There can be few more humiliating sporting experiences than to be knocked out playing a cricket stroke only to discover that in the process you have been caught out. That was my experience in a house trial on The Head in the summer of 1951. The bowler was David Marques (Sc 46-51) who would become famous as a Cambridge and England rugby lock. He and his former Oxford rival, John Currie, became fixtures in the England XV second row between 1956 and 1961, with David playing for the Lions on their 1959 tour to Australia and New Zealand. Robin Marques (Sc 38-42), David’s older brother, was a far better fast bowler who played for the 1st XI in 1941 and 1942 and for Hertfordshire in the minor counties league from 1947 to 1966.  David was equally fast but very erratic, though the ball in question was on a surprisingly good length and shaving leg stump. I shaped to turn it down to the fine leg boundary but played too early and it flew off the back of my bat and hit my right eyebrow, knocking me unconscious, those being the days before health and safety or cricket helmets had been invented. As I struggled to pick myself up from the ground, I heard a fielder say, “By the way, you were caught out”, as though I cared!  I then walked unsteadily off towards the Quad to get stitched up by the house matron.  Back then School House was based in most of the first floor of the main High Street building, the present Lowry Room being the house dining room where the Headmaster presided over most meals with the House Tutor in attendance. As I reached the north end of the Fives Courts, I met John Dewes (CR 1951-53), a geography teacher, who had been walking across from the Pavilion and had seen the whole incident. He was far more sympathetic and told me that he had seen several similar incidents, from which my injured head and pride took some comfort. By the time he came to Tonbridge, John had already played for Cambridge, Middlesex and England as a left-handed opening batsman.

When I arrived at Tonbridge in 1947 Colin Cowdrey (FH 46-51) had already hit the national headlines when he played in the annual match against Clifton in 1946 at the age of 13, Wisden reporting that he was “reputed to be the youngest player to appear in a match at Lord’s… “. I soon got to know Colin, my far more modest claim to fame being that right from my first year I was a regular in the 1st XI hockey team at a time when hockey was normally only a 6th form sport. As well as both being keen Christians, we soon discovered that he spent both short school holidays with two sets of relatives who lived close to the Old Whitgiftian sports ground in South Croydon very near my home, so that tennis was a holiday sport we played together. During the Easter holidays Colin organised net practice at the Sutton cricket ground for a few of us including Peter Nicholson (Sc 47-51) who became a stylish 1st XI batsman. Very helpfully, Peter’s home backed on to the Sutton ground, so at lunchtime we walked up through the garden to be royally entertained for lunch by his mother. During one net session I recall Colin telling us “I hear there’s a very promising young batsman at Charterhouse called May”. He and Peter May later became very close friends and England cricketing stalwarts, both as batsmen and captains.  Little did we imagine that the two of them in a rear-guard action against the West Indies in the 1957 Edgbaston Test Match would set a record partnership for England of 411 which still stands to this day.

Rackets was another sport which Colin and I both played, travelling together to away matches and playing at Queen’s Club, although I played at quite a different level to Colin.  As half of the 1951 2nd Pair, I was the only non-Ferocian in the first two pairs, though there was a wide gulf in ability between the 1st and 2nd Pairs.  Colin’s 1st Pair partner in 1950 and 1951 was John Campbell (FH 47-52), another sporting allrounder, a 1st XI fast bowler and surely one of the finest cover points ever to grace The Head. Colin and John were probably one of the best Tonbridge 1st Pairs who never managed to win a Public Schools doubles final at Queen’s Club.

After leaving Tonbridge and reading geography at Oxford, Colin was ‘on the boat’ to Australia for the 1954/55 Ashes series at the age of 21. His father, who had given him the initials MCC, sadly died at home in India soon after the team’s ship left Ceylon, so he never lived to see Colin captain the MCC or become President of the MCC for its bicentenary year in 1986. Colin was knighted for services to cricket in 1992 and was President of the International Cricket Council from 1989 to 1993, a period which saw post-apartheid South Africa restored to international cricket. This resulted in him being made a life peer in 1997 as Baron Cowdrey of Tonbridge by the cricket enthusiast Prime Minister John Major, a cricket honour shared only with the West Indian Learie Constantine. Following Colin’s death in December 2000, those of us who were fortunate to attend his memorial service in Westminster Abbey heard John Major’s fulsome eulogy in the presence of the cricketing great and good, past and present from the entire world of cricket.

David Greenslade
(Sc 47-51)