Wisden Obituaries, 2016

AARON, SANDY, who died on April 26, aged 86, was a brisk inswing bowler and useful batsman who took five for 77 - and scored 69 runs for once out - on his Ranji Trophy debut for Kerala, against Andhra in January 1957. The following season he bowled respectably in three more matches - taking all the wickets, including future Test batsman M. L. Jaisimha, as Hyderabad slipped to 46 for three - but faded away. His brother, Leslie, played once for Kerala, in 1958-59.

ABDUL SATTAR EDHI, who died on July 8, aged 88, was a Pakistani humanitarian who set up several charitable organisations, including the world's largest free ambulance service. The BBC said he was "Pakistan's most respected figure, seen by some as almost a saint". Despite raising millions, Edhi continued to live in a small apartment adjoining his Foundation's offices in Karachi, and reportedly owned only two sets of clothes. The Pakistan team in England, which sported the Foundation's logo on their kit, observed a minute's silence before the tour match against Sussex, while former PCB chairman Najam Sethi suggested Lahore's Gaddafi Stadium be renamed after him.

ADISESH, LINGHANATHA THAMMAIAM, who died on November 19, aged 89, was a handy all-rounder who came close to Test selection for India in the early 1950s. After making 70 and 183 (entering at nought for two) for Mysore against Hyderabad at Bangalore in December 1951, he was called up for South Zone's match against the England tourists, and top-scored with 69 before being bowled by Derek Shackleton. The following season he made 87 against the Pakistanis, and was one of four South Zone players chosen for the tour of the West Indies - but all four pulled out, apparently bothered by the preponderance of West Zone names in the squad. He was not considered by India again. Adisesh moved to England to complete his medical studies, and played in the northern leagues, latterly for Liverpool.

AITKEN, ROBERT, died on May 16, aged 76. Usually known as "RA", Bobby Aitken was an unmistakable figure in Sydney club cricket for nearly three decades, mostly with Richie Benaud's old team Central Cumberland. He bowled off-spin with the aggression and glower of a fast bowler, and took 816 first-grade wickets, the sixth highest haul; he was also a useful batsman. However, he frequently ended up before the disciplinary committee; he should have played for New South Wales, but his temperament was seen as too combustible.

ALI, HAMZA SHABBIR, died on June 9 after an incident in the River Avon at Saltford, between Bristol and Bath. He was 20. An inquest - which returned a verdict of accidental death - was told that Ali, a non-swimmer, had been goaded into the water by two other youths, who stayed on the bank as he got into difficulties. Passers-by eventually managed to get him out, but he died the following morning. A seamer who had played limited-overs matches for Rawalpindi in Pakistan, Ali made his first-class debut for Hampshire against Cardiff MCCU two months before his death, taking two wickets; he had just joined the MCC cricket staff at Lord's. "He was an extremely talented young man and a beauty of a guy," said Hampshire team-mate Gareth Andrew.

ALLIN, THOMAS WILLIAM, died on January 4, aged 28, after jumping from the Torridge Bridge in Bideford, Devon. Tom Allin was a seamer who played one first-class match for Warwickshire. His mother told an inquest he had been through "a tough few months": several weeks earlier, he had been cut from his car after a head-on crash and, though his physical recovery was progressing well, he told a nurse his mood was "up and down". He was also concerned about his brother, who had been seriously ill. The inquest recorded a verdict of suicide. The son of Tony Allin, who took 44 wickets for Glamorgan in one summer of first-class cricket in 1976, Tom progressed through Devon's age-group teams, and made his Minor Counties debut against Wiltshire in 2007. By the following summer he was playing for Warwickshire's Second XI. He spent six years at Edgbaston, and made his first-team debut against Surrey in a 40-over game in August 2011. His single Championship appearance came against Middlesex in May 2013. He finished wicketless in both. Allin was released by Warwickshire in 2013, and returned to Devon, making one Minor Counties appearance in 2015. He played for North Devon in the Devon League, was involved in primary-school sports coaching in Barnstaple and Bideford, and was head of cricket at Shebbear College. "Such sad news to hear of Tom's passing," tweeted the England all-rounder Chris Woakes, a former team-mate at Edgbaston. "A great lad who always had a smile on his face."

ANWAR ELAHI, who died on October 19, aged 79, was a leg-spinner who played in the first Quaid-e-Azam Trophy match in Pakistan, for Sind against Bahawalpur (for whom Hanif Mohammad carried his bat) at Dacca in 1953-54. He played on for various teams until 1969-70, but never bettered his four for 64 on debut. His brother, Ikram Elahi, toured England in 1954 and West Indies in 1957-58 without winning a Test cap.

APPLEBY, EDGAR, who died on May 8, 2015, aged 84, was a bookseller in Keswick, in the Lake District, and president of the local cricket club. The shop's profits were not significantly harmed by his habit of discounting books - especially on cricket, where he specialised in overseas annuals - if the potential buyer could answer questions about the contents. Appleby was a sought-after speaker on a diverse range of subjects, including cricket, the sinking of the Bismarck and the Titanic, and the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand. He recited his speeches without notes, having fine-tuned them on long walks with his otterhound, Hotspur.

ARMISHAW, CHRISTOPHER JOHN, died on March 12, aged 63. Seamer Chris Armishaw played five one-day games for Derbyshire in 1973, taking the wicket of Clive Radley with his first ball on the way to four for 31 on debut, against Middlesex at Chesterfield. But the other matches produced only one wicket, and he faded from the scene, remaining a feared opponent at Tutbury CC.

ARUNACHALAM, K. V., who died on September 13, aged 78, was an Indian umpire who stood in 15 Ranji Trophy matches between 1979-80 and 1991-92. Soon after, he called a one-ball over in a limited-overs game in Chennai, a mistake which probably affected the result of a close match; he quit umpiring immediately.

BAILEY, JAMES HENRY, died on April 10, aged 66. For many years Henry Bailey was the groundsman at Boland Park in Paarl, before handing over to his son, Rupert. He had been a keen player with the local Young People's club, and later their chairman. Former South African Test spinner Omar Henry remembered "a friend, club team-mate, colleague and phenomenal human being".

BAINDOOR, RANJAN, who died on April 4, aged 66, played 16 matches for Bombay from 1974-75, and was part of the team, captained by Sunil Gavaskar, which won the Ranji Trophy in 1983-84. That season he made 96 and 86 - his only two first-class fifties - in the semi-final against Haryana at the Wankhede Stadium. His off-breaks were also occasionally effective, and he took four for 32 against the Rest of India in the Irani Trophy at Delhi in October 1976. He became an administrator, and chairman of selectors for Mumbai Under-19s.

BANERJEE, SUBRATA, who died on August 19, aged 71, was a long-serving umpire from Kolkata who stood in 13 one-day internationals and 64 first-class matches in a career that stretched from 1967-68 (when he was only 22) to 2002-03. His father, Sunil, was also a first-class umpire, and officiated in a Test against England in 1963-64.

BARBOUR, BRIAN DOUGLAS, who died on December 5, 2014, aged 61, was an aggressive left-hander for Rhodesia (later Zimbabwe). He hit 97 on debut, against Transvaal in 1971-72 aged 18, and later made three centuries, the highest 106 against Natal at Bulawayo in March 1972. Probably his best-remembered innings came six years later at the Wanderers, where he joined Mike Procter at 81 for five against Eastern Province in the final of the Datsun Shield, South Africa's limited-overs competition. They put on an unbroken 135 - Procter made 102 and Barbour 57 - to secure Rhodesia's first title.

BENTLEY, WILLIAM LESLIE, died on May 26, aged 87. Les Bentley was Northamptonshire's head groundsman from 1979 to 1982, when his dismissal prompted a very public row. He had been recruited from Harrogate to replace Albert Lightfoot at Wantage Road, where the ground conditions "left a lot to be desired", according to the committee minutes in 1978. But club officials - notably secretary Ken Turner - did not see the improvements they were hoping for, issued an ultimatum to Bentley ahead of the 1982 season, and sacked him after an Under-19 Test against West Indies was played on a used pitch and finished before lunch on the third of four days. Northamptonshire were taken to an industrial tribunal, but Bentley lost, despite strong backing from Wayne Larkins, Peter Willey and former captain Jim Watts, who resigned from the committee over the affair. More recently, Bentley had been a popular groundsman at Northampton Saints CC, where he dispensed dry wit and cricketing wisdom from his corner near the scoreboard.

BHARGAV, KARAN, who died of dengue fever on April 18, aged 20, was a promising slow left-armer who had played for Punjab's junior teams. He took 33 wickets as the Under-19s reached the final of the Cooch Behar Trophy in 2014-15.

BHAT, NAYEEM QADIR, was one of five people shot dead by police on April 12 during an outbreak of violence in Handwara, 50 miles north of Srinagar in India, following demonstrations about the alleged molestation of a local schoolgirl. He was 22, and a dedicated cricketer who had been the first from his district, Kupwara, to attend a national Under-19 training camp. "Bring my Gavaskar back," beseeched his grieving mother.

BHATTACHARJEE, ALOKE, who died on December 24, aged 63, was an unorthodox spinner who took 134 wickets, mainly for Bengal, at an average of 22. After a sobering debut in 1970-71 - one for 150 in a Ranji Trophy semi-final against Bombay - he had to wait four seasons for his second game, but produced match figures of 12.2-6-11-10 as Assam were dismembered for 33 and 35. Dilip Doshi took six for six in the first innings, and Bhattacharjee seven for seven in the second - all bowled or lbw - which remained the best figures of a career stretching to 1986-87. "His stock delivery was a fastish leg-spinner which did not always turn, so was most deceptive," said his former team-mate Raju Mukherji. "Occasionally he would bowl off-spin with a similar wrist action but at a slightly slower pace, which could turn yards on Indian pitches. He was also by far the best Indian outfielder in the 1970s - he got a very raw deal from the selectors." Bhattacharjee could bat, too: he top-scored with 55 for East Zone against the 1979-80 Australian tourists. He became an umpire, standing in three men's one-day internationals, and the women's World Cup final in Kolkata in December 1997, and was later a Bengal selector.

BIRCH, BETTY DOROTHY, who died on September 20, aged 93, was a batsman - and fine fielder with a good throw from the deep - who played eight Tests for England in the 1950s, scoring 83 not out against New Zealand at Worcester in 1954, and 72 (also undefeated) in what turned out to be her last match, against Australia at Perth in 1957-58. She later taught PE at her old school, Lady Margaret in Parsons Green, west London.

BIRTWISTLE, IAN HOWARD, who died on March 19, aged 70, took more than 1,000 wickets over 30 years for Accrington from 1965 with his gentle swingers, 811 of them at 16 apiece in the Lancashire League. "Birty and I and a few others would net all day during the school holidays," remembered future England coach David Lloyd, a club team-mate. "Those swingers were slow - a touch of the Chris Harris or Jeremy Coney." Birtwistle's best two performances both came in 1988, when he trumped eight for 63 at Haslingden with eight for 49 against Ramsbottom.

CAMERON, DONALD JOHN, died on September 7, aged 83. Over four decades on The New Zealand Herald, Don Cameron became one of his country's most familiar sports journalists. DJ - as he was usually bylined - wrote about rugby and yachting, but was best known as the paper's cricket correspondent. He covered New Zealand cricket through its highs and more frequent lows, developing close friendships with many players, and was Wisden's New Zealand correspondent from 2000 to 2012. For ESPNcricinfo, he named John Wright as his favourite cricketer and wrote a fine appreciation of Richard Hadlee, who lacked, said Cameron, "the homespun warmth that New Zealanders seek in their sporting heroes". His books were mostly on rugby, but included Caribbean Crusade, an account of New Zealand's tour of the West Indies in 1971-72. He was a genial press-box companion, and unfailingly kind to young journalists who might be touring the country for the first time. And he loved Test cricket. In his report for Wisden 2009, on New Zealand v England at Hamilton, he wrote that "this game in the modest surroundings of Seddon Park may have seemed a minor, even nondescript affair. To the 23,500 spectators (perhaps half imported from England) it was a sheer joy - Test cricket restored to its legendary grace and traditional style, a match played under the sun, with old-fashioned gentlemanliness and never a hint of the churlish behaviour, the inquests and inquiries and bitterness, that have besmirched recent international cricket."

CANNINGS, VICTOR HENRY DOUGLAS, died on October 27, aged 97. Vic Cannings was a prolific new-ball partner for Derek Shackleton at Hampshire in the 1950s. They operated in tandem for ten summers, Cannings bowling slightly faster outswingers than Shackleton's canny inswingers, and their accuracy drove opposing batsmen to distraction. "Derek and I were a great partnership in all sorts of ways," Cannings recalled. "Shack would be allowed one half-volley a season, and I would be allowed two." He was a late starter, and took a circuitous route to play for his home county. His family moved from the village of Bighton to Farnham when he was in his teens, and he was recommended to Surrey, appearing for one of their junior teams alongside the Bedser twins. Playing for Farnham against a Surrey Club & Ground team, he bowled to Jack Hobbs. "Our umpire, a hairdresser in Farnham, reckoned I had him lbw and didn't appeal. But I don't think I did."

Cannings ruled himself out of county cricket, however, joining the Palestine Police in 1938 and serving with them throughout the war. There was no shortage of cricket: he played with or against Jim Laker, Lindsay Hassett, Norman Yardley and Bob Appleyard. When he came home he had trials with Hampshire, Middlesex and Glamorgan, but Hampshire couldn't afford a contract. Instead, recommended by a major who had been serving in Nazareth, he joined Warwickshire, completing the £5-a-week deal on Paddington station. He made an excellent start with 61 wickets in 1947, but competition for places at Edgbaston was stiff, and at the end of 1949 he did finally join Hampshire. He teamed up with Shackleton for the first time against Middlesex at Lord's and, after two days of rain, they shared six wickets in a total of 103. One of his victims was Denis Compton (bowled for four). "He was known as my rabbit," said Cannings. "I simply watched his feet when I ran up to bowl."

Cannings was a cheery, amiable man, but he took his cricket seriously: Hampshire wicketkeeper Leo Harrison considered him a more thoughtful bowler than Shackleton. For four successive summers from 1951 he passed 100 wickets, and in 1955, when Hampshire finished second in the Championship - then their highest position - he took 94 at 17. He always felt the team were held back by an inferiority complex.

He was 40 by the time he retired in 1959, after taking 834 wickets for Hampshire, eighth on their all-time list. Cannings was already an experienced coach from winter spells in South Africa, Pakistan, Argentina and Trinidad, and was in the Caribbean when he received two letters in a week offering coaching roles at Eton and Tonbridge. He chose Eton, and stayed for 25 years as a kindly, sometimes eccentric, mentor to the likes of John Barclay and Matthew Fleming. He supervised Barclay's switch from seam to spin, although Barclay does not recall much technical advice. "You just bowl," he would say, "and they'll get out."

CARNILL, DENYS JOHN, who died on March 30, aged 90, captained the British hockey team at three Olympic Games, winning a bronze medal at the first, in Helsinki in 1952. Also a left-hand batsman and leg-spinner, he played Minor Counties cricket for Hertfordshire; entering at 73 for five against Norfolk at Lakenham in 1953, he hit 167 in an unbroken stand of 333 with Les Bateman. Carnill appeared in one first-class match while at Oxford University, against Free Foresters in 1950. He taught history and hockey at Dean Close School in Cheltenham.

COCKBAIN, RONALD GEORGE, died on October 23, aged 83. Ronnie Cockbain was a stalwart of the Bootle club in the Liverpool Competition, scoring 9,197 runs and taking 453 wickets at 16 between 1949 and 1983. He also appeared in seven matches for Cheshire. His son and grandson, both called Ian, played first-class cricket.

COLLINGE, OLIVER, who died of cancer on July 4, aged 28, had been a keen cricketer for Booth CC in Halifax since the age of nine, and featured in the Schools section of Wisden 2006 after heading the bowling averages for Bradford Grammar. "Ollie's Bell" has been installed outside the umpires' room at Booth's ground in his memory, and will be rung to start matches.

COLLIS, JOHN MORLEY, who died on December 3, aged 72, was music editor of Time Out in the 1970s and '80s, and one of the founders of the influential magazine Let it Rock. He wrote biographies of Van Morrison and John Denver, plus an essential reference guide to the music industry, and was especially proud of his history of Chess Records, published after six years of research. At Time Out, he played cricket for SW Litho, formed by staff of the Socialist Worker, and helped expand their fixture list. Eventually the team became Millfields, named after the Hackney park ground where they played. Collis assumed the captaincy and appointed himself "chairman for life: Mugabe style". His wily outswingers once produced figures of nine for 14, still a club record. The team are now run by his son Tom. He collected Wisdens, and was given a chance to share his love of the game with Guardian readers when he joined their list of county writers in 2001. He wrote engagingly. Of the combustible fast bowler Steve Kirby, he said: "He is red-haired, but when he feels cruelly cheated of a wicket his whole head appears to catch fire." But he did not necessarily believe that attending a press conference was more important than getting to the pub.

CORBETT, RONALD BALFOUR, CBE, died on March 31, aged 85. Best known as the (much) smaller half of the Two Ronnies, the comedian Ronnie Corbett had a long and varied show-business career, one of his earliest roles coming in the children's TV programme Crackerjack. Interested in most sports, he was twice president of the Lord's Taverners, in 1982 and 1987. A photograph from England's 1979-80 tour of Australia showed Peter Willey batting, with Corbett - barely higher than the stumps - keeping wicket behind him.

CORDNER, JOHN PRUEN, who died on December 10, aged 87, was a member of a famous Melbourne football and medical family. A left-arm seamer, he played three times for Victoria in 1951-52, then once for Warwickshire the following August - going wicketless against the Indian tourists - while he was in England studying nuclear science.

CORRIGAN, ALFRED BRIAN, AM, died on December 9, aged 87. Brian Corrigan was a distinguished doctor, and a pioneer of sports medicine in Australia. In 1961, he treated Richie Benaud, who had badly injured his shoulder in the first match of the Ashes tour, and watched with satisfaction as, a few weeks later, Benaud's leg-breaks turned the Old Trafford Test. Not long before, "Doc" Corrigan had patiently nursed fast bowler Gordon Rorke back to health after a severe bout of hepatitis in India. "He was a doctor with a glint in his eye," said Ian Chappell. "A wonderful character."

COX, HELEN JOANNE, MP, was killed on June 16, aged 41, a week before the EU referendum. A supporter of the Remain campaign, Jo Cox was in her West Yorkshire seat of Batley & Spen to hold a constituency surgery when she was shot and stabbed by a farright fanatic. Elected in May 2015, she was already a rising star in the Labour Party. Cox was proud to represent her home town, and a keen supporter of Mount CC, a Muslim club in Batley, which in April 2016 won the Duke of York's community initiative award: ECB chairman Colin Graves called Mount "a shining example of what a community club should be". Cox had visited it just a few weeks before her murder, and sent a video message from Westminster. "She mingled with the children and played with a bat and ball," said club official Abdul Ravat. "She was full of energy and she loved people." There was a minute's silence before all matches in the Bradford League on the weekend after she died, and Yorkshire's players wore black armbands during their T20 Blast match against Derbyshire at Headingley on June 19. The Mount club tweeted: "We won't forget your efforts and hard work. Let us build unity not hate."

CROCKWELL, FIQRE SALASSIE, was shot dead early on June 20, shortly after leaving a Bermuda Heroes Weekend celebration. Another partygoer was stabbed nearby; two men were later arrested. Crockwell was 30, and still part of the national squad, despite a conviction for possession of heroin the previous year. An opening batsman who often kept wicket, he played two one-day internationals for Bermuda during the World Cup qualifying tournament in South Africa in 2009, and scored 45 against Kenya on debut, in a first-wicket stand of 107 with David Hemp. He made several appearances for St George's in Bermuda's prestigious annual Cup Match, and was also a talented footballer.

DALE, JOHN ROBERT, who died on November 19, aged 86, was a slow left-armer who played just once for Kent - Ted Dexter was his only icket, in 1958 - but had a long career for his native Lincolnshire. He started for them in 1949, then had spells on the staff at Northampton and Canterbury, before returning to teaching and Minor Counties cricket. In 1974, aged 43, he took three for 33 against Glamorgan at Swansea, as Lincolnshire became only the second Minor County to defeat first-class opposition in the Gillette Cup. The same season he took eight for 54 against Yorkshire Second XI, and finished with 151 wickets for Lincolnshire at a shade over 20.

DALTON, JOYCE, who died on December 16, aged 83, played three Tests for Australia in 1957-58, making 59 not out in her final innings, at Perth. Though born in Queensland, she started with New South Wales in 1952-53, skippering them for two seasons, then spent most of the 1960s as vice-captain after returning from a teaching stint in New Zealand. Team-mate Muriel Picton remembered "a classic style of player, whose delicacy and timing were particularly evident in the effortless ease of her driving", and a lithe and fleetfooted fielder. In New Zealand, Dalton made 141 for Wellington against Canterbury in January 1960. A year later, now with Canterbury, she made 93 against her old colleagues in the Australian touring team. Back home, Dalton helped keep women's cricket in 1960s Australia alive, in the face of declining public interest and apathy from the male Establishment. She also represented NSW at hockey and squash.

DATTA, PUNYA BRATA, died on November 12, aged 92. "Badal" Datta was an elegant left-hand batsman from Bengal (he was born in Sylhet in modern-day Bangladesh), although he was used more as a bowler in 1947, when he featured in a strong Cambridge University side. "He was delightful," wrote Trevor Bailey. "He bowled accurately but hardly spun the ball." Bailey also recalled that he and Datta looked similar from a distance, which led one elderly Somerset supporter to marvel at the versatility of a chap who could take the new ball with right-arm medium-pace, then switch to left-arm spin. Datta's best score that year was a modest 47; he did claim five for 52 from 31.3 overs against Essex at Fenner's, but failed to strike in the drawn Varsity Match. Back home, and now opening, he hit 62 and 143 for Bengal against Bihar in 1952-53, then 141 against a Holkar side captained by the veteran C. K. Nayudu. But India had no Tests that season, and Datta's moment had passed. He soon faded out of the first-class game, although he remained active in club cricket into his fifties, and did administrative work for the Cricket Association of Bengal.

DAVIES, TREFFOR ELLIOTT, who died on December 21, 2013, aged 75, joined the Worcestershire staff at 16 in 1954, and made his debut the following year. But national service intervened, and he eventually played only 20 matches, more than half in 1961 - his final season - which brought his highest score of 76, against Glamorgan at Cardiff Arms Park. He had met his future wife while stationed in the Bahamas, and they later moved back there; he taught English and coached cricket, as well as leading the Cosmopolitans club to the national title in 1962.

DENNIS, JOHN WILLIAM, died on December 3, aged 76. Johnny Dennis was the PA announcer for most major matches in England for around 20 years to 2014, his warm, mellifluous voice a reassuring companion to the day's play. In all, he manned the microphone at 136 Test matches. An actor by profession, he had an amusing turn of phrase, once asking for the aisles at a cup semi-final to be kept free of "picnic impedimenta". A regular performer at the Players' Theatre near Charing Cross, Dennis was held up by a late finish at Lord's one evening, and left the ground with just 20 minutes to spare before curtain-up in the West End.

DESAI, KANTILAL RANCHHODJI, died on July 23, aged 84. Kanti Desai played 19 Ranji Trophy matches for Gujarat in the 1960s. His highest score was 117, against Maharashtra in December 1960, although his unbeaten 95 against serial Ranji Trophy champions Bombay the following November was probably a better innings. Desai later helped popularise cricket in his home city of Valsad, where he was instrumental in the building of a new first-class ground; he became a vice-president of the Gujarat Cricket Association.

DEVEREUX, ALAN, died on May 29, aged 75. For almost 50 years the actor Alan Devereux was known to devotees of The Archers as Sid Perks, landlord of The Bull, the pub at the heart of social life in Ambridge. Sid's distinctive Brummie tones were first heard in 1963, when he arrived in Borsetshire as a teenage tearaway. Devereux was born in Sutton Coldfield, where his father was a keen cricketer. Apart from charity matches with fellow cast members, he did not play the game, but watched it keenly on television. Sid, however, was a stalwart of the Ambridge XI, re-forming the club in 1970, taking over as captain in 1990, and plotting many triumphs in the annual grudge match against Penny Hassett. In 1998, he became team manager, but his tenure ended in disgrace: Sid did not like the fact that Adam Macy, Ambridge's star batsman, was gay, and they fought - which ultimately led to his being forced to resign as captain. In 2007, Sid and Jolene, his wife, featured a guest appearance by Mike Gatting, who offered Sid the hospitality of an MCC box, leading his wife - watching from a distance - to conclude he was being kidnapped by a bearded stranger.

DEVEREUX, LOUIS NORMAN, who died on November 12, aged 85, was a handy county all-rounder throughout the 1950s with Worcestershire and Glamorgan. He had been on the Lord's groundstaff in 1948 - alongside his future county colleague Don Shepherd - and the following year, still only 17, played for Middlesex against both Universities. He also found time to represent England at table tennis. After being restricted by national service, he found a regular place at New Road, scoring 732 runs and taking 55 wickets in 1953. Diminishing returns saw him released two years later, but Devereux prospered after a move to Glamorgan: he was capped during his debut season of 1956, which produced 833 runs, plus a career-best six for 29 with his off-breaks against Yorkshire at Middlesbrough; a fortnight later he took five for 11 as Gloucestershire collapsed from 61 without loss to 81 all out at Newport. Devereux made his only century in 1957, an unbeaten 108 against Lancashire at Old Trafford, but was let go after a handful of games in 1960; he read of his sacking in the Western Mail. After a spell in Scottish league cricket, he moved back to Wales, and ran the Central Hotel in Aberystwyth for 30 years from 1965.

DISBURY, AUDREY DELPH, who died on June 17, aged 82, played ten Tests for England, most notably in the team that retained the Ashes (and also defeated New Zealand 2-0) in 1968-69. On that tour, Disbury helped nurture the talent of fellow opener Enid Bakewell, and their partnership prospered: they put on 48 and 59 in the First Test at the Barton Oval, Adelaide, then 84 to set up victory at Christchurch, and 95 during the series clinching win at Auckland. "Dis", as she was known, was an engaging tourist, valued as much for her humour as her ultra-competitiveness. For Bakewell, hitherto a slow scorer, she provided a template for a new aggressive approach: "She inspired me to score quickly and always look for runs. Until then I didn't have the confidence she had."

For the first time, the team had flown to Australia, a contrast to the leisurely sea trip of Disbury's first tour, in 1957-58. Back then, despite being given paid leave by the Women's Royal Naval Service, she had to raise more than £300 for the voyage, washing cars, working as a waitress and a cinema usherette, and selling raffle tickets. Once aboard ship, the main problem was maintaining her pristine white blazer. She played in three Tests on that tour without conspicuous success, but made 44 against New Zealand at The Oval in 1966, her only home Test.

Disbury was born in Bedford and honed her game in the garden with her brother Brian, later of Kent (see below): he bowled a golf ball, she batted with a cricket stump. She joined the Wrens after training as a nurse, and served as a vehicle mechanic and later as a welfare officer. She played cricket for Kent and was captain of the International XI at the first women's World Cup in 1973, helping weld a disparate bunch into what Wisden called a "capable fighting unit". The team finished third.

After leaving the Wrens, she ran a B&B in Ashford that became renowned for its cooked breakfasts. For many years she drove a clapped-out Fiat that sometimes required the passenger to change gear with a pair of pliers on Disbury's command of "Now!" She was a familiar figure in Kent golf circles, and county captain in 1996 and 1997. She played every game hard, but with a smile never far away. "She was a card," said Bakewell, "but she was so competitive."

DISBURY, BRIAN ELVIN, who died in April, aged 86, was the older brother of Audrey Disbury. Brian was a tidy batsman who did well for Bedford School, then for Bedfordshire: inside a week in August 1951, he hit 119 against Cambridgeshire, and 151 against Buckinghamshire, sharing opening stands of 235 and 246 with George August. Disbury joined Kent, but struggled at first-class level. In 14 county matches he passed 26 only once, knuckling down for three hours to reach 74 not out against Leicestershire at Tunbridge Wells in 1956. An accountant, he later emigrated to America, where he died.

EARLS-DAVIS, MICHAEL RICHARD GRATWICKE, who died on April 5, aged 95, was one of several amateurs mooted as a possible Somerset captain in 1950. In the event, he played for them only once, failing to take a wicket at Worcester. A seamer, he had appeared in five matches in 1947 while at Cambridge, taking five wickets in the first, against Worcestershire, and four for 87 in the first innings of the next, against Gloucestershire. But he managed only three more wickets, and was not selected for the Varsity Match. His grandfather W. G. Heasman played for Sussex in the 19th century, and Earls-Davis turned out for them in wartime games before being injured in action with the Irish Guards in 1944. He became a teacher at Sherborne, his old school.

EASTER, JOHN NICHOLAS CAVE, who died on January 11, aged 70, was one of the world's foremost squash players in the 1970s, second only to Jonah Barrington in the British ranks. Tall and good-looking - he worked for a time as a model - Easter was also a useful opening bowler, an Oxford Blue in 1967 and 1968. In the first of those years he claimed a career-best five for 62 in The Parks, bowling Northamptonshire's captain Roger Prideaux for 99 as the first part of a hat-trick. His son Nick won more than 50 rugby caps for England.

EVANS, ANTHONY RHYS, who died on August 19, aged 73, played 15 first-class matches for Orange Free State, scoring 126 against Border at Bloemfontein in 1969-70, when he was dismissed by Tony Greig for a duck in the second innings. The same season he made 49 in OFS's first official List A match, against Eastern Province. He ran the family farming business from 1972 until his death.

EVANS, GEOFFREY ROSSALL, died on September 13, aged 77. Geoff Evans had been involved with cricket in his native Devon for more than 60 years, first as a player, then an administrator. For most of the 1970s he kept wicket, and was in the Devon side that won the Minor Counties Championship for the first time, in 1978. He was their secretary from 1986 to 2009, then chairman. In 2001, Evans took over as secretary of the Minor Counties Cricket Association, and was still in office at his death; he was given honorary life membership of MCC in 2012. "Geoff's contribution to Devon cricket was second to none," said their president, Roger Moylan-Jones. Evans's coffin was draped with the county club's flag, with his Devon cap on top; the pall-bearers were all former Devon players.

FARLEY, CECIL FREDERICK, died on April 18, aged 97. Gus Farley worked at Lord's for 45 years, latterly as ground superintendent, organising the gatemen and stewards, among myriad other tasks. He was well suited to it, as he had done almost every conceivable job on the ground; even after his official retirement, he was MCC's head steward for a while, then ran the staff canteen, reprising the skills he had learned in the army catering corps. He had an endless fund of stories about Lord's and the war, usually dispensed with a smile and a suitable swear word.

FINLAY, AUBREY JAMES, who died on April 4, aged 78, was a batsman most associated with Ulster's Sion Mills club, who played 18 matches for Ireland, nine of themfirst-class. His highest score was 49 against the Free Foresters in 1957, aged 19.

FLEMING, ANTHONY WILLIAM PATRICK, died on January 5, aged 84. Tony Fleming was the first manager of MCC's indoor school in 1977, and later moved over to the Pavilion as ground administrator, where he proved popular with members and staff alike. He had arrived fresh from the RAF, but decided not to use his rank of flight lieutenant when he spotted that MCC's other senior staff included a group captain and a wing commander (soon to be joined by a couple of colonels). Fleming was a fine wicketkeeper, despite coming late to cricket: he was 24 when posted to Headley Court, a military hospital, whose team had only ten players and no keeper. He learned how to keep in the nets and, having started that way, almost invariably stood up to the stumps, surprising many a batsman with lightning reflexes. He was the right size, despite having played international basketball. "I was a lot taller then," he would explain with a smile from behind an ever-present Camel cigarette. Colin Maynard, MCC's deputy secretary, remembered how, "especially on a winter's day, Tony's office could have been mistaken for a scene from The Hound of the Baskervilles. He was in there somewhere, in the centre of a thick fog." Aged 50, Fleming was recruited to captain Uxbridge, and led them to the Thames Valley League title in 1982. "He was bloody old," recalled team-mate Colin Sargent, "but bloody fit."

FOREMAN, DENIS JOSEPH, who died on July 23, aged 83, was the first non-white South African to play county cricket after the Second World War, a trailblazer for the likes of Basil D'Oliveira. Foreman had actually appeared in a few first-class matches for Western Province as an "honorary white" before apartheid was so rigidly enforced. He did little in his three Currie Cup games in 1951-52, under the South African Test captain Jack Cheetham. "Nobody made a fuss," WP's off-spinner Ronnie Delport - who played in those matches - told the former Wisden editor Scyld Berry in 2012, "though there were the crude comments from those days that he had 'a touch of the tar-brush'."

Foreman was probably a better footballer than cricketer, and signed to play in the Football League after talent scouts visited South Africa. But he remembered to pack his bat when he set sail to play for Brighton & Hove Albion, for whom he made 219 appearances and scored 69 goals as a nippy inside-left. On his second day in England, in 1952, he was taken to a cricket dinner at Hove Montefiore CC, where a long association began with his wonderment that he was allowed to sit and eat alongside white people.

He joined the Sussex staff after the football season, and played on and off for 15 years. He started with 54 and five wickets against an Oxford University side including Colin Cowdrey, but his subsequent figures were modest. There were only four more wickets in 126 further matches, and he finished with a batting average of 18, and just one century, 104 against Nottinghamshire at Hove in 1967, his final season. But he was a fine fielder, and universally popular.

FOX, JOHN GEORGE, died on August 2, aged 87. Jackie Fox was a tidy wicketkeeper who joined Warwickshire after several seasons of Minor Counties cricket with his native Durham. He made his first-class debut in 1959, when nearly 30, and replaced Dick Spooner as the regular keeper for most of the following season, in which he made 51 dismissals. His batting made strides too: he scored 52 against the 1959 Indian tourists at Edgbaston. But Warwickshire also had the Oxford University wicketkeeper Alan Smith, a far better batsman; when Smith was available full-time in 1961, Fox made only three Championship appearances, and never represented the first team again. He later played a few games for Devon.

FRANS, VERNON, who died on December 12, aged 56, was one of four brothers who represented Eastern Province's non-white team. "The Frans family were legends," said Cricket South Africa's chief executive Haroon Lorgat, a former team-mate. A fast bowler, Vernon took 44 wickets in 13 matches now considered first-class, including six for 90 against Transvaal in 1986-87. He also played representative football, baseball and hockey.

GANTEAUME, ANDREW GORDON, who died on February 17, aged 95, became a celebrated victim of the politics that afflicted West Indies cricket in the years before Frank Worrell became the team's first permanent black captain. Ganteaume made one Test appearance, against Gubby Allen's England at Port-of-Spain in 1947-48, and scored a century, but he was promptly dropped - allegedly for slow scoring - and never chosen again. It gave him a Test average of 112, the highest in history. But if the stat delighted cricket geeks, Ganteaume was less impressed. He kept his counsel for 59 years, until his autobiography blamed the white Establishment for his exile.

A slim, diminutive opener of mixed African and Indian descent, Ganteaume had appeared for Trinidad as a wicketkeeper-batsman since 1941, and staked a claim to play in West Indies' first post-war series with scores of 101, 47 not out and 90 in two warm-up matches against MCC. "I was not a privileged boy," he said. "I had to make a hundred even to get into the argument." But he was called up only because of an injury to his compatriot, the white Jeffrey Stollmeyer. Gerry Gomez, another white Trinidadian, stood in for Stollmeyer as captain. Ganteaume was told of his selection by administrator Edgar Marsden, and wrote: "He could not disguise his resentment at having to announce something that he did not want to happen."

Replying to England's 362, Ganteaume and George Carew, batting in a brown felt hat, put on 173 for the first wicket. After Carew was dismissed by Jim Laker for 107, Ganteaume batted on and, after taking a drinks break on 99, completed his hundred. Gomez sent out a note - which Ganteaume kept, and reproduced in his book - asking the batsmen to step up the rate. Soon after, Ganteaume holed out on the boundary, having batted for nearly five hours was greeted by a stony-faced captain. "That's not what I meant," said Gomez. His local supporters were more pleased: a public subscription raised enough money for an engraved silver jug and a bicycle.

Rain frustrated West Indies' bid for victory, prompting more discussion about Ganteaume's scoring-rate. The next Test was in British Guiana, but John Goddard, also white, came in as captain, West Indies' custom then being to choose a different one for each Test. Goddard also opened the batting with Carew, despite having no experience in the position. Ganteaume was not selected for the tour of India later that year. He had no doubt that the white power brokers - in particular Stollmeyer and Gomez - were to blame.

As Everton Weekes put it: "Myself and Frank [Worrell] simply couldn't follow what was happening, although we had a pretty fair opinion of what was behind it." There was an odd postscript when, out of the blue, Ganteaume was chosen for the tour of England in 1957. Now aged 36, he scored 800 runs at 27, but did not get near the Test team. He played until 1957-58, and retired after a one-match comeback in 1962-63; in 50 matches, he had scored 2,785 runs at almost 35.

He stayed closely involved with cricket: he was a long-serving Trinidad and West Indies selector, and managed the team in home series against England and Australia in the 1970s. He wrote about cricket and commentated on radio in Trinidad. Most assumed he had long forgiven those responsible for his brief Test career, until his book, My Story: the Other Side of the Coin, was published in 2007. As Weekes put it: "It says a lot about Andy's character that he kept his emotions to himself for all that time before choosing his moment to state his case."

GARUDACHAR, B. K., who died on February 26, aged 99, was a leg-spinning allrounder who played for a variety of Indian teams either side of the war. His highest score, 164, came for Mysore in the Ranji Trophy semi-final against Holkar at Indore in March 1946. This followed a marathon effort with the ball: four for 301 from 69 overs as Holkar piled up 912 for eight, with six centuries. "Holkar batted for two and a half days," he said. "I felt if we had run all the way to Bangalore, we would have reached it earlier than the time we took running around fetching the ball from the boundary." Five years earlier, against Madras, he followed six for 56 with eight for 99, to spirit Mysore to a 22-run victory. They reached the Ranji final for the first time that year, but lost by an innings to ever-powerful Bombay, despite the persistent Garudachar's three for 161. An engineer, he remained involved in cricket in various administrative posts. He had been India's oldest first-class cricketer, a mantle that passed to the former Baroda and Bombay player (and cricket historian) Vasant Raiji.

GATHORNE, ROY, who died on March 17, aged 95, played six Currie Cup matches for Eastern Province, all in 1952-53, scoring 64 against Western Province at Newlands. He eventually returned to Michaelhouse, his old school, to head up the English department, and ran the cricket there for many years; the ground is named after him.

GAUSTAD, JOHN NEVILLE, who died on June 3, aged 68, was a New Zealander who revolutionised the selling of sports books in Britain in 1985 when he opened Sportspages, a small shop off the Charing Cross Road. In the early days, cricket was very much its No. 1 sport, but it was the post-1990 football boom that helped the business expand, first next door - mainly to accommodate the fad for fanzines - and then to Manchester. For various reasons, the wind changed against him even before the internet took off, and Sportspages closed in 2005. It is remembered with great affection, like Gaustad himself, and his legacy lives on through the William Hill Sports Book award, which he co-founded in 1989; he chaired the judging panel until he retired in 2015.

GHULAM MUSTAFA KHAN, who died on January 3, aged 83, was an administrator and cricket statistician who was Wisden's Pakistan correspondent from 1959 to 1983, and a contributor to each subsequent edition until 2015. He also wrote extensively for The Cricketer, edited the PCB's annual, and produced other statistical works. He had joined the board as a clerk in 1956, and rose to become secretary for two years before his retirement in 1997. For much of the time he was the sole employee, holed up in a small office at Karachi's National Stadium.

GILL, WALTER, who died on July 28, aged 86, was a fine all-round sportsman who had spells as a professional with the northern cricket clubs Bradshaw, Little Lever and Egerton. He also played semi-pro football for Chorley. A teacher in Cheshire, Gill underwent a heart transplant in 1991. He was told it might give him another ten years, but it lasted 25, during which time he umpired in the Bolton League, and took part in athletics (shot put), bowls and golf at the British Transplant Games.

GODDARD, TREVOR LESLIE, who died on November 25, aged 85, provided the glue that bound South Africa together between the emerging mid-1950s team of Neil Adcock and Peter Heine, and the box-office pre-isolation line-up of Richards and Procter. He was a serious Test cricketer - a measured opening batsman, an accurate left-arm seamer, and a superb close fielder. After Aubrey Faulkner in the first quarter of the 20th century, Goddard was his country's next great all-rounder, followed by Procter and Jacques Kallis. He was the first South African to make 2,000 runs and take 100 wickets in Tests, though perhaps his most enduring statistic is the best economy-rate - 1.64 - by any bowler with more than 75 Test wickets. He was captain in 13 Tests in the mid-1960s, ushering in a new generation that included the Pollock brothers, Colin Bland and Eddie Barlow.

Goddard was a thinker, adept at analysing opponents' strengths and weaknesses. Lean and tall, he had batting and bowling techniques that were flawlessly classical - "A walking coaching manual," wrote the journalist Neil Manthorp. He was also one of cricket's most popular figures: Don Bradman praised his "qualities of sincerity and integrity", and he later became an evangelical preacher. Just before making his only Test hundred - against England at Johannesburg in 1964-65 - he was almost run out by Tom Cartwright. "It missed by a whisker," said Cartwright. "I nearly ran him out for 99 - and forever I've been glad that I didn't. He was such a nice man."

Born in Durban, Goddard played more football than cricket until he was selected for South African Schools in 1949. He made his debut for Natal in 1952-53, but was on the point of giving up, when he was promoted to open. In the second match in his new role, he made 174 against Western Province at Newlands. It was the impetus he needed. He was selected to tour England under Jack Cheetham in 1955, and made his debut in the First Test at Trent Bridge, opening the bowling and the batting. South Africa went 2-0 down, but fought back to level the series at Headingley. Goddard made 74 in the second innings, and - with Adcock nursing a foot injury - bowled unchanged on the fifth day from 11.30 until the match was won at 4.12, taking five for 69 in 62 overs, 37 of them maidens. He later confessed it was only the whispered encouragement of umpire Frank Chester that kept him going.

Although they lost the decider at The Oval, it was the first time South Africa had won two Tests in England. Wisden called Goddard "a cricketer of great possibilities". When England visited in 1956-57, South Africa again recovered from 2-0 down, this time securing a draw. Goddard struggled to make an impact with the ball but, settling on a disciplined leg-stump line, conceded just 1.28 an over in the five matches. In the final Test, at Port Elizabeth, with South Africa needing a win to square the series, he top-scored in their second innings with 30 in 193 minutes on a dreadful pitch to help set England 189; they managed only 130, with Goddard claiming the prize wicket of Peter May.

But a heavy home defeat by Australia in 1957-58 was followed by an unhappy tour of England in 1960. With Geoff Griffin no-balled for throwing at Lord's, Goddard bowled more than 200 overs in the Tests. At The Oval he was on 99 when he edged Brian Statham to slip, where Colin Cowdrey completed a tumbling low catch, with the ball obscured from view. Umpire Eddie Phillipson consulted his colleague Charlie Elliott, before giving Goddard out, but he remained convinced Cowdrey knew the catch had not been taken cleanly. After that tour, he retired from first-class cricket and moved his family to England, partly so his son's bronchial condition could be treated in London. He worked as a draughtsman, and played for Great Chell in the Staffordshire League, breaking Frank Worrell's record run aggregate, and discovering a more aggressive style.

But Goddard returned to South Africa and, after three years out of Test cricket, was asked to lead the team in Australia in 1963-64. It was hardly a ringing endorsement: Roy McLean, the expected choice, was unavailable, and Peter van der Merwe did not want to make his Test debut as captain. "The Australians wanted to call the tour off because they thought it would be a financial disaster," Peter Pollock recalled. "No one had heard of any of us." One scribe called them "Goddard's Cinderellas".

On the field, Goddard proved a cautious leader, but he was a quietly inspirational mentor to a group of young players. South Africa had six debutants in the drawn First Test at Brisbane but, after a heavy defeat in the Second, at Melbourne, Goddard made 80 and 84 at Sydney, batting over seven hours in all to secure a draw. At Adelaide, he took five for 60 in Australia's first innings to set up victory. With a little more enterprise, South Africa might even have won the series. "Time and time again," said Australia's wicketkeeper Wally Grout, "when a little boldness would have carried them through, they chose caution." On the subsequent three-Test tour of New Zealand, Goddard was at his most miserly, bowling 140 overs (including 81 maidens) for 142 runs. "I have never seen anyone like him for the ability to block up an end," said Pollock. "It's an art that has disappeared."

Goddard continued as leader for the visit of England in 1964-65, but came under criticism when the First Test at Durban was lost heavily. After the third match, the selectors asked him to stand down, offering to tell the public he was feeling the pressure, but he told them they should have the courage to fire him. "They thought he was too nice," said Pollock. A compromise was reached: at the end of the series, won 1-0 by England, Goddard resigned. His sportsmanship was demonstrated in the fourth match, at Johannesburg, where England captain Mike Smith was run out by van der Merwe after wandering out of his crease to pat down the pitch. Smith was given out, but Goddard withdrew the appeal.

He retired from Test cricket again, and missed the subsequent tour of England, but was in magnificent form at the start of 1966-67, and was persuaded back for the visit of Australia. In the First Test at the Wanderers, he bowled a more attacking line than usual, with swing and subtle variations of pace. He took six for 53 in the second innings - his best Test figures - as South Africa beat Australia at home for the first time in 22 attempts.

Goddard was carried off on his team-mates' shoulders. The series was won 3-1. South Africa did not play another Test for three years, but Goddard, now 38, was still in the team when Australia returned in 1969-70. He had already announced he would not be available for the planned tour of England and, when he performed modestly, the selectors decided to look to the future. Goddard wrapped up a thumping win at Johannesburg - the third part of a 4-0 whitewash - with the wicket of Alan Connolly, but it was his final ball in Test cricket: when he walked off, he was told he had been dropped.

"I wouldn't be human if I did not say I was disappointed, but that's life," he said. In 41 Tests Goddard made 2,516 runs at 34, and took 123 wickets at 26. In his final first-class match a month later, he took a hat-trick for Natal against Rhodesia. He had a simple philosophy: "Play it hard and straight, and give your best." He had always been religious and, soon after leaving cricket, attended a mission in Durban with his wife Jean. It inspired him to become an evangelical Christian minister.

He worked with aspiring South African sportsmen and in the townships, unpaid roles supported by individual donations. In 1985, he was seriously injured in a car accident after he fell asleep at the wheel. Goddard's death illustrated South Africa's continuing issues with the legacy of apartheid-era cricketers. The national side were playing a Test at Adelaide, but the black armbands they wore on the fourth day were to mark the second anniversary of the death of Phillip Hughes.

GOHEL, BHARAT, who died on May 9, aged 60, was a slow left-armer who played for Hong Kong in the ICC Trophy in the English Midlands in 1986, taking six for 11 in his first match, against Fiji.

GOODWIN, FREDERICK, died on February 19, aged 82. Freddie Goodwin took the new ball in 11 first-class matches for Lancashire in 1955 and 1956, making a considerable impact in his debut season, before drifting out of cricket to concentrate on his main suit as a wing-half for Manchester United. Goodwin's seamers had been spotted while he was playing for Radcliffe in the Central Lancashire League, and he took five wickets on debut, against Kent at Old Trafford. Later that summer he managed a career-best five for 35 against Middlesex at Lord's, including the wickets of Jack Robertson and Bill Edrich. He finished the season with 26 at 18, but took just one wicket in three appearances in 1956. At the other Old Trafford, Goodwin was understudy to Duncan Edwards and Eddie Colman, but their deaths in the 1958 Munich air crash thrust him into the first team. He was a member of the patchwork side that reached that season's FA Cup final, and ever present as United were First Division runners-up in 1958-59. He was sold to Leeds United in 1960, and later became player-manager of Scunthorpe United, then a well-known and innovative manager with Birmingham City in the 1970s, nurturing the talents of Trevor Francis, Britain's first £1m footballer.

GOODYEAR, WALTER, who died on December 20, aged 99, was Derbyshire's groundsman for more than half a century. He started at Queen's Park in Chesterfield in 1931, aged 14, becoming head groundsman two years later; in 1938 he moved to Derby. Goodyear's pitches were usually well grassed, which suited Derbyshire's production line of seamers. "For a long time I prepared them for Les Jackson," he admitted. "People used to turn up and ask me how it would play. My answer was usually: 'If we win the toss we'll put the buggers in, and Les will have three or four wickets before lunch.' He usually did, you know. If he didn't, I was for it!" Tommy Mitchell, the Derbyshire leg-spinner who won five England caps in the 1930s, was less impressed. "Tommy wanted turning wickets," Goodyear would chuckle. "He never got them, though." Derbyshire won the Championship for the only time in 1936, early in Goodyear's career, and marked his final season by winning the NatWest Trophy in 1981.

GRAY, JAMES ROY, died on October 31, aged 90. Jimmy Gray was the most prolific Hampshire batsman born within the county's borders but, as much as his runs, it was his calm authority and bearing on the field that left an impression. His sleeves rolled with military precision, his boots and pads whitened, Gray was never less than immaculate. At the crease he stood straight-backed, with a grooved defensive technique - the ideal foil for the Caribbean pyrotechnics of his long-time opening partner Roy Marshall. Over 18 summers, Gray made 22,450 runs for Hampshire, putting him fourth on their all-time list.

He assessed bowlers and conditions with caution, content to let Marshall blaze away. "He would have fitted well into the modern game with the way he prepared and his professionalism," said team-mate Brian Timms. Few risks were taken. As John Arlott wrote: "It would violate the laws of cricketing nature if Jimmy Gray were out to a careless or untidy stroke." He was also a handy medium-pacer, taking 451 wickets. But county cricket would have seen little of Gray had he succeeded in his first ambition of becoming a footballer. Although he was born in the Portswood area of Southampton, his potential was missed by the local clubs, and he signed for Arsenal as a right-back at the start of the 1946-47 season, turning professional a year later.

The Compton brothers were already on the staff at Highbury, and he struck up a lasting friendship with another Arsenal footballer-cum-cricketer, Arthur Milton. Gray progressed no further than the reserves, but learned an important lesson. "The will to win, the desire and the need to fight for your team-mates was instilled into me there," he told the journalist Pat Symes. "I carried those things into cricket." Gray made his debut for Hampshire against Combined Services in Aldershot cricket week in 1948. Another new recruit was Derek Shackleton, who had made his own debut in the previous match. Field Marshal Montgomery was a visitor and, after a dressing-room inspection, gave a shrewd analysis of the Hampshire team. "You've too many old'uns," he said. "I sacked all my older generals, replaced them with younger ones. I suggest you do the same." Gray appreciated the point. "Shack and I were lucky because we came on the scene when there were opportunities," he said. "Hampshire were desperate for young players at the time. His breakthrough came in 1951, when he made his first century and passed 1,000 runs for the first time. In those difficult early seasons he had roomed with the veteran Neil McCorkell, who offered priceless advice - "absolute gold dust", said Gray.

He first opened the batting in 1952, and in 1955 began his formidable partnership with came third, then their highest finish. Gray saw batting with Marshall in simple terms: "My job is to admire, and let him have as much of the bowling as possible." Hampshire had attracted criticism for playing cautiously, but the arrival of Colin Ingleby-Mackenzie as captain in 1958 removed the handbrake. In 1961, they were champions for the first time, and Gray contributed more than 2,000 runs. His consistency was remarkable: he scored 1,000 in 12 consecutive seasons.

When that sequence ended in 1964, mainly because he played fewer matches in order to concentrate on his new career as a schoolteacher, he still passed 900. He played intermittently in 1965 and 1966 before retiring. Gray became deputy head of Stroud School in Romsey, and later ran a sports shop in Southampton with his former team-mate Peter Sainsbury. He was chairman of the Hampshire cricket committee in the 1990s.

GRAY, ROBERT JOHN, died on May 22, aged 78. Bob Gray was a long-serving Australian journalist who wrote entertainingly for a time on cricket, covering the acrimonious tour of West Indies in 1964-65, but cut down on travelling after his marriage in 1968. He remained on the sports beat, and enjoyed a lifelong friendship with Richie Benaud. It had flowered one night in 1962-63, when they decided to eat before writing their articles: Benaud duly filed his, then - noting his colleague was fast asleep - ad-libbed a story about Graham McKenzie through to Gray's Sydney Mirror. Gray found it highly amusing when, early next morning, Benaud was roused by an irate sports editor, complaining he had been scooped. He remained one of the few capable of cracking Benaud's sangfroid, to provoke a rich belly laugh about the details of his latest exploits.

GUDGE, SUNIL CHANDRAKANT, who died of a heart attack on May 3, aged 56, was a leg-spinner who took more than 100 wickets for Rajasthan, with a best of five for 46 against Gujarat in only his fourth match, in 1979-80. He came close to representative honours, playing two Under-19 Tests against Pakistan, while for India Under-22s against the 1981-82 England tourists in his native Pune, he went wicketless as Geoff Boycott compiled a century. In December 1986, Gudge took all four wickets (for 171) as the visiting Sri Lankans romped to 501 for four against the Board President's XI at Gwalior. He also became a useful batsman, and made 125, his only century, against Gujarat at Pune in 1994-95. He was also a BCCI match referee.

HARRAGAN, ROBERT, died on January 26, aged 61. Bob Harragan was a cricket obsessive who wrote one of the cheeriest columns in local journalism: Bits and Bobs in the South Wales Guardian. It was supposedly a column about everything, but as the paper's editor Steve Adams recalled: "If Bob was writing about the county council's policy on street lights, he would somehow find an analogy about Glamorgan openers of the 1980s." Previously, he had covered local cricket for the South Wales Evening Post, and championed players such as Robert Croft and Simon Jones. He was also a much valued contributor to Wisden's Chronicle, which was regularly enlivened by his reports of strange events in the Welsh leagues.

HARRISON, LEO, who died on October 12, aged 94, began his first-class career for Hampshire nine days before Hitler invaded Poland, and ended it in the middle of the Swinging Sixties. He made 396 appearances in all, most of them as a neat, jaunty, bespectacled wicketkeeper, one of the most reliable on the circuit. His send-off to batsmen was invariably "It ain't half a bloody game, mate," a catchphrase turned into the title of a short story by Harrison's close friend John Arlott. It was Arlott's only attempt at fiction, and he was fuming when his prudish publisher changed bloody to bloomin'. Harrison was initially seen as a batsman of great promise, but took several seasons to contribute regular runs, and even longer to establish himself behind the stumps. Once he got an extended go, however, he proved hard to dislodge. "He was always very relaxed almost to the point of being casual," said his prote´ge´ and successor Brian Timms. "Everything he did was stylish."

Harrison made 681 dismissals, 103 of them stumpings, many standing up to Derek Shackleton, whose unfailing accuracy left him in awe: "I've picked up the ball and seen six green marks on the seam and none on the shiny part." They became clinical in analysing opponents' weaknesses. "When we saw a batsman go on to the back foot, we just knew it wouldn't be long before he would be in serious trouble."

The son of a builder from the fishing village of Mudeford near Christchurch (now in Dorset, but then part of Hampshire), Harrison joined the county staff in 1938, making his debut against Worcestershire the following summer, a few miles from home at Dean Park, Bournemouth. In the second game of the week, he played against a Yorkshire side including Herbert Sutcliffe in his final Championship match, and Hedley Verity in his last but one.

Harrison served in the RAF during the war, although poor eyesight quickly ended ambitions of becoming a pilot. Instead he made instruments for Bomber Command, stationed at bases on the east coast, and never forgot the high spirits of the crews who knew the odds were stacked against their survival. He remained in the RAF, and in 1946 played first-class matches for them and the Combined Services, as well as for Hampshire.

There, a queue of keepers was waiting to replace Neil McCorkell, and Harrison was one of several given a chance. With the bat he struggled to live up to pre-war expectations, and needed his excellent fielding to stay in the team. But in 1951 he passed 1,000 runs for the first time, a feat he repeated the following year. By now Harrison's problems with his vision had forced him to play in glasses, but in 1955 he became Hampshire's regular keeper, and was selected for the Players against the Gentlemen at Lord's.

Three years later, Colin Ingleby-Mackenzie took on the Hampshire captaincy. The Old Etonian and the builder's son were an unlikely alliance, but they became firm friends and regular partners at the races and at parties, often creeping back to the team hotel as the morning milk arrived. Thanks to Ingleby-Mackenzie, Harrison was able to show off his poker skills at some of England's finest country houses. Hampshire's unexpected title triumph in 1961 was the crowning of Harrison's career, and he made a telling contribution with 656 runs and 62 dismissals. But he was 39 by then and, after one more productive year, Timms took over, although Harrison returned for a farewell appearance against Surrey in 1966.

His friendship with Arlott had begun when Arlott was a young Southampton policeman who would ensure his beat took in the nets at the county ground. Harrison often dined at his house in Alresford, and was guest of honour at the unveiling of a plaque there in 2009. He was a regular visitor when Arlott retired to Alderney. "Honest as the day," Arlott wrote of his friend. "And a trier to the last gasp." His death left John Manners, also of Hampshire, as the last survivor of pre-war county cricket (see Wisden 2016, page 65).

In their pomp, Shackleton and Harrison exerted such a stranglehold over the Glamorgan batsman Bernard Hedges that his dismissal gathered an air of inevitability. On one occasion, he edged Shackleton's third ball into Harrison's gloves, and turned round in exasperation: "You two bastards must burst out laughing every time you see me come in." Harrison paused. "No, we don't laugh, Bernard - we're very happy to see you."

HARRISON, ROLAND, who died on August 2, aged 73, was a tough opening batsman who scored more than 10,000 runs in the Lancashire League for Burnley. He captained them to three titles in the 1970s. Playing against Rishton in 1981, he batted on after Michael Holding broke his jaw.

HARVEY, CLARENCE EDGAR, died on October 5, aged 95. Born on St Patrick's Day in 1921, "Mick" Harvey was the second of six brothers, all of whom turned out for Melbourne's Fitzroy club. Four played for Victoria, and two - Neil and Merv - for Australia. Mick, who had been an infantryman on the infamous Kokoda Trail in New Guinea during the war, had three matches for Victoria in 1948-49, before accepting a job as a printer in Queensland. He had spotted that batting opportunities were more plentiful up there, especially as the stalwart Bill Brown was about to retire. By the end of 1949-50, Harvey had made his debut for Queensland, and the following summer hit the first of three hundreds for them, against New South Wales. Neil Harvey, the most famous of the brethren, wrote that Mick "was a much more solid batsman than the rest of the family, having a good defence, but he was not really a good player of spin bowling". He became an umpire, and stood in two Tests, both in 1979, and six one-day internationals.

HEALD, TIMOTHY VILLIERS, who died on November 20, aged 72, was a writer able to turn his hand to almost any subject. Among his many books were two series of crime novels, an account of Hong Kong in its final days as a British colony, and a study of the old boys' network; the aristocratic subjects of his biographies included the Queen, the Duke of Edinburgh, Prince Charles, and John Steed of The Avengers. At Sherborne School, Heald was commissioned by the head boy, Stanley Johnson - father of Boris - to write a polemic attacking the fagging system. It was abolished soon after. Johnson's daughter Rachel appointed him royal correspondent of The Lady, and he also worked for a variety of newspapers. His output included several cricket books, notably biographies of Brian Johnston and Denis Compton. Heald recalled encountering Compton at the wake following Johnston's funeral in 1994. Unusually, he was without a drink, and Heald asked if he could fetch one. "No thanks, old boy," replied Compton. "The prime minister's getting me one." Seconds later, John Major appeared with a full glass.

HEWES, LEONARD BRIAN, died on April 11, aged 80, after collapsing in the Trent Bridge Inn. Brian Hewes was Nottinghamshire's scorer from 2007 to 2011, after several seasons in charge of the Second XI book. The pavilion flag flew at half mast in his memory during the Championship match against Surrey on April 12.

HEYS, WILLIAM, died on May 21, aged 85. Bill Heys was one of three wicketkeepers tried by Lancashire in 1957. He played five first-class matches that year, two of them against the West Indian tourists, making a career-best 46 in the first. He did well enough with the gloves, pulling off three stumpings in his first two games, but better batsmen were preferred, and he never appeared again. Heys played for Church in the Lancashire League for 22 seasons from 1949, and was part of the club for almost 70 years.

HEYWOOD, MALCOLM, who died on January 22, aged 81, was a well-known figure in the Lancashire League, and president from 2001 to 2004. A consistent opening batsman, he played for Todmorden for 20 years, captaining for five in the mid-1960s, when his team once included a handy substitute professional in Garry Sobers. Heywood outscored him - 52 to 12 - and came up against many other big names, once making 83 not out against Sobers's fearsome West Indies team-mate Charlie Griffith. A teacher, he later produced several books on local themes, including a lavish history of Todmorden cricket, Cloth Caps & Cricket Crazy, co-written with his wife Freda and son Brian, who also played for the club.

HIGGS, KENNETH, died on September 7, aged 79. A letter to Old Trafford in 1957 from Staffordshire captain Denis Haynes changed Ken Higgs's life. Higgs was 20, and intent on becoming a footballer, until Haynes suggested Lancashire take a look at the strapping seamer who was jarring bat handles in Minor Counties cricket. The Lancashire coach Stan Worthington returned to Manchester with a firm recommendation: Higgs could be "the next Alec Bedser".

He quickly lived up to expectations. Against Hampshire on his Championship debut in 1958, he took a wicket in his first over, and in the second innings claimed seven for 36. By the end of the season, he had 67 at 22. When Brian Statham was away on Test duty, Higgs became the indefatigable leader of the attack. From 1959, he topped 100 wickets in three successive summers. "He did not have days when he sprayed it around, and he did not bowl long hops. He was just so consistent," said Lancashire captain Bob Barber. Off a gently curving run-up of no more than 15 strides, Higgs generated cut and swing with a snap of the wrist and an action that harnessed all his strength. He was an imposing figure - the writer Paul Edwards described him as having "an arse that crossed two postcodes" - and operated at around 80mph, slower than Statham but with a similar premium on accuracy. Later, at Leicestershire, he became a more voluble figure, prone to volcanic eruptions and seldom short of a word for batsmen. "He was like a raging bull on the field, but the kindest, gentlest man off it," said his Leicestershire team-mate Jonathan Agnew. "He had a chihuahua, which summed him up really - this massive man with a tiny dog."

His Test statistics suggest he was unlucky not to win more caps. In 15 matches he took 71 wickets at 20, with an economy-rate of 2.14. On debut against South Africa at The Oval in 1965, he took the new ball in the second innings with Statham, in his final Test. Higgs claimed eight in the match, and was selected for the winter's Ashes tour. He played in the First Test at Brisbane, but succumbed to injury and illness, and did not get back into the team until the New Zealand leg of the trip, when he took 17 wickets in the three Tests, including figures of 9-7-5-4 in the second innings at Christchurch. He retained his place at home against West Indies, and was the only England player to appear in all five Tests, taking 24 wickets at 25, including six for 91 at Lord's - "a triumph for industry and wholeheartedness" said The Times. Many of his victims were top-order batsmen: Conrad Hunte and Rohan Kanhai were bagged four times each. At The Oval, Higgs and last man John Snow put on 128. Higgs finally gave a return catch to David Holford when 63, with the pair unaware they were two short of the Test record for the tenth wicket. As they celebrated with pints in the dressing-room, they were asked to pose for photographs on the pavilion balcony. But they were told frothing glasses might give the wrong message, and ordered to replace them with teacups.

As a schoolboy, Higgs had shown greater potential as a footballer, and was signed up by Port Vale as a centre-half. He was selected for an FA youth tour of West Germany, but national service intervened, and in the army he began to play more cricket. His enthusiasm grew and, when his brother's Staffordshire League team were a man short, he was pressed into playing. He soon became a regular. Higgs's performances for Lancashire dipped in the early 1960s. He began straying down the leg side, but his problems had more to do with anxiety about the annual round of contract negotiations and lack of financial security. He did not drive, and commuted each day from Staffordshire by train and bus. When Lancashire were playing Northamptonshire he was accompanied by fellow Potteries resident David Steele - until Steele failed to walk for an edge, and Higgs pointedly caught a different train home.

It was hard to avoid Old Trafford's complex internal politics. Before playing Nottinghamshire at Worksop in 1961, the team were about to leave their hotel when Barber took a call from Worthington at Old Trafford telling him the committee thought Higgs was tired, and demanding he be sent home. Barber refused, and asked why: "Stan said because he had taken fewer wickets than at the same point in the previous season."

Barber agreed to ask Higgs how he felt. "He said he wasn't tired and wondered why I was asking. I said, 'Because the committee think you haven't taken enough wickets this season.' Ken just said, 'Aye, it's because I haven't bowled enough.'" He put his slump behind him in 1965 to pass 100 wickets for the fourth time and earn his Test call-up. He was a Wisden Cricketer of the Year in 1968, and chosen for the tour of the Caribbean in 1967-68, but was furious when he was ignored for the Tests, as the selectors opted for the greater pace of Snow, David Brown and Jeff Jones. He played only once more for England.

But, when nerveless accuracy was called for, he was still one of the best on the circuit. In 1969, he bowled at the death in two remarkable Championship finishes. Warwickshire needed five runs from the final over with five wickets in hand, but Higgs took two wickets, and kept them to three. And, at Bramall Lane, with Yorkshire requiring one to win off the last over, he bowled a triple-wicket maiden. He left Lancashire at the end of the season, feeling that the newly arrived overseas players were being disproportionately rewarded, and sought more lucrative employment with Rishton in the Lancashire League.

Two years later, he was enticed to Leicestershire, where he was a regular for eight summers. Under Ray Illingworth's canny captaincy he played a leading role in their 1970s successes. When Leicestershire were champions in 1975, he bowled 560 overs and took 50 wickets at 29. He was never less than combative. "He had battles with Javed Miandad," recalled Agnew. "In one game, Javed played him back down the pitch defensively, and Ken stared at him, determined not to be the one to break eye contact. The trouble was, he was still staring at him when he bent down to pick up the ball, and couldn't find it. After it rolled past him, Javed ran a quick single."

Higgs was captain in 1979 but played less often, and became the county coach, dispensing kindly wisdom to emerging seamers such as Agnew, Les Taylor, Gordon Parsons and Phil DeFreitas. In 1986, aged 49, he was summoned for two final Championship matches. Against Yorkshire at Grace Road, bowling off three paces but observing the time-honoured principles of line and length, he took five for 22 off 11 overs. "I don't know what the fuss is about," he told reporters afterwards. "I'm still getting 2,000 wickets a week in the nets."

HINTZ, ANDREW JOHN, who died of cancer on February 7, aged 52, was a seamer who played six first-class and ten List A games for Canterbury in the late 1980s, before suffering stress fractures in the back. He took four for 23 in a Shell Cup one-day game at Auckland on New Year's Eve in 1986, and five more the following season - opening the bowling with Michael Holding - as Canterbury beat Auckland in a first-class match.

HOBDEN, MATTHEW EDWARD, who died on January 2, aged 22, was a fast bowler of enormous potential whose muscular presence and 6ft 4in frame earned him the nickname "The Beast" in the Sussex dressing-room. He was a big personality, too: rebellious, roguish, greatly popular. "He was always in some sort of scrape, but he was a good kid," said the former Sussex coach Mark Robinson. "You could not help but like him." His promise was noted beyond Hove, and Kevin Shine - the ECB's lead fastbowling coach - called him "the strongest, most powerful cricketer I've ever seen on the England Performance Programme". Shine was certain he would have gone on to play international cricket.

Hobden was born in Eastbourne, but owed his opportunity at Sussex to eye-catching performances for Cardiff MCCU, including five for 62 against Warwickshire in his second first-class match. In June 2013 he was thrust into the Sussex team for a televised 40-over game against Nottinghamshire at Trent Bridge, and did not look out of his depth. A year later he made his Championship debut against the same opponents at Hove, where his first-innings wickets were the Test trio of Phil Jaques, James Taylor and Samit Patel. "He was a muscle bowler who hit the pitch hard and made the ball go away," said Robinson.

"People did not want to face him in the nets." He was also blessed with a magnificent arm, and against Durham at Chester-le-Street in April 2015 showed his capabilities as a batsman, with a pugnacious unbeaten 65 in a last-wicket stand of 164 with Ollie Robinson. Hobden had been celebrating New Year in Scotland with friends, when he died after falling from a roof. The county retired his No. 19 shirt, and planted a tree at Hove in his memory; the players gathered around it to celebrate a late-season victory over Gloucestershire. But his death cast a pall over Sussex's summer. "When we came back in pre-season and the full squad were together, his absence was really obvious," said wicketkeeper Ben Brown. "There have been moments where we've thought, 'Matt would have been good here' - and the memories of when he played come back. He gave us so many funny moments."

HODGSON, ALAN, who died on October 6, aged 64, was one of many cricketers from the North-East to head Northamptonshire's way during the 1960s and '70s. A tall, strongly built fast bowler from Consett, he caught the eye as a 16-year-old triallist in 1968, and two years later made the first of 99 first-class appearances. His best season was 1976, when he, Sarfraz Nawaz and John Dye formed what Wisden called "a match-winning combination", as Northamptonshire finished runners-up in the Championship and won the Gillette Cup, their first major trophy. He took 41 first-class wickets that year, including a career-best five for 30 against Oxford University. In 1977, he grabbed six for 22 in a Sunday League game against Derbyshire. "His height was his main asset," said former captain Jim Watts, "but he always did enough with the ball to trouble batsmen, and often took two or three wickets in the middle of the innings, when they were not always noticed." A few weeks before his death, Hodgson posed for a photograph on the outfield at Northampton with five other members of Mushtaq Mohammad's 1976 side at the annual former players' day, an event he helped organise for many years. Back trouble had ended his county career in 1979, but he enjoyed success in local club cricket, returned to Wantage Road as a coach and manager of the indoor school, and also served as vice-chairman of the Northamptonshire Cricket League. A convivial man, he shared a flat with Colin Milburn for a time, and was an important source of insight and anecdote when James Graham-Brown set about writing his acclaimed play When The Eye Has Gone, about Milburn's tragic decline (see page 172). Sadly, Hodgson did not live to see it performed.

HOLDSWORTH, WILLIAM EDGAR NEWMAN, died on July 31, aged 87. Bill Holdsworth was a seamer who played 27 matches for Yorkshire, the first in 1952. He began the following season by taking five for 21 against Essex, and claimed a career-best six for 58 against Derbyshire at Scarborough. After that he was a professional for various league teams. He later became president of Otley Golf Club.

HURD, ALAN, who died on April 11, aged 78, was an off-spinner who made a spectacular debut for Essex, taking a wicket with his first ball on the way to six for 15 - and ten for 77 in the match - to set up victory over Kent on a helpful track at Clacton in 1958. Not long before that he had helped Cambridge win the Varsity Match "Well, 'Hurdy-Gurdy' was my secret weapon," remembered his captain Ted Dexter, "because he bowled his off-spin really slow and loopy, which was very useful against the tail. He was the bowler I turned to in the closing overs, and we beat Oxford in the last few minutes." Hurd took 34 wickets in six matches for Essex that year, but he was no batsman, and Trevor Bailey, his county captain, once pronounced him "the worst fielder ever to have played first-class cricket", although Bailey did smile about an incident when Hurd was barracked loudly from the cheap seats at Leyton after letting a boundary through his legs. A member responded with: "But he's terribly kind to his mother!" Hurd's three seasons of first-class cricket were split between university and county: he took 73 wickets in 1958, then 82 in 1959, and 94 in 1960. After that he turned full-time to teaching - Chris Tavare´ and Paul Downton came under his wing at Sevenoaks School - and played for Sevenoaks Vine.

ISRAR ALI, who died on February 1, aged 88, was a slender left-arm seamer who played in Pakistan's inaugural Test, in Delhi in 1952-53. His captain Abdul Hafeez Kardar apparently thought he was a batsman, so put him at No. 3: Israr made one and nine, didn't bowl, and was dropped. He was back for the Third Test, but did not take a wicket, and - one of several to fall foul of the autocratic Kardar - had to wait seven years for another chance, returning for two matches against Australia in 1959-60. At last he made his mark, bowling Australia's opener Les Favell for a duck at Dacca with a ball that broke a stump.

He removed Favell again in the second innings, and twice more in the Second Test at Lahore; his only other victim was Alan Davidson twice). Outside his Test appearances, Israr took more than 100 first-class wickets, including nine for 58 - the first nine, before Zulfiqar Ahmed took the tenth - for Bahawalpur against Punjab in 1957-58. Later that season he had the remarkable figures of 11-10-1-6 (five bowled and one lbw) as Dacca University were skittled for 39 in the Quaid-e-Azam Trophy semi-final; he had earlier scored 79 as opener. Bahawalpur won the trophy that year, Israr taking four for 18 in the fourth innings as Karachi C were despatched for 82. He had two successful seasons in the Lancashire leagues with Bacup in 1959 and Ashton in 1960, but soon afterwards was badly injured in a road accident, which ended his cricket career. A farmer and land-owner, he was a national selector in 1983-84.

JACOBS, JENNIFER MARY, died on July 20, aged 60. Jen Jacobs played seven Tests and 13 one-day internationals for Australia. Equally steady as batsman or off-spinner, she followed 48 at Ahmedabad in 1983-84 with four for 72 at Bombay. Originally from Adelaide, she moved to Melbourne in 1983, and played for Victoria for several seasons.

JAVED AKHTAR, who died on July 8, aged 75, played one Test for Pakistan, but was better known as an umpire, standing in 18 Tests and 40 one-day internationals between 1976-77 and the 1999 World Cup. His later matches were mired in controversy, particularly in England in 1998; South African administrator Ali Bacher accused him of being on a bookmaker's payroll after some peculiar decisions, especially during the Headingley Test which England won narrowly to take the series. Akhtar sued, and was cleared of any wrongdoing after Bacher failed to turn up for the court hearing in Pakistan. An off-spinner, he had taken seven for 56 - which remained a career-best - in only his fifth first-class match, for the President's XI against Ted Dexter's MCC tourists in his home town of Rawalpindi in 1961-62. Despite that, Akhtar originally missed out on selection for the England tour that followed, only to be called up late as a replacement for Haseeb Ahsan. He went straight into the Third Test at Headingley, where he failed to take a wicket in England's only innings. Six county games produced ten victims, but he never had another Test. Akhtar played on for Rawalpindi - finishing with 187 wickets at 18 - until 1975-76, by which time he had already started umpiring.

JENKINSON, NEIL, who died on July 20, aged 77, was a diligent researcher and historian whose books included biographies of Philip Mead, Richard Daft and Charles Llewellyn, a history of Hambledon CC, and Cricket's Greatest Comeback, the story of how Hampshire defeated Warwickshire in 1922 after being dismissed for 15. He was Hampshire's honorary curator, and as a solicitor in Winchester numbered John Arlott among his clients.

JONES, WILLIAM GEORGE, died on October 18, aged 65. Bill Jones was a well-built left-arm seamer who was on the MCC cricket staff in the early 1970s alongside Ian Botham, who remained a firm friend: Jones made an appearance when Botham was featured on This Is Your Life. He played for several county Second XIs, and eventually turned to coaching, invariably referring to the children in his charge as "anklebiters". A regular in the Lord's indoor nets, Jones coached at University College School in Hampstead for 42 years from 1973, before retiring because of ill health. Botham was one of several celebrities who attended a fundraising dinner for him early in 2016.

JUNAID JAMSHED, one of 47 casualties when a PIA plane crashed in mountains in northern Pakistan on December 7, had been a prominent pop star and fashion designer before becoming a Muslim cleric. He was 52. His song "Dil Dil Pakistan" had been adopted as an unofficial anthem for the national team, and was sung at most of their matches.

KHALID QURESHI, who died on February 10, two days before his 88th birthday, was a member of the team which visited India for Pakistan's first official Test series, in 1952-53. A slow left-armer, he played in six tour games, but none of the Tests. After that, Qureshi trained as an electrical engineer in England, where he had some success for Lowerhouse in the Lancashire League, and back home in 1956-57 he claimed 12 for 77 as Punjab beat Bahawalpur by an innings. His best figures, nine for 28, came four years later in an Ayub Trophy quarter-final for Lahore, and he ended up with 143 wickets at 19. For Lahore Gymkhana in 1962, Qureshi took nine for none as the Punjab Club were skittled for three. His father and two brothers also played first-class cricket.

LAMBERT, DENNIS ALFRED, who died on November 13, aged 82, was one of the founders of the Association of Cricket Statisticians; in 1972, he and Robert Brooke placed an advertisement in The Cricketer, seeking like-minded recruits. Lambert was the ACS's first secretary, and chairman from 1979 to 1981. An accountant, he was also Leicestershire's official statistician, and wrote their book in the Christopher Helm county history series.

LEE, DONALD, died on August 10, aged 83. Don Lee played 31 first-class matches in South Africa over 15 years from 1952-53, mainly for Griqualand West. An off-spinning all-rounder, he never bettered his debut match haul of seven wickets, in a victory over North Eastern Transvaal in Pretoria. His only century, 111 against Orange Free State, came four seasons later. Lee became a first-class umpire; his brother, Lennard, also played for Griqualand West.

LLOYD, BARRY JOHN, who died on December 1, aged 63, was an accurate off-spinner who played for Glamorgan from 1972 to 1983, sharing the captaincy with Javed Miandad in 1982. Lloyd took 55 wickets that season, his best return, although his best figures - eight for 70 - had come the year before, against Lancashire at Cardiff. He was also an effective one-day container, going for less than four an over. "A terrific servant to cricket in Wales, and a bloody good bloke," said Glamorgan's coach Robert Croft. Lloyd later played for Wales Minor Counties, and turned out for his club, Pontarddulais, until 2010. His daughter Hannah played five one-day internationals for England.

McCAY, DAVID LAWRENCE CORNELIUS, who died on September 20, aged 72, was a bespectacled all-rounder who top-scored with 82 - starting with a six - on his debut for Western Province, against the touring Australians at Cape Town in November 1966. After that he was more of a hit with the ball, two months later taking eight for 76 - and 14 for 154 in the match - against Natal B at Newlands. "He was a big bloke, and could swing it both ways," said former WP selector Fritz Bing. "You could compare his bowling speed to Eddie Barlow." McCay toured England in 1967 with a strong South African Universities side, but never quite recaptured the form of his early matches, and embarked on a successful business career. He was the owner of the winery and restaurant at Constantia Uitsig, where he established a well-appointed cricket ground which has been used for tour and academy games.

MADDOCKS, LEONARD VICTOR, died on August 27, aged 90. Len Maddocks features in one of the most famous pieces of archive cricket film: rapped on the pads at Old Trafford in 1956, he is given out lbw as Jim Laker takes his 19th wicket. Maddocks batted four times against Laker and Tony Lock in his two Tests on that tour, and lasted 27 minutes in total. Luckily, he wasn't in that side for his batting: Maddocks was a slender, unflashy wicketkeeper, although it was his misfortune to be an almost permanent understudy. He was first chosen for Victoria as a 20-year-old in 1946-47, but had to serve a lon apprenticeship under Bill Baker and Ian McDonald, the older brother of addocks's future Test team-mate Colin. Not until 1953-54 did Maddocks nail down a spot, but his anticipation and sound glovework - which contrasted with the flair of Don Tallon and the rustic effectiveness of Gil Langley - marked him out as one to watch. Maddocks also averaged 40 in his first full season, presenting a straight bat. When Len Hutton's side arrived for the 1954-55 Ashes, the selectors chose Maddocks for an Australian XI early in the tour. Then, after Langley suffered an eye injury while keeping in a Sheffield Shield game, Maddocks was drafted in for the last three Tests.

He kept quiet about a broken finger on his right hand, which his crossed-gloves stance exposed to further damage, but his batting remained solid: on debut at Melbourne, he top-scored with 47 from No. 8 as the last four wickets doubled the score to 231 to give Australia a narrow lead. In the second innings, however, he was castled first ball - one of Frank Tyson's seven for 27 - as they were blown away for 111. In the next match, at Adelaide, Maddocks again batted grittily, again top-scored (this time with 69), and again pushed Australia to a respectable first-innings total, topped off by a 92-run stand for the ninth wicket with his skipper, Ian Johnson.

But Australia crumbled once more, and England clinched the match, and theAshes. In England in 1956, Langley was first choice behind the stumps, until he broke a finger against Somerset. Back came Maddocks, although he was unfortunate to play on spin-friendly surfaces in the Third and Fourth Tests which rankled for ever with the tourists. He kept well, but his batting failed completely.

Maddocks played one more Test, in India on the way home, but pressure of work - he was an accountant with Australian Paper Manufacturers - forced him to withdraw from the 1957-58 tour of South Africa, where Wally Grout became the permanent replacement for the retire Langley. Maddocks continued to captain Victoria, scoring a century in an unofficial Test in New Zealand in 1959-60. Work took him to Tasmania in the 1960s, and he played for them in pre-Shield days.

He devoted his later life to cricket administration, spending a decade from 1973 as a Victorian delegate to the Australian board. During that period he received the poisoned chalice of managing the 1977 tour of England, which was derailed by most of the side having signed secret contracts to play in Kerry Packer's World Series Cricket. His younger brother Dick also played for Victoria, as did his son Ian, another wicketkeeper. Len Maddocks had been Australia's oldest living Test cricketer, a distinction which passed to Ken Archer.

MAINWARING, EDWARD STEWART, died on January 9, aged 74. Ed "Stewpot" Stewart was a familiar face on TV - and an even more familiar voice on radio, whether presenting music programmes or the BBC's Sunday Sport. He regularly turned out in charity football and cricket games, and dismissed Brian Clough in a Taverners match at Lord's in 1975.

MASINGATHA, LAZOLA, died on April 29, aged 32, a few days after being injured in a road accident in Breidbach, South Africa. He was one of five municipal employees who died when their light truck crashed. At the memorial service, the local mayor was forced to flee through a hole hurriedly cut in the back of a marquee as other workers, who felt they were owed back pay, started chanting menacingly. Masingatha, a handy batsman, had played several matches for Border, scoring 75 against South Western Districts at East London in October 2007.

MAY, NORMAN ALFRED, AM, who died on September 10, aged 88, became one of Australia's best-known sporting commentators during his 26 years with the ABC, an association that started with a casual invitation to cover a Sydney surf carnival in 1958. "Nugget", as he was universally known because of his solid build, went on to span all sports, and gained a kind of national immortality after a spirited account of the climax of the men's medley relay swim at the 1980 Olympics in Moscow: "Five metres now, four, three, two, one… Gold! Gold to Australia! Gold!" He had a long association with cricket, both on radio and television, his work marked by broad knowledge, thorough preparation and an innate feel for the game. Occasional criticisms of bias might be answered by May removing his glass eye - the legacy of a childhood accident with a bow and arrow - and agreeing with his accuser that he was indeed one-eyed.

MELVILLE, JAMES EDWARD, who died on June 2, aged 80, was a lively seamer with a well-disguised slower ball who took nine for 94 in his second match for Kent's second team, against Sussex at Hove in 1960. The following season, he ambushed the Australians in a one-day game on his home pitch at Blackheath, taking six for 46 as the Club Cricket Conference inflicted the only defeat on Richie Benaud's tourists outside the Tests. Melville made his first-class debut in 1962. Against eventual champions Yorkshire at Middlesbrough, he took three for 28 in the first innings and four for 78 in the second, bowling Geoff Boycott - in one of his earliest Championship appearances - for a duck. But three further games that summer brought only three wickets, and a dressing-down from Kent's manager Les Ames for arriving late one morning after spending the previous night driving a minicab. He made one more appearance in 1963, before returning to club cricket with Blackheath.

MICHELMORE, ARTHUR CLIFFORD, CBE, died on March 19, aged 96. Cliff Michelmore was the dependable TV anchorman for many big occasions, including the moon landings and the Investiture of the Prince of Wales in 1969. A long-time host of the BBC's Tonight magazine show, he had started with the British Forces Network in Germany, where his work included cricket commentary. Once he joined the BBC, he interviewed Denis Compton and Godfrey Evans, among other famous sportsmen.

MILLER, MARTIN ELLIS, who died on October 28, aged 75, was an off-spinner who took 33 wickets in a dozen matches in 1963 for Cambridge University, under the captaincy of Mike Brearley. He booked a place in the Varsity Match with six for 89 - the top six in the order - against Middlesex at Fenner's, and also claimed five for 53 to give Worcestershire a scare at New Road (chasing 192, they won by two wickets). Wisden wrote that Miller "varied the flight and pace of his off-breaks artfully, and could bowl for unlimited periods", but that was his only year in the side. He turned down approaches from Worcestershire over concerns about his eyesight, which eventually failed completely and led to early retirement from the civil service.

MINNEY, JOHN HARRY, who died on April 1, aged 76, was a gifted amateur who played 14 matches for Cambridge between 1957 and 1959, without managing a Blue, then five more in a peculiar career for Northamptonshire. He played three county games in 1961, then waited six years for a recall. After battling to 42 in his first comeback match on what Wisden called "a dubious pitch" at Worksop, he made a "rousing" 58 - his only halfcentury - in a victory over Middlesex at Wantage Road. After that, Minney returned to club cricket and the family footwear firm, once causing traffic chaos in Finedon when he invited the pop group Showaddywaddy - at the height of their 1970s fame - to visit the factory after spotting them on TV wearing his company's shoes.

MOORE, FREDERICK, died on March 17, aged 85. Freddie Moore was a seamer from Rochdale who played 24 times for Lancashire in the 1950s without becoming a regular. But he did have one memorable match: taking advantage of the absence of Brian Statham on England duty, Moore claimed five for 36 - including a hat-trick - against Essex at Chelmsford in 1956, and followed that with a career-best six for 45 in the second innings. He played for the Second XI for ten years, and had spells as a league professional with East Lancashire and Lowerhouse.

MOULE, HARRY GEORGE, who died on June 15, aged 94, was a prolific club batsman from Kidderminster who made one first-class appearance, opening for an understrength Worcestershire against Cambridge University at New Road in 1952, and scoring 45 and 57. Despite his efforts, the students successfully chased a target of 373, David Sheppard making 239 not out. Moule, who was never asked to play again, had been Worcestershire's oldest surviving cricketer, a distinction that passed to John Ashman, one of five former players who celebrated their 90th birthdays in 2016.

MUBEEN MUGHAL, MOHAMMAD, who died of hepatitis on February 2, aged 23, kept wicket in six first-class matches for Sialkot in Pakistan. On debut, against Habib Bank in October 2011, he scored 47 and took five catches, all Test players. The local cricket association have set up a club tournament in his memory.

MUHAMMAD ALI died on June 3, aged 74. During his boxing heyday and beyond, the three-time world heavyweight champion Muhammad Ali was the most famous sportsman - and arguably the most recognisable human being - on the planet. In May 1966, five days before a title defence against Henry Cooper, he was taken to Lord's to see the West Indians play Middlesex, and met Garry Sobers. Fifty years later, on the day of Ali's funeral in his home town of Louisville, Kentucky, Sobers was at Lord's again - and rang the five-minute bell after a special tribute during lunch on the second day of England's Test against Sri Lanka.

MUKHERJEE, PRABIR, who died on May 31, aged 86, was the head groundsman at Eden Gardens in Kolkata for around 30 years, although his reign ended in acrimony after the Cricket Association of Bengal blamed him for a waterlogged outfield that led to the abandonment of a Twenty20 international against South Africa in October 2015. Three years previously, the strong-willed Mukherjee had defied India's captain M. S. Dhoni, who wanted a spin-friendly track for the Third Test against England. After grumbling to the media and then claiming sickness, Mukherjee returned to his post, and prepared what he felt was a normal pitch: England won to take a 2-1 lead, before clinching the series in Nagpur. Mukherjee had been a fast bowler and a goalkeeper in his youth, and started working for the CAB in 1979, eventually moving into groundsmanship. In 1987, he prepared the pitch for the World Cup final between Australia and England.

MUKHTAR BHATTI, who died on February 7, aged 84, was a much-travelled Pakistani journalist who covered many sports as an agency reporter. He was a diligent historian, producing several sporting record books, including one marking Pakistan's 50 years as a Test nation. He died in harness, working on a book on Pakistan hockey.

MULVANEY, DEREK JOHN, AO, died on September 21, aged 90. Professor John Mulvaney was the first university-trained archaeologist to work in Australia; his work demonstrated that the Aboriginal presence stretched back at least to the Ice Age. His understanding of native culture was reflected in his 1967 work The Australian Aboriginal Cricketers on Tour 1867-68, which examined the players as real people with real histories. Mulvaney was made an Officer of the Order of Australia in 1991, partly for his study of Aboriginal cultural heritage.

MUNDEN, VICTOR STANISLAUS, died on September 22, aged 88. A left-arm spinner and handy batsman, Vic Munden had a 12-year career with Leicestershire, being a regular for six. He mostly had to play second fiddle to the unorthodox Australian slow left-armer Jack Walsh. But when Walsh was restricted by injury in 1951, Munden took his chance. He claimed 51 wickets at 22 - including five for 33 to consign Surrey to a two-day defeat at Ashby-de-la-Zouch - received his cap, and was rarely left out after that. In 1955, he took 87, his season's best. His best figures - six for 33, and ten for 42 in the match - had come against Somerset at Bath two years earlier; a hat-trick against Derbyshire helped set up another win at Ashby. With the bat, his most productive season was 1952, when 1,259 runs included his only two centuries - 103 against Kent at Folkestone in July, and 100 a week later against Lancashire at Liverpool. Trevor Bailey recalled that Munden's batting taught him a lesson: "He was scoring runs off my bowling rather too easily for comfort, so I slipped him my beamer, which not only hit him but fractured his cheekbone. I saw Vic in hospital, and never bowled another in my life." Brothers Donald and Paul also played for Leicestershire, while his son, David, toured with England Under-19s and later became a noted cricket photographer, before being forced to retire by Parkinson's disease.

MUNRO, ANTHONY JOHN, died on April 23, aged 52, following a stroke. Tony Munro was an industrious writer with a zeal for publicising cricket in such unusual outposts as Malta or the Maldives; his brother drew parallels between Munro's dwarfism and his passion for the smaller nations. He collated Wisden's Cricket Round the World section between 2003 and 2011, and did similar work for ESPNCricinfo. The Almanack's coeditor Hugh Chevallier said: "He never thought twice about calling from Australia, no matter what time of day it was, to check whether we might be interested in a particular angle."

MUZUNGUZIKA, ROBINA, died on May 17, aged 28, after complications in childbirth; her baby died too. A good enough player to have been in Mashonaland Eagles' squad, Muzunguzika also became one of three scorers contracted to Zimbabwe Cricket.

NANAN, RANGY, who died on March 23, aged 62, had the misfortune of being probably the best slow bowler in the Caribbean when the all-conquering West Indians relied predominantly on pace. He played just one Test - in Pakistan in December 1980 - taking four wickets in a series-clinching victory. "Nobody got a long run," he told ESPNCricinfo in 2008, adding that "captains of West Indies teams didn't really know how to set fields for spinners. Cricket is a game of angles, and you had to think differently for spinners.

If Shane Warne was living in the West Indies, nobody would have heard of him." Still, Nanan played on for Trinidad & Tobago until 1991, finishing with 272 wickets for them - a record, until surpassed by leg-spinner Imran Khan in November 2016. "It always felt as if I was at school when facing his prodigiously turning off-breaks," said his fellow countryman Brian Lara. "I learned a lot about the art of playing spin from him." Nanan took seven for 109 against the Leeward Islands in Antigua in 1981-82 - Viv Richards, with 167, rather spoiled his figures - and topped the domestic wicket-takers that season with 32. The following year he made his only century, 125 against the Leewards at Pointea`- Pierre. A policeman, Nanan later acted as a liaison officer for West Indian teams, and during the 2007 World Cup in the Caribbean.

O'LINN, SIDNEY, died on December 11, aged 89. Sid O'Linn (a contraction of the original "Olinsky": his father was a kosher butcher) was a South African double international, following a solitary football cap with seven Test appearances.

He first came to England in 1947, and played 194 times for Charlton Athletic over the next decade as a no-nonsense midfielder with a powerful shot, which brought most of his 33 goals. In summer he turned out for Kent, originally as a wicketkeeping understudy when Godfrey Evans was with England. A dogged left-hander, O'Linn had almost a full season in 1952, scoring 1,080 runs, including an unbeaten 111 against Surrey at The Oval, his only county century. But he had just one more match for Kent; some felt this was because he was disinclined to call the amateur captains "Mister".

After returning home in 1957, he resumed his domestic first-class career ten years after a couple of games for Western Province, and did so well in 1959-60 for Transvaal - 619 runs at 68, including 120 not out against Griqualand West - that he was a surprise inclusion for the tour of England. Having learned of a board directive that wives and girlfriends were not allowed, and desperate to go, a frantic O'Linn rushed through a divorce from his first wife. She was living in England, and he was paranoid about bumping into her. Jackie McGlew's weakish side were further depleted when the bent-armed seamer Geoff Griffin was prevented from bowling, and they lost 3-0. But O'Linn played in all five Tests. The highlight came in the Third at Trent Bridge where, having kept wicket for most of England's first innings after John Waite injured a finger, O'Linn prolonged the match by batting nearly six hours for 98 as South Africa followed on.

He missed his century when Colin Cowdrey - a former Kent team-mate - stuck out a hand and intercepted an edge that seemed destined for the boundary. O'Linn ended the series with 261 runs, more than either of the highly rated openers, McGlew and Trevor Goddard, and against Warwickshire in August equalled his career-best 120 not out. He was no stylist. "His footwork is at times almost grotesque," wrote John Arlott, "and often it seems as if he is quite incapable of playing forward at all." However, Arlott concluded, "he has immense guts, unending patience and an almost scientific understanding of his own limitations". O'Linn played two further Tests, at home against New Zealand in 1961-62 but, pushing 35 years of age, failed to reach 20 and was sidelined. He later ran a sports shop in Johannesburg, in partnership with his old team-mate Waite.

PARKER, WILLIAM BRADLEY, died on February 17, aged 68. Bill Parker was an excellent all-round sportsman who played good-class cricket and rugby in and around Tyneside. He was a heavy scorer for South Shields, and played six Minor Counties Championship matches for Durham in the early 1980s. He also taught and coached, and his rugby charges included England internationals Kyran Bracken, Austin Healey and Tony Underwood.

PAUL, T. VIJAY, who died on December 16, aged 66, was a batsman who made two centuries in a long career for Hyderabad, both against Tamil Nadu, the higher 156 not out at Secunderabad in 1982-83. Soon after, he stood down to make room for the young Mohammad Azharuddin. Paul became a noted coach, bringing on V. V. S. Laxman - who called him "the most passionate and knowledgable coach I have seen" - and Test left-arm spinner Pragyan Ojha.

PAYNE, ANDREW DAVID, died of leukaemia on July 22, aged 55. Andy Payne was a keen cricketer - and later coach - for the Kings Heath club in Birmingham.Warwickshire's players wore red armbands in his memory over their dark one-day kit for the Royal London Cup game against Worcestershire at Edgbaston.

PEEL, NIGEL DAVID, who died of a brain tumour on January 28, aged 48, was a seamer who took 159 wickets for Cheshire in the Minor Counties Championship, including eight for 62 against Dorset at Weymouth in 1990. "If ever there was a cricketer who was too nice to be a fast bowler, it was Peely," said Ian Milligan, a former team-mate and now chairman of their old club, Bramhall.

PHELAN, PATRICK JOHN, died on July 7, aged 78. Paddy Phelan was a flighty offspinner who turned the ball a lot, and took 300 wickets for Essex. He started in 1958, under a demanding captain: "When Paddy came into the side, Trevor Bailey just couldn't accept that he couldn't put six balls an over on the spot," said Robin Hobbs. Despite this, Phelan took 50 wickets at 26 in his first summer, with five for 22 in victory over Northamptonshire at Leyton - and was, Hobbs remembered, unamused to be dropped for the last few games of the season when the Cambridge Blue Alan Hurd (see above) was persuaded to play instead. After two years of national service, Phelan was a regular until 1965, when he was released in a bout of cost-cutting that left Essex with just 12 contracted players. It also left them without a regular driver for their kit van, Phelan's usual task.

His best season was 1964, when his 64 wickets included a career-best eight for 109 against Kent at Blackheath, and ten in a historic victory over the touring Australians at Southend - Essex's first since 1905. He took five for 94 to make the tourists follow on after a century from 20-year-old Keith Fletcher had lifted Essex to 425, still their highest total against the Australians; Phelan added five for 154 in the second innings. Not a great batsman, he did make 63 against Gloucestershire at Leyton in 1963. He returned to club cricket after being released by Essex and, 21 years later, played a couple of Minor County matches for Cambridgeshire.

PIERIS, PERCIVAL IAN, died on January 1, aged 82. A bespectacled purveyor of what his captain Ted Dexter called "old-fashioned swing and cutters", Ian Pieris formed a useful new-ball partnership with Ossie Wheatley for Cambridge University between 1956 and 1958. A Blue in each of his three years, Pieris took 77 wickets in 36 university matches, with a best of five for 44 against Douglas Jardine's XI at Eastbourne in 1958. He also made 55 not out against Kent at Fenner's in 1957. Pieris improved his best figures in 1966-67, with six for 30 - four of them Test batsmen - for the Ceylon Prime Minister's XI against the State Bank of India in his native Colombo.

With no domestic first-class structure in the country at the time, he had few other chances to shine, though he did make a mark in an unofficial Test against West Indies in March 1967, during a last-wicket stand of 110 in 53 minutes with Neil Chanmugam. "I was angry with the captain, the selectors and with everybody because I was sent to bat at No. 11," he recalled. "I thought 'I am going to show these chaps that I can bat.' I scored 46 not out, fuelled in cold fury." A product of St Thomas' College, Pieris played four times in the annual match against Royal College in Colombo, scoring 123 as captain in the last, in March 1953. Later that month he played for Ceylon against the Australian team en route to England, bowling Arthur Morris. He was president of Sri Lanka Cricket in 1989 and 1990.

PINKERTON, ANTHONY DAVID, died on November 9, aged 86. Calcutta-born Tony Pinkerton played 13 matches for Transvaal in the early 1950s, scoring 76 not out against Natal and 82 against Griqualand West in successive games in 1952-53, Transvaal's only season in the B section of the Currie Cup.

PLEASS, JAMES EDWARD, died on February 16, aged 92. Jim Pleass was the last survivor of the first Glamorgan team to win the County Championship, in 1948. His contribution to that famous triumph was modest: appearing in around half the matches, he averaged 16 and made just one half-century. But that unbeaten 77 helped beat Hampshire at Cardiff Arms Park, one of Glamorgan's 13 wins as they finished four points clear of Surrey. The title was secured with an innings victory in the return game at Bournemouth, the final decision given by Dai Davies, a former Glamorgan stalwart. "Dai was proudly wearing a red tie with a dragon motif," recalled Pleass. "Their last batsman Charlie Knott missed his intended stroke against Johnnie Clay… before he had finished the appeal, Dai had already said: 'That's out and we've won!'" It was a momentous conclusion to Pleass's first full season, after an eventful war during which he survived the Normandy landings when another boat cut in front of his, but hit a German mine, killing all hands. He remained an unsung member of the Glamorgan line-up, making occasional runs and fielding expertly in the covers. In 1951 he was part of the side that upset the South Africans at Swansea: "Without question, the most exciting game I ever played in," said Pleass of a match in which the tourists - who reached 54 for none chasing 148 - were bowled out for 83. Four years later, he made his only county century, an unbeaten 102 at Harrogate which spirited Glamorgan past a target of 344 to complete their first victory in Yorkshire. But the following year he retired, fed up with in-and-out form and a batting average that stubbornly refused to exceed 20. He began a successful business career, initially working for an insurance firm run by Wilf Wooller, his long-time county captain. For some time he was on the Glamorgan committee, and also ran the former players' association.

PORTER, CLIVE WILLOUGHBY, who died on June 8, aged 71, was devoted to the study of cricket in Kent. He produced three books: a history of the county's matches against the Australians, a study of the Test career of Jack Hobbs, and Kent Cricket Champions, 1906 - which was, according to another Kent historian, Derek Carlaw, "the very model of what such a book should be, meticulously researched, making much use of contemporary newspapers and exhibiting a deep knowledge of the period". Porter was the editor of the Cricket Society Journal from 1984 to 2005, a contributor to other cricket magazines and journals, and occasionally a scorer for BBC radio and television. He spent a lifetime working in education.

POTHECARY, JAMES EDWARD, died on May 11, aged 82. Western Province seamer Jim Pothecary had endured five unspectacular seasons, before taking 25 wickets at 14 in 1959-60 - including a career-best five for 29 against Rhodesia - which won him a spot in the team that toured England in 1960. Pothecary possessed a handy late outswinger, but lacked the pace to do serious damage. He missed the first two Tests, but was then given the chance to share the new ball with Neil Adcock, after Geoff Griffin was called for throwing at Lord's. He went wicketless as England took a 3-0 lead at Trent Bridge, but did better in the last two matches, both drawn: Pothecary took five at Old Trafford and four at The Oval, all batsmen in the top seven. He finished the tour with 53 wickets at 29 in first-class matches, and was perhaps unfortunate to be singled out by Wisden as "probably the biggest disappointment" of an underwhelming trip. He played only nine more games over the next five home seasons - improving his career-best with the bat to 81 not out against Eastern Province in 1963-64 - and did not challenge for another cap.

PREMASIRI, HALAMBAGE, was shot dead near his home in Ambalangoda, Sri Lanka, on August 12. He was 52, and had recently been elected president of the Galle Cricket Association in a controversial campaign, after which the Sri Lankan board refused to accept the results. The killing, though, was not thought to be cricket-related: Premasiri's brother had been murdered in similar circumstances in 2011, amid rumours of underworld involvement. Two men were later arrested. In his playing days, Premasiri had come close to national selection: he played for Sri Lanka A against England A in 1990-91, his first season, scoring 56 in the first representative match. He continued with the Singha club in Colombo, making three hundreds for them - the highest 147 at Moratuwa in 1994-95 - and three more for Southern Province in the President's Trophy. In all, he played 70 firstclass matches before concentrating on his business career.

PRESSDEE, JAMES STUART, died on July 20, aged 83. Jim Pressdee was one of Glamorgan's best home-grown all-rounders, and enjoyed his finest hour at Swansea, just a few miles from The Mumbles, where he grew up. Over three days in August 1964, in front of large crowds and amid a feverish atmosphere, he contributed ten wickets to Glamorgan's first win over the Australians, prompting a ground invasion and renditions of "Land of my Fathers". "There were ships in the bay, thousands of people in the ground, and not a cloud in the sky," reported The Times.

Pressdee was a gritty, stubborn batsman, an orthodox slow left-armer, and good enough to do the double twice. In the mid-1950s, there was talk he might follow his Glamorgan team-mate Jim McConnon into the England team. But for several summers he hardly bowled - after constant disagreements with captain Wilf Wooller about how he should do so, and who should set his fields.

He was also a talented footballer, playing for Wales Schoolboys and making eight league appearances for Swansea Town. When he made his Glamorgan debut, against Nottinghamshire at Cardiff Arms Park in August 1949, he was 16 years 59 days old, the county's youngest post-war player. National service hindered his progress, but the departures of Len Muncer and Norman Hever in 1954 meant more opportunities, and next summer Pressdee took 65 Championship wickets and made 773 runs. He showed a particular relish for touring teams, scoring his first century against the Indians in 1959; two years later, he became the first Glamorgan batsman to score a hundred against the Australians.

His bowling form returned with the encouragement of new captain Ossie Wheatley, who wisely allowed him to set his own fields. Wheatley's commitment to attacking cricket also suited Pressdee, and in 1963 he took 106 wickets at 21, scored 1,467 runs at 33, and held 41 catches as the club finished second in the Championship. He did the double again in 1964 - no Glamorgan player has managed it since - and passed 1,000 runs in 1965, when they challenged for the Championship once more, Pressdee claiming a career-best nine for 43 against Yorkshire at Swansea.

He had already decided to move to South Africa, where he had been coaching, when his relationship with Wooller, by now Glamorgan's secretary, came to a head after the final match of the 1965 season, against Essex at Llanelli. Pressdee attempted to leave the pavilion by a back room used as an office by the county staff. Wooller had declared it out of bounds because of the cash and valuables kept there, but Pressdee insisted on going through. A shouting match ensued. When Pressdee eventually left, he made straight for the press tent to inform journalists that Wooller's behaviour was one of the main reasons he was leaving the country. He captained North Eastern Transvaal for four seasons, including successive Currie Cup section B titles. In the 1980s, he returned briefly to Wales, and led Glamorgan Colts, helping develop players such as Steve James and Tony Cottey. After a memorial service in Swansea, his ashes were taken to Mumbles CC, where a tree will be planted in his memory. "He was a fighter, and a man you wanted on your side," said team-mate Don Shepherd.

PRICE, JAMES MURRAY GRANT, died on June 6, aged 81. Murray Price kept wicket in 28 matches for Border in South Africa over a decade from 1955-56. He marked his debut, against Orange Free State, with two stumpings off the former Test opening bowler Ossie Dawson, and finished the season with seven - and six catches. Price had few pretensions to batting, making a highest score of 40 not out against Natal in 1957-58. For many years he ran the family stud farm.

PRIDEAUX, RUTH EMILY (ne´e Westbrook), who died on April 7, aged 85, became the first full-time coach of the England women's team in 1988, and guided them to World Cup victory at Lord's five years later, having modernised the backroom staff, bringing in physiotherapists, sports scientists and nutritionists. "She was the best coach I ever had," said Barbara Daniels, one of that victorious 1993 side. "Inspiring, innovative, empathetic, and a bit scary." Prideaux had played 11 Tests as a wicketkeeper-batsman, scoring 87 against South Africa at Cape Town in January 1961, not long before becoming (with teammate Mary Duggan) one of the first two women to earn the MCC's advanced coaching badge. She had started young. "My father was not pleased," she told cricket writer Raf Nicholson. "I had three brothers, and he thought they should be playing cricket, not me.

And I was the only one that really wanted to!" In 1963 she married the Northamptonshire captain Roger Prideaux, who would play three Tests; part of the honeymoon was spent at the Scarborough Festival. They had four children, but separated in 1972. They were the only husband and wife to play Test cricket until 1998, when Rasanjali Chandima Silva joined Guy de Alwis in winning a Sri Lankan cap.

PUGH, CHARLES THOMAS MICHAEL, died on February 1, aged 78. Tom Pugh was almost certainly the only county captain who claimed to have been a candidate to play James Bond. His acting experience was limited to a TV advert for cigarettes, but he was suave, good-looking, and blessed with an Etonian's poise. And he loved to tell the story of how, aged 24, he made it to the last five or six on the shortlist, compiled by the producer Cubby Broccoli and author Ian Fleming, for Dr No, the first Bond film. The gig went to Sean Connery.

Had he got the part, Pugh would have had to choose between Hollywood and Nevil Road. Connery ensured it was cricket, only for Gloucestershire to sack him at the end of the 1962 season, matching the suddenness of his appointment as captain two years earlier. Pugh, then a Lloyds insurance broker, owed his move to Bristol to Percy Fender, who had been asked by Sir Percy Lister, the county's vice-chairman, to identify a promising amateur batsman who might later assume the captaincy. Fender recalled seeing Pugh make 76 against Harrow in 1954, and suggested they could be recruiting the next Ted Dexter.

The deal was sealed over lunch at The Savoy, where Pugh ordered the lobster soup, fell ill, and earned a rebuke from his father for drinking red wine with seafood. He made just six appearances in 1959 but, amid an injury crisis, played in 23 Championship matches in 1960, scoring 844 runs at 22. At Chesterfield in early June, he and Tom Graveney put on 256, still a Gloucestershire second-wicket record, against Derbyshire. Pugh made 137, his only first-class hundred. "There was Tom Graveney at one end with his eloquent batting, and Tom Pugh at the other, hitting it here, there and everywhere," recalled the all-rounder Tony Brown. Pugh was a champion rackets player, and batted accordingly. "He was used to a high bouncing ball, so when they pitched short, like that day at Chesterfield, it played to his strength," said Brown. "Instead of three slips, they should have had three third men."

Pugh's runs that summer convinced the county to make him captain in place of Graveney, who resigned in protest; The Daily Telegraph opined that Pugh's cricket would "hardly surpass Old Etonian standard". He was robbed of the chance to prove the critics wrong when, early in the 1961 season, Northamptonshire's David Larter broke his jaw after he ducked into a low full toss; he was given out lbw. Pugh returned a few weeks later, and in 1962 led Gloucestershire to fourth place, with six wins in their final eight games - including victory over Glamorgan, at the steelworks ground at Margam, Port Talbot; no innings reached three figures.

Pugh expressed frustration to Sam Cook that his batsmen were failing to get on top of Glamorgan's bowlers, and promised to do something about it. When Pugh returned, having thrashed around for three (bowled by Don Shepherd), Cook remarked: "They don't seem to be having any trouble with that swarm of bees now, skipper." "What swarm of bees?" demanded Pugh. "The one you were trying to swat out there just now." Despite fourth place and his bold captaincy, Pugh contributed just 832 runs at 16, and was replaced by Tom's brother, Ken Graveney, who had been out of firstclass cricket for 11 years, but fulfilled the committee's wish for another amateur. Pugh was devastated.

He had another brush with Bond later in the 1960s when he married Kitty Green, a model who had featured in Thunderball. He would have fitted the criteria for the role in one important respect: he drove a two-seater sports car, often at high speed. Eventually, Brown was the only Gloucestershire player prepared to keep him company: "You just had to remind him from time to time that the roads are governed by certain regulations." He often lived life on the edge: he was once arrested on suspicion of running a brothel on the King's Road, but later acquitted.

RAMPRASAD, BAJINA, who died on March 30, aged 75, had a long career with Andhra, starting as their wicketkeeper in 1959-60 and spanning 17 seasons. Stylish and determined, he often opened, and hit 132 against Kerala in January 1965. His best innings, though, came almost nine years later: by now Andhra's captain, Ramprasad made 122 against a Karnataka attack including Test spinners Bhagwat Chandrasekhar and Erapalli Prasanna.

REYNOLDS, STANLEY AMBROSE HARRINGTON, who died on November 28, aged 82, was an American journalist who settled in England and fell in love with cricket. His love, however, was not too blind to prevent him observing it with wry bewilderment expressed in witty columns, particularly for The Guardian and Punch in the 1970s. Nor did it stop Reynolds rapidly becoming as fogeyish as any Englishman in defence of its sacred values. "He loved the otherness of cricket, the white clothes and all the rituals," said his former wife Gillian, the Telegraph's radio critic for more than 40 years. He became interested because he lived opposite the Aigburth ground in Liverpool, and struck up a friendship with the groundsman, Cedric. But his writing was sharp rather than sentimental. In 1972 he noted how the queue for tickets at Lord's had to cross the entrance to the members' car park: "Cravated old colonels seated behind long, gleaming bonnets regularly parted our queue as deftly as Charlton Heston handled the Red Sea… If we ever have a revolution in England it will not start, as so many say, on the Liverpool docks, but in a queue outside Lord's when Lancashire is playing in the Gillette Cup final."

RIDLEY, MALCOLM JAMES, who died on August 21, aged 75, was a director of John Wisden & Co from 1996 to 2003, and a member of its management committee for ten years. An accountant, Ridley was a professional advisor to Paul Getty, overseeing the purchase of John Wisden & Co in 1993 and, ten years later, the acquisition of Cricinfo and The Cricketer. As a lifelong Surrey supporter, he took great pleasure in meeting many of his childhood heroes at Getty's private matches at Wormsley. "He was a true gentleman," said Christopher Lane, Wisden's managing director while Ridley was on the board. "He had great integrity and kindness, and his wise counsel contributed much to Wisden."

RIX, LORD (Brian Norman Roger), CBE, DL, who died on August 20, aged 92, was one of Britain's most successful post-war comic actors, and became synonymous with Whitehall farces: few men were caught more often in public with their trousers down. Rix enjoyed enormous success in theatre management, and was said to be one of the highest-paid performers on television. In the late 1970s he changed tack, and became a vigorous campaigner on behalf of mental illness.

Yet all he had ever wanted to do was play for Yorkshire. Rix was the son of a cricket loving ship owner from Hull, who was desperate for his son to go to Oxford to develop his game. He had to be content with representing Hull and later the Lord's Taverners, though he credited some of his success on stage to his years spent playing as a boy: "As with batting, timing is everything." He relished appearing at Lord's in 1973, alongside Elton John, David Frost, Peter Cook and Michael Parkinson, to play Middlesex for Fred Titmus's benefit. Rix took two for 30, made 23 not out and held a fine one-handed catch at backward point to dismiss Norman Featherstone off the bowling of Ed Stewart.

He was one of 42 people to have made two appearances on This is Your Life. In 1961, one of his guests was Colin Cowdrey, who said Rix possessed the talent to have played county cricket. When he returned in 1977, his final guest was Wes Hall, a friend since West Indies' tour 14 years earlier.

ROBINSON, IAN DAVID, who died on April 3, aged 69, was the first Zimbabwean umpire on the ICC's international panel. He stood in Zimbabwe's inaugural Test, in October 1992, not long after being their representative at that year's World Cup, and in all oversaw 28 Tests and 90 one-day internationals, in addition to various administrative roles in Zimbabwean cricket. The English-born Robinson was popular, with a dry sense of humour. "I shared some fun cross-Zim road trips with him," said the former England batsman Alan Butcher, who had a spell as the national coach in Harare. Perhaps the most famous passage of play involving Robinson came at the end of England's first Test in Zimbabwe, at Bulawayo in 1996-97. With England pushing for victory, he turned a blind eye to several wide deliveries from the home seamer Heath Streak, particularly in the last over of a match in which the scores finished level. He hung up his white coat in 2008, and became the ICC's umpires' performance manager for Africa.

ROBSON, JAMES DONALD, CBE, DL, died on March 10, aged 82. Don Robson's passion, energy and vision drove Durham's elevation to first-class cricket in 1992. He became chairman when they were still a Minor County, but his ambition was always to make them the first new first-class side since Glamorgan in 1921. Part of his masterplan was to establish a new ground capable of staging international cricket in the region and, when he was offered the lease on farmland at Chester-le-Street, in the shadow of Lumley Castle, he immediately saw the possibilities. The Riverside ground opened in 1995, staged matches in the 1999 World Cup, its first Test in 2003 and - to Robson's immense pride - an Ashes Test in 2013. The pavilion, opened by the Queen in 1996, is named in his honour. But his impact went beyond bricks and mortar. He wanted to ensure that talented players from the North-East no longer had to leave to fulfil their ambitions. The success of the club's Academy, and the players who went on to represent England, gave him as much satisfaction as anything.

Robson had been involved in local politics since the mid-1960s, and was a long-serving Labour leader of Durham County Council. He launched a number of initiatives to regenerate the local economy, and saw Durham's promotion to first-class status as part of the strategy. He stood down as chairman before the club won their first Championship in 2008.

It had taken two years of lobbying by Robson to convince the TCCB that Durham had the finance and infrastructure to make the step up, and he raised £1m in the process. Once their elevation was confirmed, a team were assembled consisting of established international stars - Ian Botham and Dean Jones - plus discards from other counties and callow local youngsters. "He was conspicuous around the place when we arrived, and made everyone feel very welcome," said Simon Hughes, who had arrived from Middlesex. "He was always genial, friendly and asking if everyone was OK."

Those years in local government had given Robson an extensive contacts book, and he was known as a formidable organiser. Durham's first match, a Sunday League game against Lancashire at the Racecourse ground, was televised, but a late change of pitch meant the cameras were in the wrong position, looking over mid-off. Robson was furious that Durham had been made to look amateurish on their big day. "Within an hour, two trucks with elevated platforms had arrived," said Hughes. "The cameras were loaded on to them, and moved to the right places by the time the second innings started. That summed him up."

ST JOHN, ADRIAN, was shot dead on April 12, after being caught up in an attempted robbery while on holiday in Trinidad. A man was later charged with murder. St John, who was 22, grew up near The Oval, and was a promising batsman who had captained Chris Gayle's academy team in London. The players called him "a lovely man, a fine cricketer, a leader of men". He worked as a recruitment consultant, but had been thinking of trying his luck in professional cricket in the West Indies.

SETH, KAPIL, who died of hepatitis on July 2, aged 36, had just one first-class match for Madhya Pradesh, against Vidarbha in November 2000 - and made a century from No. 10. Coming in at 276 for eight, Seth joined his fellow 20-year-old, wicketkeeper Amkit Srivastava. They doubled the score to 552, before Srivastava retired hurt on reaching his double-century; Seth finished with 125 not out. But he was less successful in his primary role, sending down four expensive overs of medium-pace. Apart from a single List A game shortly afterwards, he never played for the state again.

SHAH, BHARATKUMAR KANTILAL, died on January 18, aged 70. Bharat Shah played one match for Saurashtra in 1965-66, making nought and five against Bombay at the Brabourne Stadium. He was later president of the Saurashtra Cricket Association for more than 17 years, before stepping down in 2013.

SHARPE, CARL, OAM, died on March 1, aged 78. Throughout the vast western region of New South Wales, Sharpe's name was synonymous with cricket administration, and he organised coaching, tours, and visits by leading players. He nurtured the grassroots over 50 years, and around 1,500 attended his funeral in the city of Orange.

SHODHAN, ROSHAN HARSHADLAL, died on May 16, aged 87. A tall, stylish lefthander, "Deepak" Shodhan was the first Indian to score a century in his maiden Test innings - but played only two more matches, finishing with an average of 60. He fell foul of the politics that bedevilled Indian cricket in the 1950s: "When I got into the team, Vinoo Mankad asked me whether I chose to support him or Vijay Hazare. I told him I support India and the team. That ticked him off."

Shodhan had been drafted into the side in Calcutta for the final match of the 1952-53 series against Pakistan after Hazare pulled out injured. He came in at No. 8 and started well, although Shodhan remained convinced that two batsmen hit out recklessly in an attempt to deny him a century. He finished with 110 as the last four wickets added 218. He went on the West Indian tour that followed, and played only twice because of illness, but still managed to save the final Test at Kingston. "He was down with flu and was admitted to the hospital," said team-mate Madhav Apte. "In the second innings we needed someone to delay West Indies. Deepak consumed enough time to help India draw that match." And that was it: afterwards, Shodhan was confined to domestic cricket, first with his native Gujarat and then Baroda, for whom he hit 261 against Maharashtra in 1957-58. In his early days he was also a handy left-arm seamer, and took five for 49 against the Commonwealth XI in 1950-51, his victims including Les Ames. His brother, Jyotindra ("a much better cricketer than me"), also captained Gujarat. Shodhan had been India's oldest Test cricketer, a distinction that passed to his friend Dattajirao Gaekwad.

SMITH, GEOFFREY, died on November 8, aged 90. Geoff Smith was an energetic fast bowler who took time off from his day job as a heating engineer to play a few matches for Kent every season between 1951 and 1958. He was capped in 1953 after taking 31 wickets in six matches, and four years later topped the county's averages with 57 at 16; inside a week in June 1957 he twice improved his career-best, taking six for 60 against Warwickshire at Dartford, then eight for 110 against Sussex at Tunbridge Wells. But, bothered by an irregular heartbeat, he played only one more match. Away from cricket, he worked on prestigious building projects, including the Sydney Opera House and the Shell Centre on London's South Bank.

SMITH, KEITH FREDERICK HENRY, who died on June 6, aged 87, scored an unbeaten 141 on first-class debut, for Wellington against Central Districts at the Basin Reserve in December 1953. He never bettered that, although he did make another century six years later, playing for CD against Wellington. In the next match, against Canterbury, he took three for none - all Test players - with his slow left-armers. He had a long career as a teacher, including a spell at a school in Western Samoa, and was a Wellington selector.

SPANSWICK, JOHN GEORGE, who died on October 15, aged 83, was a lively seamer from Folkestone who deputised for the ailing Fred Ridgway for Kent in 1955, taking 31 wickets in 15 matches. His three for 23 helped skittle Northamptonshire for 60 at Tunbridge Wells, and he later took four for 64 against Lancashire at Maidstone. But with Ridgway fit again, Spanswick appeared only once in 1956, taking five wickets against Cambridge University, and faded from the scene.

SUBRAMANIAM, UDIRAMALA, who died on November 28, aged 69, played only six first-class games, but had one great day in January 1972, when his five wickets in Kerala's Ranji Trophy match against Hyderabad were all Test players - Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi, Syed Abid Ali, Abbas Ali Baig, Kenia Jayantilal and Pochiah Krishnamurthy. To round things off, Subramaniam caught another Test man, Bobjee Narasimha Rao. His other five matches brought eight wickets.

TAILANG, SUDHIR, who died of a brain tumour on February 6, aged 55, was a prominent cartoonist who worked for several of India's leading newspapers. His usual targets were politicians, but he had a soft spot for cricket, and in 2003 produced a book featuring his work called Cricket Here and Now.

TSIKI, LUKHANYA, died of a heart attack on April 18, aged 22, while training at the cricket academy in South Africa's Eastern Cape. A left-hand batsman and right-arm seamer, he had played for Border's age-group teams. "We wanted to check where the guys were with fitness," said Mfuneko Ngam, the former Test fast bowler who runs the academy. "He was fine, he didn't have any problems… after he was finished, he sat with his mates, coughed, and collapsed. We took him to the hospital but it was too late."

TUCKETT, LINDSAY THOMAS DELVILLE, who died on September 5, aged 97, followed his father - also Lindsay, but usually known as Len - as a seamer for Orange Free State and South Africa. Lindsay made his first-class debut in 1934-35, shortly after his 16th birthday, only five years after his father's last game. Len had gone wicketless in his only Test, against England in 1913-14, but Lindsay made a better start, taking five for 68 on debut at Trent Bridge in 1947, and five for 115 in the Second Test at Lord's. His selection for that tour owed much to a fine performance for OFS against North Eastern Transvaal in the previous home season, when he followed eight for 64 - seven bowled and one lbw - with five for 41 at Bloemfontein.

A strapping figure, with a good action and decent pace, Tuckett seemed ideal for English conditions. Early on, he collected seven for 63 against Surrey, and the following week six for 64 against MCC at Lord's. But during a long spell in the First Test he picked up a groin strain. He did play in all five but, bothered by the injury - and even more by Denis Compton and Bill Edrich, in their golden summer - claimed only five more wickets. Tuckett impressed John Arlott. "He had all the apparent qualifications for a fastmedium bowler," he wrote. "His run was little more than a dozen yards long, and he covered those with a loping, almost lolling, lazy stride, his eyes half-shut… His danger to the batsmen lay not in his swing, but in his pace off the wicket." But Arlott spotted a flaw: "When Norman Yardley came in to bat in the Second Test, his first ball from Tuckett pitched on a good length and rose to strike the batsman in the jaw. For the remainder of the over Tuckett bowled half-volleys… That was his great failing - an apparent inability to bowl just short of a length with the new ball. He gave runs away by overpitching."

England toured South Africa in 1948-49, and Tuckett sent down the final over of the First Test at Durban, which England's ninth-wicket pair won by scrambling a leg-bye off the last ball. Tuckett played in four of the Tests, but managed only four wickets, and finished his international career with 19 at the unflattering average of 51. He continued with OFS until the mid-1950s, taking a career-best eight for 32 - and 13 for 66 in the match - against Griqualand West at Kimberley in 1951-52. He made one first-class century - 101 against North Eastern Transvaal at Pretoria in 1939-40, just before turning 21. Tuckett was the oldest surviving Test cricketer when he died, a distinction that passed to another South African, John Watkins.

UNDERWOOD, ARTHUR JOSEPH, who died on June 29, aged 88, was a left-arm seamer who did well for Nottinghamshire's Second XI - he took seven for 31 at Northampton in 1953 - but struggled in the first team: he scraped together only eight wickets in 14 matches between 1949 and 1954 at an average nudging 100, before returning to club cricket with Steetley in the Bassetlaw League.

WAQAR AHMED, who died on February 23, aged 68, toured England with Hanif Mohammad's Pakistan team as a 19-year-old in 1967, but did not crack the Test side, and returned home early after the death of his father, the former Indian wicketkeeper Dilawar Hussain. Waqar was an attractive batsman for various domestic teams, and scored three centuries - the highest 199 against Sargodha in November 1968, when he and Shafqat Rana put on 330 for Lahore's fourth wicket. He had made his first-class debut for Punjab University in 1964-65, just before his 17th birthday, and hit 195 against Lahore Reds in his third match. "He was a man of many parts," recalled the former Test opener Aftab Gul. "A wit, a raconteur, a man of learning and a joy to be with." He was secretary of the Pakistan Cricket Board from 1997 to 1999.

WARR, JOHN JAMES, who died on May 9, aged 88, spent a lifetime cheerfully mocking his own efforts for England on the 1950-51 Ashes tour. In two Tests, Warr bowled 73 eight-ball overs, conceded 281 runs and took one wicket - when Ian Johnson walked after edging to Godfrey Evans at Adelaide. Warr's Test average remained the worst in history, until surpassed by Sri Lanka's Roger Wijesuriya in the 1980s, and his brief international career provided a fund of material when he later became an outstanding after-dinner speaker. His habitual good humour, bonhomie and talent for the one-liner tended to obscure the fact that, for more than a decade, he was a fine county bowler and, late in his career, a shrewd captain of Middlesex. When Warr - always "JJ" - retired in 1960 to spend more time at his desk in the City, he had taken 956 first-class wickets at 22.

Warr had been a surprise pick to tour Australia under Freddie Brown's captaincy while still at Cambridge, though his figures in the summer of 1950 were good: 84 wickets at 24. That was slightly worse than rivals left at home - Derek Shackleton took 111 at 22, and Les Jackson 92 at 20 - but after the squad was announced E. W. Swanton wrote in The Daily Telegraph: "If Warr is lucky to be chosen, he is no more so than several whose names were announced earlier. Ideally, of course, he is not sufficiently fast, but that applied to all the candidates. His virtues are that he is lean, wiry and strong, and that he is a dauntless fellow who will really look to be hoping for a bowl at five o'clock on the hottest day."

Unable to find his customary swing, he struggled in the early state games - and dropped a sitter against Queensland - but six wickets in the match against New South Wales at Sydney convinced the selectors he was ready for the Third Test. Warr finished wicketless, and England lost by an innings to go 3-0 down with two to play. He kept his place for the Fourth at Adelaide, again toiling in vain in the first innings, but in the second was finally rewarded. "I got the faintest of faint touches, and Evans went up, half-heartedly," Johnson recalled. "John followed him, but the umpire said not out. Well, I saw John's shoulders sag, and he looked so crestfallen that on the spur of the moment I nodded to the umpire and walked. It's the only time I ever did it, I can tell you, but it seemed in keeping with the spirit of the game." Friends in England sent Warr a telegram, saying simply "Hymns Ancient and Modern, 281", a reference to his average. He found that hymn No. 281 was Lead Us, Heavenly Father, Lead Us, containing the apt lines: "Lone and dreary, faint and weary/Through the desert thou didst go." He had made his first-class debut for Cambridge against Yorkshire in 1949 in a match that also launched the careers of Fred Trueman, Brian Close and Frank Lowson (in the match report, Wisden described Trueman as "a spin bowler"). Warr's Middlesex debut was also against Yorkshire, at Bramall Lane later that summer. In eight Championship games he took 30 wickets and, in the last, against Derbyshire at Lord's, his five for 36 helped Middlesex to a share of the title with Yorkshire. He had an ugly action, but swung the ball at a useful pace.

Warr played in four Varsity Matches, and made a decisive impact in Cambridge's victory in 1949, demanding the ball when Oxford's tenth-wicket pair were digging in, and instantly removing the last man. He was captain in 1951, leading a side that included David Sheppard, Peter May and Raman Subba Row.

Warr worked as a broker in the City, and his employers granted him generous time off. His best year was 1956, when he took 116 wickets at 18, including a career-best nine for 65 against Kent at Lord's. He took over the captaincy from Bill Edrich two years later, and proved a popular leader of a young side. "On the field he was as good as any captain I played under," said John Murray, their wicketkeeper. "He was a very intelligent man. He made it fun, but he played the game seriously." He formed a fine new-ball partnership with Alan Moss, and in 1960 led Middlesex to third place. "He knew the talent he had at his disposal and how to use it," said Murray. But, at 33, Warr felt it was the right moment to devote himself to his career.

He was recognised as the best speaker on the circuit and, although constantly in demand, gave his services for free. He also wrote a cricket column for The Sunday Telegraph, was a keenly competitive golfer and, as a racing enthusiast, a steward at Goodwood and Windsor, and a member of the Jockey Club. In 1970 he won the Binney Memorial Medal for bravery after pursuing two men who had stolen cash boxes containing £2,000 from an office. A third man fired a shot which passed through the fabric of Warr's trousers.

He was perplexed in 1974 to be asked to represent the Australian Cricket Board at ICC meetings in England, having not visited the country since his ill-starred tour. "The only quality I had on that tour which they might have admired was that I never caught any of them out," he said. He was president of MCC (and thus chairman of the ICC) in 1987-88, taking over towards the end of the club's stormy bicentenary year. His legacy, however, was his store of jokes and quips. He described his great friend Denis Compton's call for a single as merely "the basis for negotiation"; he told Trueman they "shared 308 Test wickets"; and he described Swanton's prose style as "a mixture of Enid Blyton and the Ten Commandments". One of his best lines was saved for Edrich's fourth wedding. "Bride or groom?" asked the usher. "Season ticket," said Warr.

WATT, ARTHUR DAVID WILLIAMSON, died on September 25, aged 98. Dave Watt played for Western Australia either side of the war, at a time when the state was treated almost as a foreign country by the cricket panjandrums in the east. In 1946-47 he followed 85 for WA against the MCC tourists with a four-hour 157 for a Combined XI, also at Perth, marked by good footwork and punishing strokeplay. "Watt mastered the bowling," reported Wisden. Making their debut in the competition, and allowed only a reduced programme, WA jolted the Establishment by winning the Sheffield Shield the following summer, Watt making 129 in the victory over Queensland at Brisbane. He dropped out of first-class cricket after one more season, to concentrate on accountancy.

WIGHT, NORMAN DELISLE, who died on January 23, aged 87, was one of four brothers who all played for British Guiana. Leslie won one Test for West Indies in 1952-53, Peter (who died in December 2015) was a prolific scorer for Somerset, before becoming a first-class umpire, and Arnold opened the batting. Norman, a big-turning off-spinner, had the longest domestic career, playing 23 matches over 13 years from 1946-47, with a best of six for 51 in Trinidad in March 1947. He came close to a Test cap when the touring Australians reached Georgetown in 1954-55, but the Barbadian Norman Marshall, a better batsman, was preferred as a replacement for the out-of-form Collie Smith. Wight also played football, hockey and rugby for British Guiana.

WILSON, ALAN, who died on April 6, 2015, aged 94, was Lancashire's wicketkeeper for most of the 1950s, although his negligible batting meant his place was never entirely secure. After he was capped in 1951, his highest score in 24 matches the following season was six, and overall in 171 games he reached 30 only once - although that unbeaten 37, against Leicestershire at Old Trafford in 1958, did form part of an unlikely last-wicket stand of 105 with Roy Tattersall. "In the nets he didn't look a bad batsman," remembered Brian Statham, "and in the middle he shaped pretty well, too - until he tried to make a shot. And then he got out." The upshot was that Wilson - whose swarthy complexion earned him the nickname "Ranji" - often lost his place to better batsmen. But he was a tidy keeper, who took a high proportion of stumpings; and according to Statham "no pleasanter fellow has worn the Lancashire cap". He seemed to have lost his place for good after 1959, but remained on the staff and returned to the first team in 1962 for his benefit match, against Hampshire, which raised £4,023.

WOGAN, SIR MICHAEL TERENCE, KBE, DL, died on January 31, aged 77. Terry Wogan was one of Britain's best-loved broadcasters, famous for his long-running radio programme, TV chat show and caustic commentary on the Eurovision Song Contest. As a youngster he enjoyed most sports, having "a passing interest in everything that involved a ball", but came late to cricket, which was played little in his (Catholic) part of Ireland. He was president of the Lord's Taverners in 1983-84, and fielded his own side in charity matches, with several famous names - including, occasionally, Denis Compton. "The legendary Compo," wrote Wogan, "slower, more rotund, more florid than in his glory days, but still with the eye of a hawk, the reactions of a snake."

WRIGHT, GERALD LESLIE, died on March 30, 2015, aged 84. Gerry Wright was an artist who specialised in bright, colourful paintings. He had a special interest in cricket, and brought several of the stars of the Golden Age - usually seen only in black-and-white photographs - to life in imagined outdoor settings. Cricket historian David Frith collaborated on a book featuring Wright's works in 1985, and wrote: "Heroes like Gilbert Jessop, C. B. Fry, Prince Ranjitsinhji and the Old Man, WG himself, gaze back at us from their Arcadian garden as if confident their epic deeds have never been surpassed." The paintings proved popular with collectors ranging from Sir Paul Getty to Charlie Watts of the Rolling Stones, and featured in an exhibition at Lord's in 2016. An enthusiastic fast bowler in his youth, Wright was vice-President of Linton Park, the Kent club that won the National Village Championship in 1978.

ZAFAR KHAN, who died on September 5, aged 80, was a tall, portly and bespectacled batsman who played 23 matches for various teams in Pakistan over 13 seasons from 1955-56. His highest score of 84 came in 1960-61, when captaining Hyderabad & Khairpur against a Karachi Schools side including the future Test opener Sadiq Mohammad.