A top-order batsman, Mark Saxelby started at Nottinghamshire where he proved a solid if not spectacular player, but his career seemed to take off when he moved to Durham in 1994. He made 1102 runs at 34.82 in his first summer, making a career-best 181 on his Championship debut and followed up with 63 and 131 in the next game against Essex. But in 1995 he moved down the order to accommodate the incoming Mike Roseberry and that coincided with a loss of form. By the end of June he had lost his place in the side and he left the county at the end of the season. He played Minor Counties cricket for Cheshire and Cornwall while qualifying as a teacher, but reappeared in 2000 when signed for Derbyshire although he only made two appearances. In October of that year he died after deliberately drinking weedkiller. It subsequently emerged he had been suffering from clinical depression.
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