 1953-54. A sound opening batsman, Frederick played one first-class match for Barbados - when 17 and still at school - two for Derbyshire in 1949, and two more for Jamaica against Len Hutton's MCC tourists. After scoring 85 and 40 for Jamaica Combined Parishes in the two-day game that kicked off that 1953-54 tour, Frederick made two half-centuries in the island's matches against a strong MCC attack, and was selected as Jeff Stollmeyer's opening partner for the First Test at Kingston. But he followed a duck with 30 (including 12, with a hooked six, in one Fred Trueman over), falling to Brian Statham both times. He was dropped, and never played another first-class game. Frederick came to prominence at The Lodge - one of the three schools which served as a nursery for Barbados cricket, and played in the island's top league - alongside Laurie Johnson. The pair went to England shortly afterwards to join a Derby company that made sugar-processing machinery. They played club cricket together, and for Derbyshire as amateurs, sharing a century partnership against Essex at Burton upon Trent in 1949; Frederick's 84 remained his highest firstclass score. Johnson played on for Derbyshire until 1966, but Frederick went back to Jamaica to work in a sugar factory. He retired to England, living in Kent and scoring runs for a club in Folkestone, although he returned to Jamaica a few months before his death.

GALANT, RASHAAD, who died on January 6, aged 66, was an off-spinner who played 15 times for Transvaal's non-white side in the 1980s, in games subsequently given firstclass status. He took six for 45 (ten for 111 in the match) against Eastern Province in December 1982, after claiming seven wickets on debut, against Natal the previous month.

GANGULI, BHAIRAB, who died on July 30, two days before his 83rd birthday, was an Indian umpire (born in Dacca, now in Bangladesh) who stood in five Tests in the 1980s. He had little to do on the first two days of his debut, the Fifth Test against England at Madras in 1981-82: only two wickets fell, before a huge stand between Gundappa Viswanath and Yashpal Sharma. In Ganguli's second Test, at Jullundur two seasons later, Mohsin Khan of Pakistan was lbw to its first ball. He also stood in two one-day internationals, and in 29 first-class matches, over a 15-year career.

GEDYE, SYDNEY GRAHAM, died on August 10, aged 85. A burly, adhesive opener, Graham Gedye flowered late: he played for Auckland for seven years before, rising 35 in 1963-64, he scored his maiden century, 104 against Central Districts at Eden Park. He added 101 in the second innings. This won him a Test place against South Africa: he made a match-saving 52 in around 70 overs on debut at Wellington, and 55 in the Third Test at Eden Park. But, the following season, his second-innings 26 in 160 minutes in the First Test against Pakistan was blamed by some for New Zealand having too little time to push for victory, and he was dropped. Gedye retired after missing selection for the subsequent tour of India, Pakistan and England. He enjoyed a long sporting partnership with Roger Harris, who also played for Auckland, and won a Test cap in 1958-59. "We must have opened the batting in 300 club and rep games," said Harris. "Graham was utterly faithful, so I could try smashing the ball down the ground." A fine all-round sportsman, Gedye was the most recent to play both cricket and rugby for Auckland.

GHOUSE, MOHAMMAD IBRAHIM, who died on September 29, aged 83, umpired eight Tests in the 1970s, starting with the third game of the 1976-77 series against New Zealand in his native Madras. India won after being three for two, but there was an unsavoury incident on the fifth day, when Ghouse, at square leg, turned down Richard Hadlee's appeal for hit wicket against Indian opener Anshuman Gaekwad. Wisden reported that the "heated argument was ended by the bowler hurling a bail at the umpire". Shortly afterwards, Hadlee bowled Gaekwad, splitting the off stump in two.

GIBBS, STEPHEN WALTER, who died of cancer on July 13, aged 63, had many careers - he was a nurse, librarian and university administrator - but one passion: cricket, and especially its history. His great work was his supplement to and extension of E. W. Padwick's A Bibliography of Cricket. In 2004 came The Gibbs Guide to Items Not in Padwick, a revised edition of which, extended to 2014, was delivered a week before he died. To mark the death of Don Bradman in 2001, he compiled The Don: a Bibliography and Referential Journey. Gibbs played into his fifties.

GILES, GARY VICTOR, who died on February 5, aged 74, was an attacking left-hander who forced his way into the Northern Districts side with some heavy scoring for Waikato. A career-best 81 against Wellington in January 1966 propelled him into the New Zealand Test squad against the England tourists. Giles played his last match for Northern Districts ten years later.

GORDON, NORMAN, died on September 2, aged 103. The fan club of Norman Gordon's bowling included at least two illustrious members. Wally Hammond described him as "a really reliable fast right-hander, always attacking and very difficult indeed to knock on to the defensive". And Len Hutton was sure Gordon "would have made a big name for himself had he toured England". He might well have built on his success for South Africa in 1938-39 against England. But by 1947, and South Africa's tour of England, he was 35 - and left out. In the end, his longevity made the greatest mark on the game: he was the first male Test cricketer to turn 100.

His first inspiration had come from watching Jack Gregory and Ted McDonald bowling for Australia at the Old Wanderers in November 1921. At school in Johannesburg, Gordon was so in thrall to cricket that he deliberately failed his exams to ensure another year in the team. He made his debut for Transvaal in 1933-34, and was the leading wicket-taker in the Currie Cup four seasons later, earning selection in 1938-39 for the First Test against England, at the Old Wanderers. Hammond was the first victim in his five for 103, and he dismissed him twice more (and Hutton three times) during the series. When the teams arrived in Durban for the timeless final Test, others might have wilted at the prospect. But Gordon said: "I appeared to be fit all the time, and I never got tired. If Alan Melville asked me to bowl, then Iwould bowl. I didn't mind, because I just loved bowling."

By the time the Test reached its tenth day, Gordon was still running in, and was two balls into his 93rd eight-ball over of the match when rain fell just before tea. With five wickets in hand, England were only 42 short of a target of 696, but needed to catch the 8.05 train from Durban to Cape Town that evening to make the boat home. The game was abandoned. Despite match figures of one for 256, Gordon - known as "Mobil", because of the oil he used on his unruly hair - was the leading wicket-taker in the series, with 20 at 40. He was not tall, but he was strong, and bowled at a brisk pace with impressive late movement. His non-selection in 1947 appeared to be a matter of age and form, but he sometimes wondered whether being Jewish might have been a factor. When he ran in on Test debut, Gordon heard a spectator call: "Here comes the rabbi." Years later, one of the selectors told him they were concerned he might encounter anti-Semitism in England. He made his final first-class appearance against MCC in 1948-49, but retained a close interest in cricket. "I couldn't believe, when the game went professional, that you could play cricket and get paid for it," he reflected. "I would have done it for free."

GOVENDER, MAHALINGUM, died on January 27, aged 68. "Child" Govender played 27 matches later accorded first-class status for Natal's non-white teams over 12 years from 1971-72. A nippy fast bowler, he took nine wickets on debut, and a career-best six for 47 in his last match, against Natal in 1983-84. He took up umpiring, and became chairman of the KwaZulu-Natal Umpires' Association. His older brother, Jugoo Govender (obituary, Wisden 2013), also played for Natal.

GROVES, BRUCE SCOTT, who died on January 31, aged 66, was a hard-hitting batsman who made 237 in his seventh first-class match, for Natal B against Orange Free State in Bloemfontein in 1967-68, hitting four successive sixes from off-spinner Keith Morris. Groves made three further centuries - and a 99 - for Natal B, and had some success for the senior team. His brother, Terence, also played first-class cricket.

HALEEMA RAFIQUE, who had played for Multan's Under-19 and senior women's teams, died in mysterious circumstances on July 14, in an apparent suicide after drinking toilet cleaner at home. Haleema, who was only 18, had been one of five female players who accused Maulvi Sultan Alam, the Multan CC president, of sexual harassment on a TV programme in 2013. Later that year the PCB dismissed the claims, and banned the five women for six months. Sultan Alam, a former member of the Punjab provisional assembly, filed a counter-suit for defamation, and Haleema had received a solicitor's letter shortly before her death. One of the complainants claimed: "Like the rest of us, Haleema had been receiving threatening phone calls to drop the allegations. She was very disturbed by the affair." Her brother-in-law suggested she had not known about the TV show in advance. "She took her kit with her and thought she would be playing in Bahawalpur. Instead they took her to the studio in Lahore. She never talked about the harassment with us, her family."

HALL, PETER JAMES, who died on May 30, aged 86, was a tall fast-medium bowler who won a Blue at Cambridge in 1949. Earlier he had taken five for 51 in a win over Somerset at Bath, and four for 94 against Surrey. Hall, who went to school in Australia, played one match for the New Zealand province Otago in 1955-56, and ten years later represented his native Hong Kong against the MCC team returning home from an Ashes tour, dismissing Geoff Boycott (for 108) and Barry Knight.

HEDGES, BERNARD, died on February 8, aged 86. From his arrival at Cardiff Arms Park in 1950 until his retirement in 1967, Bernard Hedges was a reassuring presence in Glamorgan's batting line-up. He passed 1,000 runs in eight successive seasons and made 21 centuries, although he placed more store in his unshakable Corinthian values. "He was very proud to have played as a professional in the 1950s and '60s in the manner of an amateur in the '30s," said team-mate Peter Walker.

Hedges began in the middle order, but eventually moved up to open, forming notable partnerships with Gilbert Parkhouse and Alan Jones. He was a gifted sportsman, playing rugby for Pontypridd and Swansea; in 1950 he was selected for the final Welsh trial. He also represented a British Air Training Corps football XI in an international military tournament. His first-class career began soon after national service, and he made the transition with little apparent trouble, scoring his first hundred in only his fourth match, against Sussex at Chichester. The diminutive Hedges was raised on the low, slow-turning wickets of South Wales, and honed his method accordingly. His height was a matter of dispute: he said 5ft 6in, his wife 5ft 8in. Either way, he developed a watchful, watertight technique against spin, aided by his natural nimbleness. John Arlott often described him as "dapper".

"Bernard could be very difficult to bowl at," said his former captain Ossie Wheatley. "He had this slightly unorthodox short-arm jab, which meant he would cut or pull goodlength balls." Hedges was at his most prolific in 1961, when he made 2,026 runs, just 45 short of the then club record, set by Parkhouse two years earlier. His final tally of 17,773 (at 25) puts him seventh on Glamorgan's all-time list. His highest score was 182 against Oxford University in his final season, and his best in the Championship 141 against Kent at Swansea in 1961.

He made Glamorgan's first one-day century, against Somerset at the Arms Park in the Gillette Cup's first season in 1963. He also contributed two wickets with his medium-pace and held two catches, winning the county's first match award in the competition. After retiring from the first-class game he worked for Barclaycard, continued to play for Ynysygerwyn, and coached youngsters at the indoor school in Neath. But, as his disenchantment with the modern game grew, he was seen less at player reunions.

That bespoke an idealism evident in his playing days. Walker remembered opening with him against Worcestershire at Stourbridge in 1960. Unused to the role, Walker struggled initially, and began to throw the bat. "Somehow it worked, and the ball began to fly off the edges and I got some runs," he said. "But Bernard was so angry at me for not playing the right way that he wouldn't speak to me during our partnership - or for weeks afterwards."

Don Shepherd made his debut for Glamorgan the same year as Hedges, and they remained firm friends. A few weeks before Hedges died, Shepherd asked him what he regarded as his finest innings, expecting him to cite a technical masterclass against the legspin of Nottinghamshire's Bruce Dooland on a Llanelli turner in 1957. "He thought about it and said, 'Do you know what, I think it was that time we went to play the patients at Broadmoor. We were about ten for four when I came in and made a really good 60.'"

HIRD, WILLIAM, died on April 15, aged 92. Bill Hird first opened the bowling for Tasmania at 31, joining Terry Cowley in a new-ball attack which carried their side for nearly a decade. Tasmanian cricket historian Rick Smith, who batted against him when Hird was in his mid-fifties, remembered a bowler of "unremitting effort and relentless accuracy, which made him a kind of Brian Statham in a minor key". Hird soon showed that international opposition held no terrors: in his second outing for Tasmania, a two-day game against the 1952-53 South Africans at Hobart, he took eight for 82, followed a few days later by six for 122 against the Australian team bound for England. In his penultimate season (1959-60), he took six for 66 against Victoria. As a batsman, he disdained the wearing of a box, but occasionally put on one glove; his rustic methods saw him hammer the 1956 Australian touring team for 60 in half an hour at Hobart. Hird's years as a docker left him perennially fit: at the age of 90 he was still cutting wood for "the old folks" of his neighbourhood.

HOYER MILLAR, GURTH CHRISTIAN, died on March 6, aged 84. Whether as a soldier serving with special forces during the Malayan Emergency, a pioneering businessman, a Liberal politician, a rugby international, or wicketkeeper for Oxford University, Gurth Hoyer Millar exuded fearlessness. He captained Harrow for two years, and played against Eton at Lord's in three successive seasons. At Oxford he made two first-class appearances in 1952, but did better at rugby, and was capped by Scotland against Ireland at Murrayfield in 1953. He went into business, first with BP, later with Sainsbury's. It was here that he left his legacy, launching the Homebase DIY chain. He was less successful as a Liberal candidate, failing to win a seat in five general elections between 1959 and 1974. But he needed little encouragement to dig out his wicketkeeping gloves.

In the 1970s he organised a team to play a regular fixture against his home village of Adderbury in Oxfordshire. The visitors included a youthful Tony Pigott, later of Sussex and England, and son of one of Hoyer Millar's Harrow friends. Though Pigott was too quick for the village players, Hoyer Millar insisted on standing up, and would have continued to do so but for the alarmed protestations of his slip fielders. He was distantly related to Charles Christian Hoyer Millar (obituary, Wisden 1943), who was famed for his determined efforts to rid the Lord's turf of weeds.

HUSSEY, EDWARD, died on October 18, aged 73. When Ted Hussey realised he had two sons with real cricketing talent - Mike and David would both play for Australia - he set about learning how best to coach them. Since his original love was athletics, he emphasised fitness, with obvious success. He was a former board member of the WACA, and spent many years helping to administer the WA grade competition.

ISHERWOOD, RAYMOND CHARLES, died on September 24, aged 76. In the final match of Australia's 1984-85 series against West Indies, Ray Isherwood had a salutary introduction to Test umpiring. A fierce spat took place, involving Viv Richards - who had survived an appeal - Steve Rixon and Allan Border, and the umpires reported the incident to the Australian board, who took no action. After two Tests against India the next season, Isherwood retired; he had also officiated in 21 one-day internationals and 27 other firstclass matches. Urbane and popular, he was a manager for an electrical retailer.

JALIL AHMED KHANZADA, who died on July 25, aged 61, played 18 first-class matches in Pakistan, mainly for Hyderabad, although his highest score of 74 came for Pakistan Universities against Punjab B in the 1974-75 Quaid-e-Azam Trophy. He also took 12 wickets with his medium-pace.

LAKER, PETER GUY, who died on March 7, aged 87, played one game for Sussex in 1948 and another in 1949. Uncertain of his prospects, he turned down a contract, and accepted a job on the sports desk of the Daily Mirror. Two years later he was reporting on an England Test defeat ("West Indies strike out - and BANG go all the records"), as he did many more times. He would remain on the Mirror for 37 years, about half that time as cricket correspondent. His reports were crisp, competent and uncontroversial (he left the messy stuff to his less fastidious deputy, Chris Lander), which allowed him time to indulge in his great delight: press box practical jokes or, as Laker termed them, "stuffings". A classic of the genre was appearing in beret and false beard and convincing Jack Fingleton that his name was Monsieur Bidet and he wanted to learn about cricket. Fingleton took revenge with a 4am phone call. And connoisseurs are fond of retelling of how he rang the Yorkshire journalistic legend Dick Williamson posing as a public-health official raising the delicate matter of how Williamson disposed of his kipper bones. Placing a turd-shaped bit of rubber (or melted chocolate: accounts vary) on John Arlott's desk was received less humorously. Nervous colleagues prepared themselves by watching for the warning sign: Laker with hands in pockets, whistling. He was a gifted all-round sportsman, always ferociously competitive, even at table tennis. He did not take a wicket in his two county matches, though he reputedly dismissed Bill Edrich with successive no-balls in the Bank Holiday game at Hove (this might, however, be a Lakerism). But when he retired from the Mirror in 1985, he returned to his beloved home town of Lewes and resumed his association with Lewes Priory CC, coaching the youngsters, administering stuffings with his leggies in lower-division matches when well into his seventies, and whistling a happy tune.

LAWRENCE, MARTIN PROOM, who died on October 13, aged 73, was chairman of Northamptonshire from 2007 to 2014. Lawrence, who was invited on to the county committee in 2002, had long experience of the food industry, mainly in senior roles with Heinz and United Biscuits, but only a tangential connection with either the county or cricket: he was keener on golf. However, he was affable and businesslike, and earned the respect of his fellow chairmen, as well as leading Northamptonshire through some difficult years to long-awaited on-field success in 2013 and greater financial strength, helped by the purchase of the County Ground freehold.

LEVY, LEONARD NATHANIEL, who died on April 11, aged 74, was a tall, accurate off-spinner who took 40 wickets in 15 matches for Jamaica between 1961-62 and 1973-74. He was often used in long spells: on debut, against the Indian tourists, he sent down 43 overs in the first innings; three years later against the Australians it was 45. In the 1965-66 Shell Shield, there were 51 against Guyana's formidable batting line-up, and another 49 against Barbados. Levy's cheery manner, especially in response to such toil, earned him the nickname "Sunny". He later became coach of his club, Boys' Town, in one of Kingston's most deprived areas.

LEWIS, EUROS JOHN, who died on June 23, aged 72, was one of the great lost talents of 1960s cricket. A big-turning off-spinner, free-flowing left-hander and fine close catcher, Lewis might have become a leading all-rounder. But his inconsistency - and possibly his relish for the game's social side - hindered his progress. "He should really have played for England," said Jeff Jones, a Glamorgan team-mate. It was a tough time to be a spinner at Glamorgan, who already had the off-breaks of Don Shepherd, backed by the slow left-arm of Jim Pressdee and Peter Walker. Lewis, from Llanelli, was initially regarded as more of a batsman, and he opened on debut, against Somerset at Weston-super-Mare in 1961. At the end of that season he made an unbeaten 73 against a strong Surrey attack at The Oval.

Remembered Jones: "Gilbert Parkhouse just stood at the other end admiring." Lewis was part of the team that defeated the Australians in 1964 - dismissing Norm O'Neill in the second innings - and in 1965 produced a remarkable performance against Sussex at the Arms Park, scoring a bewitching 80, then setting up Glamorgan's victory with four wickets in 14 balls; Sussex took note. Lewis always relished the dry wickets of Swansea, and had earned his county cap three weeks earlier after taking eight for 89 against Kent at St Helen's.

Word was spreading: Jim Laker offered tuition in the nets, and Lewis was selected for MCC against the West Indians in 1966, removing Garry Sobers in an otherwise disappointing performance. But the Glamorgan committee had grown tired of waiting for his potential to bear fruit, and he was allowed to leave. He had always been one of the team's most sociable players, and his evening excursions could sometimes work to their benefit: the effectiveness of Peter Loader and Brian Statham was considerably reduced after nights out with Lewis.

He joined Sussex at the instigation of Jim Parks: "It was very much a seamers' wicket at Hove in those days, but Euros bowled well on it." With a point to prove, Lewis took 85 wickets at 25 and scored over 600 runs in his first summer there. After two less productive years he retired in 1969, with 341 wickets at 27 and 3,487 runs at 14. He returned to South Wales to become a coach driver, and played for Llangennech and Dafen Welfare. Former team-mates often pondered what might have been. "After Euros died I phoned Robin Hobbs to tell him the news," said Jones. "He said, 'Oh, what a great bowler. You could hear the ball fizzing in the air as it came down towards you.'"

LINTON, GEORGE LESTER LINCOLN, who died on August 14, aged 57, played 26 matches for Barbados between March 1982 and February 1990. Georgie Linton's mixture of floated leg-breaks and googlies earned him 78 wickets, including five for 35 against Guyana at Bridgetown in 1983-84. He could bat belligerently, with 83 against the Leewards at Basseterre in 1982-83 the highest of his five half- centuries. Three years later, he was the first person given out handled the ball in a first-class match in the Caribbean: he had picked it up after a defensive stroke and handed it back to the bowler, the Windward Islands' Desmond Collymore, who appealed. In later years, he was a popular coach for Barbados's National Sports Council, responsible mainly for youth cricket.

LIVINGSTON, BRUCE ARTHUR LIONEL, died on December 25, while attending a Christmas service at the Sydney church where he had worshipped for nearly all his 87 years. A 6ft 4in bespectacled opening bowler, Livingston played once for New South Wales in 1956-57, while the national team were on their way home from the Ashes, taking four for 40 in Queensland's second innings. While serving as a bank officer in Papua New Guinea in the early 1970s, he was the inaugural treasurer of their cricket board. He later umpired in Sydney grade cricket, and in one match at the 1988-89 Women's World Cup.

LLOYD PACK, ROGER, who died on January 15, aged 69, was an actor of enormous versatility, capable of commanding the stage alongside Mark Rylance and Stephen Fry in Twelfth Night, or playing the endearingly witless road-sweeper Trigger in the BBC sitcom Only Fools and Horses. He was a lifelong cricket-lover, making the XI at Bedales School in Hampshire, and recalling with clarity the highlights of his best score of 64. "As a kid, I loved looking at the score charts and the bowling figures, and I was kind of obsessed with the names, D. C. S. Compton, P. B. H. May, E. R. Dexter - all these detailed things," he said. He revered Compton: "He seemed like the most glamorous figure in the world to me." Lloyd Pack was a fearless advocate of left-wing causes, and said Gentlemen v Players was his "introduction to the class system". He turned out occasionally for Harold Pinter's Gaieties XI, and would use a quiet afternoon at Lord's to learn his lines. Already ill with pancreatic cancer, he spent a day there at the 2013 Ashes Test in ECB chairman Giles Clarke's hospitality box, ignoring the social hubbub and intently watching the action.

MAIR, NORMAN GEORGE ROBERTSON, who died on December 7, aged 86, was a sportswriter, best known for rugby union, which he covered for around 40 years for The Scotsman. Ian McGeechan, the former Scotland and British Lions player and coach, called him "the best rugby writer of them all, without question", while Andy Irvine, Scotland's Lions full-back, admitted: "If Norman put down that you were not at your best, you had to swallow deeply and accept you had a poor game." Mair had played international rugby himself - he won four caps as a hooker in 1951 - and, a keen cricketer, appeared in a firstclass match for Scotland against Worcestershire in 1952, although he had little opportunity in a rain-spattered three days at New Road. His wife of 47 years, Lewine Mair, was a former golf correspondent of the Daily Telegraph.

MANTRI, MADHAV KRISHNAJI, who died on May 23, aged 92, kept wicket in four Tests for India in the 1950s, and was their oldest player at the time of his death. He was a more than useful batsman - his seven centuries included 200 for Bombay against Maharashtra at Poona in the 1948-49 Ranji Trophy semi-final - but was unlucky to be playing in a decade when India changed their keeper almost as often as their captain (the final score was 8-9). In his first Test, against England at Bombay in 1951-52, Mantri opened with Pankaj Roy, and made 39 in a stand of 75 to set up a tall total in a drawn game. His second, at Headingley in 1952, went rather less well: Mantri contributed the third duck as India bellyflopped to nought for four, still a unique scoreline in Tests. He kept his place for Lord's, catching Len Hutton and Peter May, but won only one more cap, in Pakistan in 1954-55. Mantri's first-class career stretched over a quarter of a century to 1967-68, and he finished on the winning side in five Ranji finals for Bombay. Of his 192 dismissals, 56 were stumpings. He remained involved as selector and administrator, managing a team including the 16-year-old Sachin Tendulkar in England in 1990. He was often portrayed as a disciplinarian, although the former Test all-rounder Sandeep Patil said: "He was like a jackfruit - hard and rough to look at from the outside, but very soft and sweet on the inside." Still, the iron glove extended to his own family. Sunil Gavaskar was his nephew, and asked, aged seven or eight, whether he could put on one of his uncle's old India sweaters: "He told me that these are to be earned. That was a big lesson. His heroes were Vijay Merchant and Sir Don Bradman. He always said Merchant was a better opener than me. And they say blood is thicker than water!"

MARKS, MARGARET ELLEN (later Mrs Luff), who died on August 20, aged 96, was the last survivor of New Zealand's first women's Test, against England at Christchurch in February 1935. Just 17, and fresh from a century for Canterbury in the Wanganui Carnival Week, she opened at Lancaster Park, but managed only two as New Zealand were bundled out for 44. She did better in the second innings, with 23 out of 144, though in between England ran up 503. New Zealand's next Test was 13 years later, against Australia at Wellington - and Marks played in that one too, making only five runs in another innings defeat. She caught the overnight ferry back to Christchurch soon after the match finished, to prepare for her wedding two days later.

MARQUES, CHARLES VERNON LEWIS, died on May 5, aged 90. "Robin" Marques was connected with Hertfordshire cricket for 68 years, captaining them between 1956 and 1966, and taking 395 wickets, with a best of seven for 44 against Suffolk at Felixtowe in 1951. He had taken four for eight with his swingers for Tonbridge School against Clifton College at Lord's in 1941. he was Hertfordshire's president from 1984 to 1992.

MARRIOTT, DENNIS ALSTON, died on December 5, aged 75. A lively left-armer, who later throttled back and bowled cutters, Jamaican-born Denny Marriott was a legend in club cricket for Mitcham. He played for Surrey without conspicuous success between 1965 and 1967, but made a surprise return to county cricket five years later, with Middlesex. He kept things quiet in limited-overs games, and appeared in the occasional Championship match, claiming a career-best five for 71 at Trent Bridge in 1973. He took 28 wickets in the Sunday League that season, three more than anyone else, bowling "somewhat in the Derek Underwood mould", according to his captain Mike Brearley, who also thought him "talented and delightful". Marriott took five for 13 against Gloucestershire at Lydney, and was awarded his county cap - but he faded after one more season. "He did a good job for us for a while," Brearley wrote in The Observer, "but however hard he tried - which was very hard - his fielding was never anything but a liability, and his batting was not much better. He had, Mike Smith used to say, electrified hands - hands that worked like magnets in reverse whenever in proximity to the ball." Marriott suffered from diabetes later in life, and eventually had to have a leg amputated.

MARTIN, HERBERT, died on February 18, aged 86. Herbie Martin played for Lisburn and Ireland, scoring 671 runs in 19 first-class matches between 1949 and 1968. He made a five-hour 88 against Scotland at The Grange in 1956, although his best innings in Irish colours were arguably his 54 and 39 in a two-day game against the Pakistan tourists, spearheaded by Fazal Mahmood, in Dublin in 1962. That year Martin, also a fine fielder, was described in Wisden as "by far the outstanding batsman in Ireland". He also played rugby for Ulster and international schoolboy hockey. A university lecturer, he emigrated to Australia in 1972, and died in Brisbane. His brother Tommy, a fast bowler, also played for Ireland before his death from tuberculosis in 1937, aged only 26.

MATTHEWS, FRANCIS, died on June 14, aged 86. There can have been few more headturning visitors to Lord's than Ava Gardner, the Hollywood actress who appeared on the arm of the suave British actor Francis Matthews in 1956, while they were filming Bhowani Junction. Gardner reportedly thought cricket a "stupid game", but told Matthews: "I want to marry you and have a lot of little cricketers." The fact that they split up as soon as filming ended did not lessen his enthusiasm for the sport. Matthews, who played detective Paul Temple on television and was the voice of Captain Scarlet, remained a keen member of the Stage Cricket Club.

MEDH, DINESH PRABHAKAR, who died on January 27, aged 85, was a left-hand batsman who made his Ranji Trophy debut for Gujarat - captained by Vinoo Mankad - as a teenager in 1946-47, and played 16 further first-class games in a career stretching to 1962-63. He was selected for South Zone against the New Zealanders in 1955-56, and shortly after scored 73 for Mysore against Hyderabad, and 56 against Madras. Around this time he was asked to attend a training camp for the Indian team, but had to pull out with an injured hand; he never did play in a Test, although in 1961-62 he was part of a goodwill tour of Pakistan undertaken by an Indian side led by Madhav Mantri (see above). Medh studied at Leeds University, and in 1952 scored 51 and took six for 20 for the Universities Athletic Union against Leicestershire Second XI. In another match, he was hit on the ear by a ball from Alec Bedser, which later caused him hearing problems.

MELLUISH, MICHAEL EDWARD LOVELACE, OBE, who died on February 8, aged 81, made 49 first-class appearances, mainly for Cambridge University, and later served as president of both MCC and the ICC. He was at the forefront of re-establishing links with South Africa before they returned to international cricket. Melluish kept wicket and batted down the order in 43 appearances for Cambridge between 1954 and 1956, claiming 34 victims in 1955. The following year he also played two games for the Gentlemen, stumping Denis Compton twice at Scarborough. In 1957 Compton was a team-mate when Melluish made his one Championship appearance for Middlesex, against Hampshire at Portsmouth.

He worked in the family oil business and later became deputy chairman of a merchant bank. Melluish served on many MCC committees and was treasurer for five years before his 1991 term as president, which at the time came with the ICC presidency as an add-on. He believed passionately in maintaining a balance between commercial interests and the long-term health of the game. Melluish was also a supporter of the Arundel Castle Cricket Foundation, and the match between the Duke of Norfolk's XI and MCC this summer will be played in his honour. His memorial service at St John's Wood church ended to the strains of the BBC cricket theme Soul Limbo, which, his friends agreed, he would have relished.

MENCE, JOSEPH ALAN, died aged 93 on May 12, three days before his son Michael, in the same Isle of Wight hospice. Joe Mence had a long career for Berkshire: his seven centuries for them included 182 not out against Cornwall in 1951. Ten years later he made an unbeaten 123 against Wiltshire at Newbury, after 17-year-old Michael had taken eight for 54, including a hat-trick.

MENCE, MICHAEL DAVID, who died on May 15, aged 70, was a versatile swing bowler and useful left-hand batsman who had some success for Warwickshire and Gloucestershire, although he was more at home in Minor Counties cricket, where he performed with distinction for Berkshire for many years. Mence made his first-class debut for Warwickshire against Middlesex at Lord's in 1962 - dismissing Bob Gale and Peter Parfitt - not long after taking eight for 34 there for Public Schools against Combined Services. E. M. Wellings wrote in Wisden 1963: "For a schoolboy he was an all-rounder quite out of the ordinary, as were his figures - 846 runs, average 70.5, and 84 wickets, average 10.62, both records for Bradfield College." In 1964, Mence (with a county-best five for 26 from 22 overs) and Tom Cartwright (five for 23) skittled Derbyshire for 71 at the County Ground. Mence moved to Bristol in 1966, but left after two low-key seasons and returned to his roots, playing on for Berkshire until 1982, often as captain. He also toured Bangladesh with MCC in 1976-77 - a trip which, indirectly, led to future England teams travelling as such and not, as they had since 1903-04, as MCC: the full side were in India at the same time, and huge crowds turned up in Bangladesh expecting to see Tony Greig's team. Mence returned there as captain on a similar tour in 1980-81. An old-school amateur at heart, he was a familiar face at Lord's, and was an MCC assistant secretary in 1986-87. But he was not suited to office life, and soon decamped to the Isle of Wight, where he ran the Red Lion, an award-winning pub, in Freshwater. The former Wales captain Johnny Bell, a kindred spirit, remembered "a good cricketer, and a proper gentleman who stuck rigidly to the rules - gin before 6pm and whisky after". This probably explains the stentorian cry of "Got any Gordon's?" which once echoed around a sleepy, sun-drenched Lord's as a drinks interval loomed during MCC's annual match against Ireland.

MENDONCA, IVOR LEON, died on June 14, aged 79. The first player from Essequibo County, and the first of Amerindian descent, to represent British Guiana (now Guyana), Mendonca kept wicket and batted capably in ten first-class matches, including two Tests when India toured the Caribbean early in 1962. After an injury in the First Test put Jackie Hendriks out of the series, the selectors alternated between Mendonca and the Barbadian David Allan for the remaining four, presumably with the 1963 tour of England in mind. Mendonca had started his first-class career by scoring 74 as an opener against Barbados in 1958-59; now down at No. 8, he made a fine 78 in his maiden Test innings. He looked a certainty for the England trip, but his employers wouldn't give him time off: the 19-year-old Trinidadian Deryck Murray went with Allan instead, and eventually made the role his own. Mendonca never played another first-class game, although he became a trusted mentor at Georgetown CC. West Indies Test batsman Ramnaresh Sarwan said his "support and the belief he had in me were unconditional. He gave his heart to young people and was always a people's person." His nephew, Clive Mendonca, had a successful career as a footballer in England, primarily for Grimsby, Charlton and Rotherham.

MILLER, ROBERT EDWARD, who died on August 16, aged 66, came late to cricket but spent most of his last 20 years making up for lost time. A detective inspector with Essex CID, Miller headed the investigation that led to the arrest and conviction of Jeremy Bamber for the White House Farm murders in 1985. He was an unusual policeman, sporting a bow tie and regularly quoting P. G. Wodehouse and T. S. Eliot. In 1998 he founded the Gold Bats, the team of the Wodehouse Society, which he named after the author's 1904 novel. The Gold Bats established fixtures against the masters of Dulwich College, Wodehouse's alma mater (a match that fulfilled Miller's preference for "a proper Billy Bunter tea"), and the Sherlock Holmes Society, which is conducted under 1894 Laws; in deference to Victorian mores, players are required to wear cravats, sport facial hair and refrain from playing strokes on the leg side.

MILLS, JOHN MICHAEL, died on November 8, aged 93. A promising schoolboy batsman, Michael Mills blossomed after the war as a leg-spinner, taking seven for 69 against Yorkshire in only his second match for Cambridge University, at Fenner's in 1946. Six-fors followed against Gloucestershire and Somerset, then four in each innings against MCC at Lord's. But he was less successful in the following week's Varsity Match, managing only two wickets as Oxford chased down a small target. Mills was also anonymous in four late-season games for Warwickshire - he was born in Edgbaston - although he finished the summer with 38 first-class wickets at 21. Back at Cambridge, he took six for 76 against Hampshire, before toiling through 53 overs for four for 134 as Oxford amassed 457 in a draw at Lord's. In 1948, he was captain of a side including Trevor Bailey and three other future England batsmen, as Cambridge crumbled to an innings defeat. Mills also won Blues for squash and fives, and became a housemaster at Oundle, his old school, where he ran the cricket for a dozen years. His son Peter also captained Cambridge in the Varsity Match, in 1982.

MORE, RATNAKAR, died on December 9, during a corporate tournament on Mumbai's Oval Maidan organised by his employers, the Tata Group. He was 29, and had been keeping wicket not long before collapsing with a heart attack.

MORTIMORE, JOHN BRIAN, died on February 13, aged 80. There was a pleasing symmetry to John Mortimore's Gloucestershire career which may have appealed to a man who became an accountant. In August 1950, aged 17, he was thrust into a debut against the West Indians at Cheltenham and responded with three wickets, including Clyde Walcott. It ended a quarter of a century later when - again answering an emergency summons - he returned to the College Ground for two last appearances. In his penultimate match, Warwickshire's Phil Oliver became his 1,696th and final victim for Gloucestershire, bringing the curtain down on a career of remarkable longevity, and quiet, undemonstrative achievement.

Mortimore was one of the most consistent off-spinners in England. Tall, angular and with a classical action, he deceived batsmen with flight and artful changes of pace. He did not get extravagant turn - that was left to his fellow Bristolian, David Allen (see above), often operating at the other end - but his armoury included some canny weapons, not least a late outswinger. "He was a sequence bowler," said David Green, a regular opponent for Lancashire who later became a team-mate. "He would bowl three or four overs all designed to make a batsman finally play an unsuitable shot. He could be quite Machiavellian." Mortimore also had the ideal spinner's attitude. "I never saw him lose his temper," said Gloucestershire all-rounder Tony Brown.

Mortimore's statistics confirm his place in the club's history: his wickets tally puts him fifth on their all-time list, and his 594 first-class appearances are bettered only by Charlie Parker; he took 1,696 wickets and scored 14,918 runs. He was captain for three years in the mid-1960s, but his habitual reserve was not ideal for the role. Even so, there was discipline: any miscreant invited for a morning stroll round the boundary knew he was in for a stern rebuke.

In November 1958 Mortimore was summoned to join England's ageing Ashes squad in Australia. His call-up led to a much-repeated joke about a deaf old buffer on hearing the news: "Forty more? Is it as bad as that?" He made an unexpected debut in the Fifth Test at the MCG, and played in the two Tests in New Zealand that followed. But he took just three wickets - a template for an unsuccessful international career. Some said his lack of turn on good wickets was held against him; just as pertinently, he was competing against Allen, Ray Illingworth and Fred Titmus.

In his early days Mortimore had the advantage of watching Tom Goddard, then nearing the end of a career that had begun in the early 1920s, but after national service he became Gloucestershire's main spinner. For a time he was accompanied by Bomber Wells and, when Allen emerged later in the decade, the club had three top-class off-spinners, as well as the left-arm wiles of Sam Cook. When Wells joined Nottinghamshire in 1960, Mortimore and Allen became unchallenged as Gloucestershire's spin twins. It was a partnership that worked because of their contrasting styles, firm friendship and equal absence of ego. Inevitably there were comparisons, and many county batsmen preferred to take their chances against Allen. "Tom Graveney, for one, certainly thought Morty was the better bowler," said Green. A lack of batting depth and weakness in pace bowling meant these were mixed times for Gloucestershire. There was a smattering of top-six finishes, and second places in 1959 and 1969, but also three wooden spoons - the second in 1967, Mortimore's final year as captain. He did the double of 100 wickets and 1,000 runs three times, and took his batting seriously. "He was very good at hitting back over the bowler's head," said Brown, "but if the game needed to be saved he could do that as well."

Under M. J. K. Smith's captaincy, Mortimore was selected for the 1963-64 tour of India, and in the Fifth Test at Kanpur delivered a masterclass in frugality, sending down 48 overs for 39 runs in the first innings. In the 1964 Ashes, he was called up for the Fourth Test at Old Trafford, but his England career ended after 49 wicketless overs, as Australia - led by Bobby Simpson's 311 - ground out 656 for eight. In nine Tests, Mortimore took 13 wickets at 56, small reward for his talent.

The arrival of Mike Procter in 1968 meant Gloucestershire were not to be taken lightly in one-day cricket. In 1971 they reached the Gillette Cup semi-final, but were beaten at a near-hysterical Old Trafford, where David Hughes pierced the gloaming to hit Mortimore for 24 in the 56th over. This was harsh on Mortimore, who had put Gloucestershire in a winning position with the wickets of Clive Lloyd, Farokh Engineer and Jack Simmons. Redemption came two years later in the same competition, when Gloucestershire defeated Sussex at Lord's, with Mortimore bowling his 12 overs in one spell for 32.

He was already taking his accountancy exams by now, and retired at the end of an unsuccessful 1974 season, only to be lured back for those Cheltenham curtain calls. The knowledge acquired over 26 summers was not completely lost to cricket. "When I was secretary he would always come back and look at any young spinners in the nets and offer good advice," said Brown. "He was very good at talking about spin bowling."

MURDOCK, WARREN THOMAS, who died on November 17, aged 70, was an opening batsman from Taupo who played for New Zealand Under-23s during his first season with Central Districts in 1962-63. He had won selection after hitting 139 for Taranaki against the touring Fijians. His first-class adventure seemed to have ended in 1964-65, but he made a surprise reappearance for Central Districts against Canterbury nine years later, after consistent scoring in minor cricket, and equalled his highest score of 55. There was one more match, 12 months on, and then his unusual career really was over.

NEWTON, HARRY, who died on December 22, aged 79, played for Sussex's Second XI for around nine years, but was given only two first-team outings, both in 1966 when he was 31. A fast bowler, he took five for 54 against Hampshire on debut at Hove. He had less success the following week against Essex, and lost his place for good once John Snow returned from England duty. But Newton had an eventful sporting life: during his time at Hove he met Y. S. Shatrusalyasinhji, a great-nephew of Ranji and a Saurashtra player, who arranged for him to spend a winter coaching in India; he also taught cricket and football in Sweden and Holland before becoming a groundsman, first at Worksop College then - for 17 years - at Reigate Grammar School in Surrey.

NIMAL, P. D., who died after being hit by a motorcycle outside his home in Colombo on June 16, aged 54, had been part of Sri Lanka's dressing-room for home Tests for 15 years, looking after baggage and equipment. Nimal was affectionately dubbed the assistant fielding coach, and was often seen helping out during practice. "He did everything for us, from handling our bags to cleaning our pads," said Mahela Jayawardene. The Sri Lankan team wore black armbands in his honour during the Headingley Test in June.

NTIKINCA, EDMUND MTHUTULEZI, who died on June 1, aged 76, played for various non-white teams in Transvaal, starting as a teenager in the mid-1950s. He was one of the first black cricketers to play alongside whites in a high-profile tournament in South Africa: late in 1973 he and Edward Habane teamed up in a multinational double-wicket event at the Wanderers in Johannesburg, and beat the New Zealanders Bevan Congdon and Bruce Taylor. The competition was won by Brian Davison and Mike Procter. A useful batsman and a medium-pacer who also bowled off-breaks, Ntikinca took five for 62 in a one-day game for an African XI against a strong International Wanderers team, containing Ian and Greg Chappell, at Soweto in March 1976. He also played for the non-white representative side in South Africa's Gillette Cup one-day competition, even though he was pushing 40. He later became a vice-president of the Gauteng Cricket Board.

PALA, VAVINENAMA URE, died in June, aged 58. Vavine Pala was a tall all-rounder for Papua New Guinea who enlivened the 1982 ICC Trophy by thwacking an unbeaten 101 against the fancied Canadians, after coming in at 75 for five. It inspired a win which helped the Papuans qualify for the semi-finals. There, they lost to Bermuda, before upsetting Bangladesh in the third-place play-off. Pala had also played in the inaugural ICC Trophy, in 1979, and in all appeared in five such tournaments, two as captain. In addition to his occasionally destructive left-hand batting, he took 33 wickets with his mediumpacers, including five for 16 against Namibia in 1997. At home in Port Moresby, Pala played for Raukele, whose matches against rivals Hoods always attracted large crowds.

PATIL, VITHAL SHIVRAM, died on June 10, aged 86. "Marshal" Patil was a legendary figure in Bombay cricket, a tireless fast bowler who took a record 759 wickets for the Dadar Union club in the Kanga League. He played two Ranji Trophy matches for Bombay in the 1950s, both ending in innings victories. Patil took four wickets in those, but was better known as a coach, at Dadar Union and Podar College, where his charges included future Test players Sanjay Manjrekar, Ravi Shastri and Dilip Vengsarkar. "He was a staunch disciplinarian, extremely punctual and hugely passionate," said Vengsarkar. "He would be the first to turn up at the ground, decked in a crisp shirt and polished shoes. I think all those things rubbed off on us."

PEARSON, TREVOR JOHN, died on March 12, aged 70. After opening the bowling for South Australia in three matches in 1969-70, taking five for 80 against Western Australia, Pearson was seriously injured in a car accident. By the time he recovered the selectors had lost interest, possibly because the legality of his action had also been questioned. Pearson was eventually cleared after a special session with the Test umpire Col Egar. POCOCK, BENJAMIN, was one of 298 casualties when Malaysian Airlines flight MH17 was shot down over Ukraine on July 17, apparently by pro-Russian separatists. Ben Pocock was 20, and flying to Australia to study business management in Perth. He was a keen cricketer who played alongside several members of his family for the St Mary Redcliffe club in Bristol. More than 500 people attended his funeral.

POUGHER, HARRY, who died on July 19, aged 73, was a solid batsman for Lincolnshire for 30 seasons from 1959 to 1988. He scored more than 5,500 runs for them in all, with four hundreds, the highest 135 against Northumberland at Jesmond in 1978, and also made 54 against Hampshire in a Gillette Cup match in 1967. A teacher, he occasionally coached at Lord's, and was later president of the Lincolnshire ECB Premier League.

PUNJABI, PANANMAL HOTCHAND, who died on October 4, 2011, aged 90, was an opening batsman who played five Tests for India - all in Pakistan in 1954-55. He reached double figures in seven of his ten innings, and shared some useful starts with Pankaj Roy. But his highest score was 33. Next season, at home to New Zealand, Vinoo Mankad rejoined Roy at the top of the order: they put on 413 at Madras, a record for more than 50 years, and Punjabi was consigned to the out-tray. He had initially won selection after some tall scoring for Gujarat: centuries in successive matches in 1953-54 were followed by 107 in an unofficial Test against a strong Commonwealth XI at Lucknow. His best of 224 not out came in what turned out to be his penultimate match, against Saurashtra at Rajkot in December 1959. His death was not immediately noted: when Madhav Mantri (see above) died in 2014, Punjabi was briefly hailed as India's oldest surviving Test cricketer, until the BCCI confirmed they had stopped paying his pension three years previously. Deepak Shodhan, born in 1928, inherited the mantle.

RAHIM, SYED ABRUL, who died on August 7, aged 85, was a hard-working mediumpacer who took more than 100 wickets in the Ranji Trophy, mainly for Vidarbha and Madhya Pradesh, and represented Central Zone in four matches against visiting teams, including the England tourists of 1951-52 and 1961-62. Rahim took six for 40 - five bowled, one lbw - from 33.4 overs for Vidarbha against Uttar Pradesh at Meerut in 1960-61.

REEVE, MONICA, who died on December 18, aged 82, was the mother of England allrounder Dermot Reeve. She attended most of his matches, from his early days playing in Hong Kong, where she and her husband were both teachers. She initially occupied herself by keeping score, becoming so accomplished that she did the job in a few games at Lord's. While following her son's progress in India in 1992-93, Reeve took over the England book for the rest of the tour after the travelling scorer Clem Driver fell ill during the First Test at Calcutta - the "nicest and most touchingly homespun little tale to come out of the present debacle", wrote Frank Keating after England were whitewashed 3-0.

ROBERTSON, TEVIN KERRON, was killed in a car crash in southern Trinidad on March 29. He was 19. A tall left-arm fast bowler, he had just joined Trinidad and Tobago's training squad for the regional first-class season after doing well in the annual Under-19 tournament in Barbados. Trinidad's international all-rounder Dwayne Bravo mourned "a talented bowler - we all had high hopes for him". The Tevin Robertson Cricket Foundation, "to empower young people to achieve significance in life through cricket", was started after his death.

ROE, BRIAN, who died on June 29, aged 75, enjoyed a ten-year first-class career with Somerset, before becoming a stalwart of club cricket in Devon. A diminutive, determined opening batsman, Roe had a love for the game that ran deep: at 72 he was still turning out for Barnstaple & Pilton Third XI, heading the averages in 2011 with a best of 85. He had a simple philosophy: "If a bloke can get my wicket, good luck to him. I'm there to stop him."

Roe joined the staff at Somerset in 1954 at the same time as Ken Palmer. The tyros were put in digs at Creech St Michael, travelling to Taunton together by train every day, sandwiches tucked into their bags - no food was provided for the young players. Roe did not have an expansive game, but was devoted to practice and improvement. He first played in 1957, scoring 47 against Kent, but not until 1961 did he make more than a handful of appearances. That summer he scored his first century, and passed 1,000 runs for the first of three successive years.

He was capped in 1962, his most productive season with 1,552 runs at 26 and the best of his four centuries - 128 against Essex at Brentwood. But returns diminished, and he left Somerset in 1966, after 5,010 first-class runs at 22 in 136 matches, although he came back to play for the Second XI; Roe averaged nearly 40 in three seasons with Devon. His job in insurance left ample opportunities for cricket - in 1980 he was reckoned to have made over 4,000 runs. The last of more than 200 centuries came in 1989.

"Brian knew his limitations and always made sure he played within them," said former Somerset captain Roy Kerslake. Roe relished opening against the fastest: Palmer remembered him gently goading Fred Rumsey into bowling at his quickest at indoor nets, and an unflinching 50 against Charlie Griffith at Bath in 1963. "Cricket was in Brian's soul," said Mike Snell, his employer in insurance. "He loved the game and I think it loved him."

ROSENTHAL, THOMAS GABRIEL, died on January 3, aged 78. Even if his favourite position in front of the Lord's Pavilion had not been at the end of a row, next to the aisle where the players leave the field, it would have been hard to miss Tom Rosenthal. Tall, full-bearded, cigar-smoking and with a penchant for flamboyant shirts, red braces and bow ties, Rosenthal was seen on television cricket coverage every year by millions who would not have known he was a distinguished publisher and art historian. He worked for Thames & Hudson, Secker & Warburg and Andre´ Deutsch, and skilfully managed a roster that included Gore Vidal, David Lodge, Umberto Eco and J. M. Coetzee. Rosenthal had been in his usual seat before the 1988 Benson and Hedges Cup final when the Derbyshire players left the field after their warm-ups. He asked Michael Holding if he could publish his autobiography: five years later came Whispering Death. Rosenthal was also in his seat during the 1990 Test against India, when Kapil Dev hit Eddie Hemmings for four successive sixes to save the follow-on. His neighbour was Kenneth Ives, then a complete stranger. "We turned to each other and shook hands," Ives recalled. "We promised that whenever we passed each other in future we would shake hands and utter the magical words 'Kapil Dev'." It was a tradition they maintained until Rosenthal's death.

ROY, HUGH NOEL PRIESTLEY, who died on May 23, aged 78, was an English-born batsman who played 14 matches for Western Province in the 1950s. His one century - 146 against Natal at Cape Town in 1955-56 - came against an attack including the Test offspinner Hugh Tayfield and all-rounder Trevor Goddard. Western Province won the match - and later the title.

RUTO, EMILY CHEPN'GETICH, died of leukaemia on October 24, aged 25. Emmy Ruto captained the Kenyan women's team, often opening both batting and bowling. But more than that she was, as The Guardian's Andy Bull wrote, "an all-rounder, in the truest sense". The daughter of a local politician, she had never picked up a bat before being asked to make up the numbers for her school in 2005. By the end of the year she was in Kenya's A team. She overcame injury (a bad bounce on a bumpy outfield meant she needed metal plates in her jaw, but was playing within two months); lack of opportunities (she had to fight for her team to join a men's league); and poor funding (she took extra kit to training sessions, so others could participate). In her final tournament, the ICC Africa Women's Twenty20 Championship in Dar-es-Salaam in December 2013, Ruto took three for 14 as Namibia were bundled out for 35. Five years previously she had scored 76 not out against Rwanda. Cricket Kenya said: "Emily has always been the rock of the national team."

SAGGERS, KENNETH THOMAS MARTIN, who died on January 31, aged 77, was a batsman and occasional off-spinner who played 20 matches in South African provincial cricket over 12 years from his debut for North Eastern Transvaal in 1958-59. His highest score was 70 for Griqualand West against Western Province at Kimberley in 1967-68.

SANDEEP SINGH died on February 6, aged 25, after being run over by a tractor in Mundal, in India. "He was helping youngsters prepare a pitch for a football tournament in his village," said Haryana president Anirudh Chaudhary. "As they were trying to level the field, the tractor somehow slipped and ran him over." Sandeep started as a batsman, scoring 58 aged 17 in 2006-07. Later, he took up wicketkeeping, especially in limitedovers games. When the England tourists played Haryana at Ahmedabad in 2012-13, he stumped Matt Prior - one of four victims for off-spinner Jayant Yadav, who described his team-mate as someone who fostered a "relaxed and light atmosphere in the dressingroom", and who would often abandon his own practice to keep wicket in the nets, to speed things up.

SANGHI, RAJESH RANJAN, who died of a heart attack while on holiday in the Maldives on October 4, aged 42, was a fluent batsman who scored 108 on his first-class debut, for Rajasthan against Madhya Pradesh at Udaipur in 1993-94. Sanghi put on 217 for the second wicket with Praveen Amre against an attack including Test spinners Narendra Hirwani and Rajesh Chauhan. He added 68 in the next match, but failed to pass 20 in five innings after that - and never played another first-class game, although he continued for the Dadar Union club in Mumbai. Sanghi was the 12-year-old Sachin Tendulkar's first captain in a BCCI-organised tournament - for Bombay Under-15s in the Vijay Merchant Trophy in 1985-86.

SANG HUE, DOUGLAS, died on August 22, aged 82. A Jamaican of the minority Chinese community, Sang Hue was a moderate club cricketer who established a reputation as an umpire at local level so quickly that he was appointed for his debut Test, the Fifth on India's tour of 1961-62, having stood in just one first-class match. At 5ft 4in, he was no taller than a jockey, an impression accentuated by his crouching stance behind the stumps, as if in the home stretch. It became a trademark during his 31 Tests, the last of them during England's tour early in 1981.

Australian captain Ian Chappell rated Sang Hue the best in the world after he stood in all five Tests of their 1972-73 Caribbean tour; it was the first such sequence by a West Indian, and was repeated a year later when England visited. In 1977, he stood in 13 County Championship matches. On Chappell's recommendation, he was the only non-Australian umpire during the two seasons of Kerry Packer's World Series Cricket in the late 1970s.

West Indian fast bowler Andy Roberts said he "always had the confidence and respect of the players". What struck Roberts was that he would give a decision immediately, unlike the slow-death finger of Steve Bucknor, another highly rated Jamaican umpire. Sang Hue's judgments were unencumbered by match referees or DRS. However, he was twice at the centre of controversy, triggered both times by perfectly correct calls. In England's Test at Sabina Park in 1967-68, his decision against Basil Butcher - caught by wicketkeeper Jim Parks, diving down the leg side off Basil D'Oliveira - set off bottle throwing from the packed popular stand on the eastern side of the ground.

Parks's glove had brushed the turf - which, in Jamaican street cricket, counted as not out; any doubt, and the issue was settled by the catcher having to show the back of his hand. To chants of "We want Butcher", "Sang Hue no more", and other slurs directed at his race, the shower of bottles halted play for half an hour. The intimidating arrival of the riot squad, in gas masks with guns at the ready, sparked a further flare-up. The unit's response was a volley of tear gas, which was blown away from its intended target towards the pavilion on the opposite side. Once order was restored, play resumed with Sang Hue back in his position. An unscheduled sixth day was added to accommodate the 75 minutes lost; in the end, England hung on for a draw at 68 for eight.

When they returned six years later, Sang Hue correctly ruled Alvin Kallicharran run out off the last ball of the second day of the First Test at Port-of-Spain. As Bernard Julien blocked Derek Underwood's final delivery, non-striker Kallicharran strolled towards the pavilion; Tony Greig, at silly point, realised the ball was not yet dead, and threw the stumps down at the bowler's end. The England management asked for the appeal to be withdrawn. It took three hours before an official announcement confirmed that, even though it was not strictly within the Laws, Sang Hue and fellow umpire Ralph Gosein had agreed to allow Kallicharran's reinstatement.

In 1977-78, Sang Hue called the off-spinner Bruce Yardley for throwing during Jamaica's match against the Australians. Bob Simpson, Australia's captain - as he had been when Charlie Griffith's action was a major talking point of the 1964-65 tour - objected to his appointment for the Test the following week, and the West Indian board stood him down.

Sang Hue did, indirectly, put an end to one of Packer's several television innovations. An interviewer was stationed on the boundary for a chat with the dismissed batsman. It went well for a while, until Roy Fredericks was given out caught behind by Rod Marsh off Greg Chappell in the Adelaide Super Test. "What happened there, Freddo?" The answer was terse: "Ask fuckin' Sang Hue." The experiment was hurriedly shelved - for around 30 years, before being dusted off for the Twenty20 format.

SENGUPTA, APOORVA KUMAR, who died on September 14, 2013, aged 74, had a memorable maiden season in first-class cricket, scoring a hundred on debut and winning a Test cap. Starting for Services against the West Indian tourists in 1958-59, he followed 35 with 100 not out, defying the pace of Roy Gilchrist and the wiles of Garry Sobers and Lance Gibbs. When, as an 18-year-old military cadet, he took six for 32 with his legbreaks in his first Ranji Trophy match, against Delhi, it seemed as if a new star had arrived, and he was called up late to open in the Fourth Test at Madras: it was only his fifth firstclass match. That was the end of the good news. Sengupta fell to Wes Hall and Gilchrist for one and eight, did not bowl, and never won another cap. He played first-class cricket for Services for a decade, but managed only one more century, an undefeated 146 against champions Bombay in the 1959-60 Ranji semi-final. Sengupta's cricket career may have stalled, but his military one was a success: he rose to become a lieutenant-general in the Indian Army.

SEVER, CLIFFORD E. B., who died on June 4, aged 88, went to Hollywood as a boy, but stayed for the rest of his life to become one of the leading evangelists for cricket in the United States. Severn's unfailing enthusiasm did much to keep the sport alive in southern California and, until he died, he kept a rolled-up pitch mat in the boot of his car, just in case he stumbled across the chance of a game. "My father was the unofficial ambassador for cricket in America," said his son, Cliff junior. Severn even managed to play for his adopted country (as did two of his brothers), making his international debut aged 39 against Canada in Calgary in 1965. He also turned out against Canada in Los Angeles the following year. Severn was born in London, but decamped, with his South African parents and seven siblings, to California in 1933. All the children went into the movie business, and Severn appeared in 18 films, including a starring role in Gaucho Serenade (1940), and a small part in John Ford's Oscar-winning How Green was My Valley (1941).

He quickly became wrapped up in thegolden age of cricket in LA, joining the Hollywood Cricket Club and becoming friends with C. Aubrey Smith, who had played an important role in the club's foundation. Visitors included Ronald Colman, David Niven and Basil Rathbone, while Laurence Olivier, summoned to nets by Smith within hours of arriving in California, had to borrow boots from Boris Karloff.

Severn served in the British Army in South Africa during the Second World War and, on returning to America, formed with his father the Britamer (British-American) club, still members of the Southern California Cricket Association. Later he was involved in the foundation of clubs at the University of California, Los Angeles, and at Palo Alto. Bob Willis, who did some coaching in California in 1976, recalled Severn's "cricket fervour and eccentricity". Severn worked as a representative for several sports-equipment companies, attending Olympic Games and football World Cups; a bat was always in his hand luggage.

SHABBIR HUSSAIN, who died on May 15, aged 75, might have played more first-class cricket than he did in Pakistan but for worries about his bowling action. An off-spinner, he appeared against the Indian tourists early in 1955, and later that year against the New Zealanders, although he failed to take a wicket in either game. In 1966-67 he claimed eight in the match for Karachi Whites against Lahore Greens. He became a noted coach, and umpired three first-class matches.

SHAH, HARILAL RAISHI, who died on June 11, aged 71, was a batsman from the Nairobi Gymkhana club who captained East Africa in the inaugural World Cup, in England in 1975. Like his outclassed side, he had a poor tournament, lasting only three balls for ducks against New Zealand and India, before getting off the mark against England at Edgbaston, only to labour to six from 53 deliveries. He did better just after the tournament, making 59 and 33 against Sri Lanka at Taunton in his only first-class match. Harilal had a long career as a player - he also toured England in 1972, making 83 in a one-wicket victory over Nottinghamshire at Trent Bridge - and an administrator: he served on ICC committees, and was instrumental in Kenya gaining one-day international status. He became a national selector, and managed the team at the 1999 World Cup in England.

SHAHID, MOHAMMAD, who died on December 12, aged 66, scored five centuries in a long career in Indian domestic cricket, the highest 181 for Railways against Haryana in Delhi in 1971-72. Six years later he was Uttar Pradesh's captain when they reached their first Ranji Trophy final, only to lose to Karnataka, for whom Bhagwat Chandrasekhar took 12 for 81. In his next match, the first of the 1978-79 season, Shahid hit 116 as Central Zone demolished a strong South Zone side in their Duleep Trophy match at Nagpur. Shahid, who also bowled passable leg-breaks, later coached at Aligarh University.

SHUTLER, PETER CECIL, who died on September 21, aged 68, was the accordion player in the Yetties, the English folk band whose 49 albums included The Sound of Cricket (1984), a collaboration with John Arlott that included numbers such as A Tickle o' Me Spinnin' Finger and Beefy's Army, a tribute to Ian Botham. The band made many trips on behalf of the British Council, and Shutler recalled: "You go to India, Bangladesh or Pakistan and talk about John Arlott, and they know exactly who you mean."

SMITH, OLIVE MARY, died on February 14, aged 90. "Ollie" Smith had an unusual Test career: first selected to keep wicket for Australia against New Zealand in 1956-57, she had to wait almost 12 years before being chosen again, this time when England toured. By then Smith was 45, but still playing with the liveliness and skill of someone much younger. She had first appeared for New South Wales in 1946-47, and remained a fixture for over 20 years. Smith's friend Muriel Picton - her captain against England - recalled "her uncanny anticipation, which allowed her to stump like lightning, and her ability to read the game, which was a vital asset for her captain". Her four Test appearances produced six catches and five stumpings. The stocky Smith was an exuberant personality, and a distinctive presence. After finally retiring, she coached at club and state level, and was a state and national selector for 20 years from the early 1970s. She worked for the Wills tobacco company for 44, and was a prominent hockey player and administrator.

SMITHYMAN, MICHAEL JAMES, who died on September 26, 2011, aged 65, represented South African Schools alongside Barry Richards and Mike Procter. He did not match their achievements, but did play 40 games, mainly for Natal, in a first-class career that stretched over ten seasons from 1965-66. A fast-medium bowler who could also bat, Smithyman claimed four for 25 for Natal B against Eddie Barlow's Western Province at Durban in 1968-69, although a more significant four-for had come for the full Natal side against Eastern Province a year earlier, when his new-ball partner Procter finished with none for 128. He made his highest score of 73 against Oxford University, on the South African Universities' tour of England in 1967, and also took eight for 74 in the match. After retirement Smithyman went into business, becoming chief executive of several large companies, including Dunlop Tyres, and Coates, the world's largest textile manufacturer.

STRETCH, DR RICHARD ALDWORTH, who died on October 27, aged 61, was a wicketkeeper-batsman for South Africa's Border province, and later their association's president. He hit 168 for Border against Eastern Province B at Grahamstown in 1980-81. Stretch was director of sport at the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University in Port Elizabeth at the time of his death. A member of Cricket South Africa's medical committee, he undertook research into the safety of cricket helmets, and also designed a pressure sensitive bat - which showed the exact point of impact of the ball - as a coaching aid.

SUBBU, LINGANATH THAMMIAH, who died on September 16, aged 83, played 18 first-class matches in India in the 1950s, mainly for Mysore (now Karnataka). His highest score of 59 came while captaining them at Madras in 1956-57. He represented Central Zone against the 1958-59 West Indian tourists, dismissing Garry Sobers - the scorecard entry was Sobers c sub b Subbu - Collie Smith and John Holt with his medium-pacers, but played only one more first-class match.

SWAINSON, JOHN ANTHONY ROWLAND, OBE, died on December 14, aged 93. Tony Swainson, a retired Royal Navy captain, took charge of the Lord's Taverners in 1972, and transformed what had largely been a cosy celebrity club centred on London into a charity which stretched far north of Watford. Swainson started the Taverners' drive to provide minibuses for children with special needs: the 1,000th vehicle was presented in 2012. He handled his celeb-strewn organisation with aplomb, without being star-struck. Tim Rice recalled an exchange, while he was president, after lining up David Essex to sing at the annual ball. Swainson was unenthusiastic, and eventually agreed "as long as he doesn't sing 'A Winter's Tale', it's bloody awful". Rice pointed out that he himself had written it. Swainson said: "I didn't know that. But it's still bloody awful." He stepped down as the Taverners' director in 1991, and later wrote an autobiography, Smelling of Roses, with a cover decorated in the charity's colours of green, red and dark blue.

TALWAR, ROHIT GAUTAM, who died of cancer on December 14, aged 49, was the cricket operations manager of the Uttar Pradesh Cricket Association. A left-hand batsman, he had played 26 first-class matches for Madhya Pradesh, usually going in at No. 3. He extended his only century to 199, against Vidarbha at Nagpur in December 1987. He was Irvine's professional in Scotland for four years from 1987.

THOMAS, LESLIE JOHN, OBE, who died on May 6, aged 83, was a prolific novelist who enjoyed huge commercial success with his first book, The Virgin Soldiers, in 1966. Its bawdy subject matter established a template for his writing which Thomas found difficult to escape, although he did not complain, once describing the title as "the best three words I ever wrote". He had previously worked as a reporter on the London Evening News,where he ghosted Len Hutton's column. The two became firm friends. "I love the game," said Thomas. "I love playing it, watching it, reading about it - everything about it." He met his second wife, Diana, on a train journey to Lord's, and became so engrossed in conversation that he missed his stop. He was Wisden's book reviewer in 1998, lamenting the "great pyramid" of titles published and the "dire" quality of jacket designs.

THOMAS, LORNA PAULINE, MBE, who died on September 17, aged 96, was a much loved presence in Australian women's cricket for over 50 years. After appearing for New South Wales in the late 1940s and 1950s, Thomas became manager of the national team. Her tenure, from 1960 to 1976, encompassed five overseas tours, including the inaugural Women's World Cup in England in 1973, and saw the first glimpses of the changes which were to transform the sport. Helen Lee was the youngest member of the 1963 team in England, and remembered Thomas - universally known as Aunty Lorna - as "well organised, and a good psychologist who knew the needs of each player". Muriel Picton, vice-captain of that side, described her as "having a velvet glove which concealed a quiet authority", useful in charming officialdom. Picton also recalled her sense of humour: she led the team to a party on the boat to England in 1963 dressed as The Old Woman Who Lived in a Shoe. A nurse in the prison system, Thomas tended to the welfare of women in the holding cells at Sydney's Central Police Station. She was appointed MBE in 1978 for her services to women's cricket.

TOWNSEND, ALAN, who died on January 27, aged 92, was an outstanding servant to Warwickshire throughout the 1950s as an adaptable lower-middle-order batsman, lively medium-pace change bowler and, above all, outstanding slip fielder. "He had the best pair of hands I ever saw," said his team-mate Jack Bannister. Townsend was also a stickler for cricket's spirit, walking for the slimmest of edges, and refusing to claim catches he wasn't certain had carried, sometimes to the frustration of colleagues.

Townsend was born in Durham and grew up in Middlesbrough. He lost key years to the war, and was 26 by the time he made his first-class debut, in 1948, having played for Durham the previous year. He was fully integrated into the Warwickshire side in 1951 when they won the Championship under Tom Dollery, who struck an important blow for the standing of professional captains. "We knitted together as a team," Townsend recalled in 2008. "When we batted we didn't bother about averages, and we were able to bowl sides out." His own contribution that summer was 816 runs at 27, and 21 wickets at 23. He also took 39 catches. The title was wrapped up on a Friday afternoon, when Yorkshire collapsed to an unexpected defeat by Worcestershire at Scarborough. News from North Marine Road was hard to come by and, unable to stand the tension, Eric Hollies set off for the evening newspaper office. Townsend, meanwhile, went home and waited for a telegram from Edgbaston. The players reconvened at a local pub to celebrate.

Grateful members established a fund to reward the team, and Townsend invested in a Pye radiogram on which to listen to his favourite records of the Austrian tenor Richard Tauber. There was also an inscribed watch, which he treasured, but the club did not want the players to enjoy too much largesse, and later donations were diverted to ground improvements. Townsend and Bert Wolton spent a freezing winter laying concrete steps for the Rea Bank.

There were no more titles, but Townsend continued to contribute to the team effort, passing 1,000 runs five times, and taking 74 wickets in 1952. He made six hundreds, with a best of 154 in just under five hours against Worcestershire at Dudley in 1957. His best bowling, seven for 84, came against Essex at Brentwood in 1949. And the catches continued to be taken without fuss. "He was not particularly athletic, but he stood stock still," said Bannister. Cricket historian Robert Brooke described Townsend's catching as like "picking cherries from a low branch". On one occasion at Bristol, Bannister was in doubt Townsend had got his fingers under a chance offered by George Emmett off Hollies. Emmett started to walk, but Townsend called after him: "Come back George, I'm not sure." Hollies' response was lost in a fusillade of expletives. Townsend retired in 1960 after 340 matches for Warwickshire had brought him 409 catches - a club record later surpassed by M. J. K. Smith - on top of 11,965 runs and 323 wickets. For many years he was assistant coach at Edgbaston, with a reputation as a shrewd assessor of emerging talent, but with no time for those who "think they know it all at 18".

As a boy of 12 in 1934, Townsend had been taken by his father to see Don Bradman bat in the Test at Headingley. It was 65 miles from home, and bicycle was the only available transport. They set off before six, missed the start of play, and had to stand in broiling temperatures until seats became vacant at tea. The journey home was even more arduous: father and son, soaked by a thunderstorm, did not get back until after 2am. "Sometimes I still have bad dreams about that journey," he admitted more than 70 years later.

TRESTRAIL, ARTHUR LIONEL, who died on October 20, aged 93, was an all-rounder who played six first-class matches for his native Trinidad in the 1940s, before emigrating to New Zealand. In his final game, against British Guiana at Port-of-Spain, Jeff Stollmeyer made 324 as Trinidad ran up 750; Trestrail's contribution was 18. His younger brother Kenny, who predeceased him by 21 years, was a highly regarded batsman who toured England with West Indies in 1950.

VAN GRAAN, ROBERT PAUL, died on February 17, aged 74. Robbie van Graan was a gifted batsman, and sometime off-spinner, for Western Province's non-white side. He played 16 matches later given first-class status, one of them for the South of South Africa against the North at Lenasia in 1973-74, when his undefeated second-innings 44 ensured a draw. His highest score was 67, for Western Province against Transvaal in the Dadabhay Trophy earlier that season. In 1966-67 van Graan had opened - and top-scored - for a Western Province Invitation XI against a side raised by Basil D'Oliveira, on the Green Point ground in Cape Town where D'Oliveira played much of his early cricket.

VERITY, DR MAURICE ANTHONY, died on June 14, aged 83. Born in Leeds, and schooled at Denstone College in Staffordshire, Tony Verity later moved to California, and became professor of pathology and lab medicine at UCLA. He was a staunch supporter of cricket in the United States, playing for them in the annual match against Canada in 1963, and umpiring the same fixture in 1974. In 1963 he had become the founding secretary of the USA Cricket Association. Verity organised several tours to and from America, including one by the national team to England in 1968, on which he played.

WEST, ALAN, died on September 28, aged 76. Amid the emotional and raucous celebrations at Taunton on September 15, 2011, when Lancashire secured a first outright County Championship for 77 years, no one wore a broader smile than West, their meticulous and much-loved scorer. "He was at the heart of the team," said coach Peter Moores, who had invited him into the dressing-room for the pre-match team talk. For 15 seasons West kept the Lancashire scorebook (as well as scoring England games at Old Trafford), provided statistics to players, and performed a variety of other administrative tasks. No one could have taken more seriously the responsibility of transporting the Red Rose flag to away matches.

A former teacher, West possessed a huge reservoir of knowledge that he used to good effect in quizzes and his daily crossword. Mike Atherton recalls arriving at countless hotel breakfasts to find him in the process of polishing off the broadsheet cryptics. West was born into a poor mining family in St Helens. He won a scholarship to Manchester Grammar School, then another to Downing College, Cambridge, where he read modern languages. He retired from teaching at 55, and found his great passion on succeeding Bill Davies as Lancashire's scorer in 1997. He was already a well-known figure in that part of the world: a presenter of BBC Radio Lancashire's weekend cricket coverage, a leg-spinner for Langho Centre, and author of books on the history of the Ribblesdale League and the Lancashire Cricket Federation. A joint biography of the Lancashire spinners Malcolm Hilton and Bob Berry remained unfinished.

West was a member of the Notchers, a team of county scorers who appeared on the BBC quiz Eggheads. He had the gift, said Mike Watkinson, the former Lancashire allrounder and director of cricket, of being friendly with the players, while at the same time maintaining the right distance. "Whenever we asked him for some figures, he always handed them over with the words 'subject to auditor'," said Watkinson. "But with Westy, nothing ever needed to be audited. He was always right."

WHALLEY, ERIC, who died on June 27, aged 74, was famed and feted in Lancashire for rescuing Accrington Stanley FC. He took over as chairman of the struggling club in 1995 and, to general astonishment, guided them back into the Football League 11 years later. Whalley had previously played cricket for Rishton in the Lancashire League from 1958 to 1983, usually keeping wicket: he collected 350 catches and 105 stumpings, in addition to more than 6,000 runs. He was part of the Rishton team that overcame Burnley, and their West Indian fast bowler Charlie Griffith, to win the Worsley Cup in 1964. Whalley skippered the side to further wins in 1967 and 1973, and his company later sponsored the tournament, and the league itself. "When I went back into the Leagues," remembered David Lloyd, "Eric was Rishton's keeper-captain. He moved the field by local landmarks: 'Bill, next to that woman in the red coat… Harry, next to that bloke with the pint… Tom, in line with that garage…' So I asked him: 'Don't you know any fielding positions?' And he said: 'I do, but they don't!'"

WHITEHEAD, REX VERNON, died on June 26, aged 65. Although he umpired only five Tests, including one women's match, Whitehead found himself caught up in several controversies. He stood in each of the three Tests of India's 1980-81 tour of Australia; in the Third, at Melbourne, he gave Sunil Gavaskar out lbw just as he and Chetan Chauhan were about to clear India's large deficit. An incensed Gavaskar signalled he had hit the ball, and ordered Chauhan to leave the field with him. Whitehead's partner, Mel Johnson, was also confident there had been no bat involved, and saw the Indians' decision as tantamount to a forfeit - but Whitehead felt cricket would be better served by allowing the match to continue. The forceful Indian manager, Wing Commander S. A. K. Durrani, ordered Chauhan back to the crease and Gavaskar into the pavilion, then issued a statement describing his captain's actions as "deplorable… irrespective of any circumstances". India made enough runs to set a small target, and Kapil Dev bowled them to a famous victory. Two years later, in the Melbourne Ashes Test which England won by three runs, Whitehead gave David Gower out caught behind. Slow-motion replays, repeated endlessly, showed he had not hit the ball. Whitehead retired soon afterwards, weary of having decisions pored over. Apart from his Tests, he stood in 14 one-day internationals, and 12 other firstclass matches, all in Melbourne. An outgoing and warm personality, he served as president of the Victorian Umpires and Scorers Association.

WHITING, NORMAN HARRY, who died on February 23, aged 93, played 59 matches for Worcestershire shortly after the war. A big scorer for the Second XI, he found firstteam cricket harder going. His best season was 1950, when his 620 runs included 118 against Essex at Romford. Whiting played on until 1952, marking his final season with his second century, 111 against Oxford University. He returned in his fifties to captain the Second XI, including a few incongruous appearances in 1974 in the Under-25 competition, in which an over-age player was permitted. In 2003-04 he was Worcestershire's president, and was their oldest cricketer at the time of his death.

WILLIAMS, DR CHARLES DEREK, died on September 19, aged 89. Derek Williams played once for Oxford University, against Gloucestershire, in 1946. After fielding through centuries by Charles Barnett and Wally Hammond, he made three and nought. Williams also turned out for Glamorgan's Second XI for several seasons, but earned greater fame as a rugby player, winning two caps for Wales as a flanker. His first match was in 1955, when he was 30, and the following season he scored the try that clinched the Five Nations in a 5-3 victory over France at Cardiff Arms Park. In 1953 he had been part of the Cardiff side who beat the All Blacks.

WILLIAMS, GERTJIE, died on October 4, aged 73. Gert Williams was an off-spinner who played 16 matches later accorded first-class status for Western Province's non-white side in the 1970s. His bowling was often almost unplayable: he once took eight for 11 in a provincial game, and had a spell of six for one in a club match at Green Point. His best first-class figures were five for 43 against Natal in 1973-74; two years earlier he had struck 80 against Eastern Province. Williams was also a noted rugby player, and was made an honorary Springbok in 2004-05.

WILLIAMS, PETER HOWARD, was found dead on May 26, aged 56, having apparently committed suicide after suffering from depression. He played 50 matches in South Africa over eight seasons from 1978-79, more than half of them for Natal's B side, although his highest score of 118 came in his third match for their A team, against North Eastern Transvaal in Pretoria in 1979-80, when he shared a sixth-wicket stand of 233 with Tich Smith. That same season Williams made 113 to rescue Natal from 44 for five in a one-day semi-final against Transvaal. But the runs dried up; a season with Eastern Province didn't help, and he faded from view. He also played a few matches for Nottinghamshire's Second XI, scoring 101 against Leicestershire in 1980.

WILSON, JULIAN DAVID BONHOˆ TE, who died on April 20, aged 73, was the BBC's racing correspondent for more than 30 years, and a polished and professional broadcaster, but he had a lifelong love of cricket. His grandfathers were E. W. Mann, who played for Cambridge University and Kent, and led an MCC tour to North America in 1905, and F. B. Wilson, a Cambridge team-mate and friend of Mann. His father was the Daily Mirror's Peter Wilson, the "man they couldn't gag". Julian Wilson's own cricket career was modest - he never got further than twelfth man at Harrow - but he played for most of his life, with a seriousness that meant he was mortified when a young batsman hit him for six sixes in an over in a game at Newmarket in 2005. He appeared in the annual matches organised by the trainer Josh Gifford (see Wisden 2013, page 219) at Findon on the Sussex Downs, and also ran his own games against a Gifford XI at Chippenham, near Newmarket. Alan Lee, the racing and former cricket correspondent of The Times, recalled: "Anyone misfielding or, God forbid, dropping a catch off his incredibly slow bowling did not hear the end of it."

WINFIELD, HUGH MERVYN, died on October 18, aged 81. Merv Winfield was a popular member of the Nottinghamshire dressing-room for a dozen years from 1954. A fine fielder at slip or gully, he made 115 in his sixth match, against Oxford University in 1956. But, to begin with, his prolific Second XI form - four days before that hundred he made a double-century against Lincolnshire - did not otherwise translate into first-class success. After playing only two matches in 1958, he faced the chop, but responded with his best summer: 1,552 runs, including a match-saving unbeaten 120 against Gloucestershire, and 102 as Nottinghamshire chased down 305 to beat Lancashire at Trent Bridge.

He passed 1,000 in each of the following three years as well, and was rewarded with his county cap in 1962, when he made his highest score of 134 against Glamorgan. Peter Wynne-Thomas's county history describes Winfield as a "jovial raconteur", and that innings at Swansea provided him with one of his favourite stories. He was chuffed to receive a phone call from Trent Bridge the following morning, offering congratulations. "Thank you," said Winfield. "I had a little luck, but…" "No," interrupted the caller, "your wife's given birth." Big scores proved elusive from then on, and he left the staff after the 1966 season. He later played for Shropshire and Lincolnshire.

WINGREEN, IVAN MICHAEL, who died of a brain tumour on May 10, aged 52, played 26 matches for Western Province B in South Africa in the 1980s. He made 103 against Eastern Province B in 1985-86, but overall couldn't quite score enough for a run in the full Western Province side. He later emigrated to Australia, where he played for St Kilda in Melbourne alongside Shane Warne - and, on at least one occasion, instead of him. In 1989 the young leg-spinner returned three stone overweight from a summer of club cricket in England. When St Kilda's first team were announced in alphabetical order for the opening match of the new season, the last name on the list was Wingreen rather than Warne, who was aghast to find he had been dropped to the Thirds on fitness grounds.

The obituaries section includes those who died, or whose deaths were notified, in 2014. Wisden always welcomes information about those who might be included: please send details to almanack@wisden.com, or to John Wisden & Co, 13 Old Aylesfield, Golden Pot, Alton, Hampshire GU34 4BY.