by John Wisden
BYRNE, PETER EDWARD, who died on December 9, aged 70, was a familiar face in the media centre at Lord’s, as a scorer and knowledgeable statistician, and for some years provided the facts and figures for Middlesex’s match programmes. He was married to Lilian, MCC’s famously volatile receptionist, until her death in December 2006. A vice-president of The Cricket Society since 2009, he was also passionate about football – unusually following both Spurs and Arsenal – and an authority on ice hockey.
CARR OF HADLEY, LORD (Leonard Robert), PC, who died on February 17, aged 95, was Secretary of State for Employment, and then Home Secretary, in Edward Heath’s Conservative government (1970–74). In 1976, after 26 years as an MP, Robert Carr became a life peer, and was soon appointed chairman of Prudential Assurance; he was a familiar figure at cricket presentations for the tournaments sponsored by the company, which included the World Cups of 1979 and 1983. He was also president of Surrey in 1985-86.
CARRIGAN, AUBREY HERBERT, died on May 23, aged 94. Aub Carrigan was a key member of the Queensland side for seven seasons after serving as a gunner in the Second World War. His team-mate Ken Archer remembered him as “no stylist, but with a powerful bottom hand, particularly when he was cutting, a good competitor and a good athlete”. He made a habit of scoring runs against touring teams, hitting a neat 100 in quick time against Freddie Brown’s 1950-51 England side, followed next season by 169 out of 253 while he was at the crease against the West Indians, when he hammered the point boundary every time leg-spinner Wilf Ferguson dropped short. Carrigan’s medium-paced bowling was useful enough to be given the new ball occasionally: he took four for 95 against South Australia in 1948-49. In addition, he was a versatile and gifted fieldsman. Made captain for his final season in 1951-52, he led Queensland out of the cellar to joint-second in the Sheffield Shield, before spending a successful summer as professional with Church in the Lancashire League. Talented in a number of sports, Carrigan played on the wing in Australian Rules football, appearing in five national carnivals; he also won a state table tennis championship after entering on the day of the tournament following a casual suggestion from a friend. In later life, he represented Queensland at lawn bowls.
CARTER, RAYMOND GEORGE, died on November 13, aged 79. Ray Carter was a versatile bowler who could switch from pace to off-spin, a development initially forced on him when he returned to Warwickshire in 1955 after National Service to find competition for fast-bowling spots. “He was tall and slender, with long arms and legs,” remembered his former team-mate Billy Ibadulla. “Depending on conditions, he could change to brisk off-break bowling – and on helpful pitches he could be more than a handful.” In 1957, Carter took five for 56 against Nottinghamshire with his quicker stuff, then seven for 57 with off-cutters a fortnight later to set up victory over Gloucestershire at Bristol. He took 70 wickets that year, and 81 in 1958, with a career-best seven for 39 against Worcestershire at Edgbaston – a “devastating” piece of fast-medium bowling, according to Wisden, which included a spell of 8.4–6–7–5. Thereafter, he was increasingly troubled by a back injury, which forced his retirement in 1961.
CHERRY, HUGH, who died on October 14, aged 81, devoted much of his life to Warwickshire, as a committee member and manager of the Under-19 side for more than 40 years. Jim Troughton, who captained the county to the 2012 Championship, was one of many to emerge from the youth system set up largely by Cherry. “He played an integral part in the development of lots of young cricketers,” said Troughton. “They owe Hugh a debt of gratitude. He was loved by all the guys, and he didn’t mind having the mickey taken out of his distinctive Yorkshire accent.”
CHESTERTON, GEORGE HERBERT, MBE, who died on November 3, aged 90, was one of a vanished breed of amateurs whose season did not begin until his teaching duties were over for another year. Yet Chesterton was unlike many of his kind in two crucial respects: first, his talent was such that no professional resented his late-summer arrival; second, he put in long days of toil as a bowler, rather than lording it as a batsman. His first-class career stretched from 1948 (when he represented Free Foresters) until 1966 (MCC), but his reputation rests chiefly on his seven seasons with Worcestershire in the 1950s. Contemporaries compared his bowling to Derek Shackleton or, later, Tom Cartwright: naggingly accurate medium, sometimes quicker, off 12 paces. Mainly, he swung the ball away, but the odd one came in. “God knows how,” he confided to his biographer, the former Hampshire cricketer Andy Murtagh.
Chesterton began a 76-year association with Malvern College as a pupil in 1936, but the school moved to Blenheim Palace three years later when their buildings were requisitioned by the War Office. At Blenheim, he was hauled before the Duke of Marlborough after breaking a window in the long library while practising his catching. He joined the RAF after school, trained as a pilot in Canada, and danced with Katharine Hepburn and Gypsy Rose Lee on an R & R visit to New York. He flew Sterling bombers, dropping SOE agents into the occupied countries, and towing gliders on D-Day, and into the “cauldron of horror” at Arnhem. Chesterton took up a deferred place at Brasenose College and made his Oxford debut in 1949, playing in a celebrated win over the New Zealanders. One of his earliest victims had been the young Tom Graveney: “He was deceptive, bowling inswingers and little cutters, slightly quicker than he looked.” Chesterton took five for 22 in the victory over Yorkshire, and afterwards was approached by a reporter who, appraising his features, called to his colleague: “Don’t bother with the camera, Charley – he’s 27, not 17.”
He returned to Malvern in 1950 to teach geography and coach cricket, and his first appearance for Worcestershire came that August. Thirty wickets in six games – including six for 61 against Lancashire at Old Trafford and six for 59 against Somerset at New Road – confirmed he was no makeweight. “He was amazing,” said Peter Richardson, his captain in 1956 and ’57. “You could use him as an opening bowler, but also as a stock bowler: he had enormous energy. He bowled beautifully – and he did it all with a smile on his face.” Chesterton had been offered the chance to succeed Ronnie Bird as Worcestershire captain in 1955 but, although he was keen and the school were willing to grant him time off, it would have hampered his ambitions to become a housemaster: teaching always came first. He played his final game for the county in 1957, having taken 168 wickets at under 20 in 47 matches, but continued to represent MCC on tours of Ireland until 1966. His best figures – seven for 14 – had come at Dublin’s College Park in 1956. His overall record was 263 wickets at 22.78 in 72 matches.
Chesterton was an institution at Malvern: housemaster, deputy head, then acting-headmaster in his final year, 1982. He also wrote a history of the school, and lived in a house behind the tennis courts until his death. He founded the Chesterton Cup for Midlands schools, was schools sport correspondent of The Times, president of the Cricketer Cup, and club president of Worcestershire between 1990 and 1993. He was also the co-author, with Hubert Doggart, of Oxford and Cambridge Cricket (1989), wrote a wartime memoir, and was the subject of Murtagh’s 2012 biography, A Remarkable Man. He received his MBE from the Queen two weeks before he died.
CLARK, GEORGE, who died on September 2, aged 85, served Essex for 29 years, principally as a dressing-room attendant at Chelmsford. He was a man who believed there was no crisis that could not be eased by a cup of tea. Ronnie Irani remembered: “When I arrived for my first day at Essex and walked through the gates, he said, ‘I can’t believe Lancashire have let you go, and I am so happy you’ve joined Essex.’ As a young man who had just left home for the first time and travelled over six hours on the train, his words always stayed with me.” Irani was even prepared to tolerate Clark sitting next to him to smoke his roll-up cigarettes. He was, said Nasser Hussain, “Essex through and through”.
COLEMAN, ROBERT GORDON, who died on August 21, aged 90, was a journalist who worked mainly for the Melbourne Herald. He wrote several books, including one that threw fresh light on the Pyjama Girl Murder (a notorious crime in 1930s Australia), and Seasons i
n the Sun, a huge history of the Victorian Cricket Association.
COOPER, GRAHAM CHARLES, who died on April 18, aged 75, played more than 250 matches for Sussex over 15 years from 1955. “Coop had a talent with both bat and ball, with a certain cocky bravado,” remembered Ted Dexter, his captain for many years. “But I always thought he was a little short of confidence. Nevertheless, he was a survivor, and clung on to a place in a decent side for quite a few seasons.” Capped in 1961, Cooper usually went in after Sussex’s strokemakers, and often shored up the innings from No. 7, where he scored both his first-class hundreds: 141 against Warwickshire in 1960, and 142 against Essex at Hove in 1963 after entering at 55 for five. He was able to use the long handle if required: in the second year of the Gillette Cup, in 1964, he and Jim Parks rescued Sussex, the holders, against Durham (then a Minor County) by piling on 134 in an hour. Cooper was also a handy off-spinner: he finished with exactly 100 wickets, including five for 16 against Warwickshire at Edgbaston in 1961, and five for 13 against Oxford University in 1963. Among the victims was the Nawab of Pataudi, soon to be Cooper’s county captain.
COURY, LEROY ARTHUR, died on October 22, aged 76. Coury’s leg-breaks and googlies, allied to Edgar Gilbert’s left-arm spin, played an important part as St Kitts dominated the annual Leewards Islands tournament, which predated the smaller territories’ introduction into the Caribbean’s domestic first-class competition (as Combined Islands) in 1966. Coury played seven first-class matches for the Leewards, the last against the touring Australians in 1965. A businessman of Lebanese descent, he was a benefactor to several young cricketers, and a long-standing member of the St Kitts Cricket Association.
COWLEY, TERENCE JOHN, died on January 30, aged 83. In another time and another place, Terry Cowley would surely have worn the Baggy Green – but he played for Tasmania when their cricket was largely ignored by the mainland. Local cricket historian Rick Smith is unequivocal in nominating him among the best bowlers ever to represent them. Cowley – who started in 1948-49, and was captain for his last five seasons, from 1956-57 – moved the ball both ways in the air and off the pitch at a pace which was as deceptively sharp as it was chokingly accurate. Australia’s wicketkeeper Don Tallon, on his way to England in 1953, grumbled after facing him: “Bloody hell, you spend all your time playing against Alec Bedser, and you come down here for a couple of social games and have to face him all over again.” He took five for 92 against the 1958-59 MCC tourists, and two seasons later castled Garry Sobers in successive matches. In Launceston grade cricket, where his geniality and wisdom made him a revered figure, Cowley took 908 wickets at just over ten apiece. His younger brother, Ian, played four games for Tasmania in the early 1960s.
COX, CLIFFORD, died on February 4, aged 79. Lancashire-born Cliff Cox became a pillar of cricket in Canada, opening the batting for the national team and captaining them in the annual match against the United States in 1969 and 1970. He later served on the Canadian cricket board, and was a strong advocate of the women’s game. An MCC touring team played a match in his memory at the picturesque Brockton Point ground in Vancouver in July 2012.
COXON, ALAN JOHN, who died on November 7, aged 82, was a left-arm medium-pacer who played 17 times for Oxford University between 1951 and 1954. His only Blue came in his second year, when he entered at 127 for seven in the follow-on and made 43 not out – the next-highest score of his career was 16 – as Oxford salvaged an unlikely draw against an attack led by Cuan McCarthy and John Warr, two Test fast bowlers. Hubert Doggart, in the Varsity Match history he co-wrote with George Chesterton, recalled “Coxon, Oxford’s No. 9, heading a short-pitched ball from McCarthy with remarkable insouciance to cover point”. Coxon played only one further first-class match, for MCC against his former university at Lord’s in 1958. He was employed by the brewers Guinness for many years, supervising their operations in Nigeria and, later, working in the Far East and South America.
CRAWFORD, MICHAEL GROVE, who died on December 2, aged 92, was Yorkshire’s treasurer for 30 years, and the club’s chairman at the time of Geoff Boycott’s sacking in 1983. This was overturned by the membership, and the committee resigned; Boycott played on for three more years. “He was a real gentleman,” said Robin Smith, a recent Yorkshire president, “an urbane and friendly person of unquestioned integrity.” The softly spoken Crawford had been a proficient all-round sportsman, a football Blue at Cambridge and a batsman good enough to score several half-centuries for Yorkshire’s Second Eleven, which he captained in 1951. He also played one Championship match in August that year, skippering against Worcestershire at Scarborough in the absence of Norman Yardley: Yorkshire went down to an eight-run defeat which harmed their title chances (they eventually finished second, behind Warwickshire). In 1952 he shared leadership duties in the Second Eleven with Ronnie Burnet, and their paths would cross again six years later when Crawford – who captained Leeds CC throughout the 1950s – was asked to take charge of the first team as Yorkshire doggedly searched for a suitable amateur captain. He declined because of the demands of his accountancy business: 39-year-old Burnet got the job instead, and led Yorkshire to the Championship in 1959.
CURRAN, KEVIN MALCOLM, died after collapsing while jogging in Harare on October 10, aged 53. Kevin Curran’s performance in Zimbabwe’s sensational victory over Australia in their first match in senior international competition, at the 1983 World Cup, established a template for his career. On that seismic day at Trent Bridge, he made vital runs, took a key wicket and contributed to a fine fielding performance; Curran was not a player to be kept out of the action for long. Duncan Fletcher rightly gained the plaudits for his 69 and four wickets in that game, but Curran made 27 in a sixth-wicket partnership of 70 with his captain to rescue Zimbabwe from early calamity, then removed Allan Border. Later in the tournament, he made 62 against West Indies at Edgbaston, then hit 73 and claimed three for 65 – both one-day international career-bests – against India at Tunbridge Wells. Fletcher recalled: “Kevin always genuinely believed that any difficult situation was a challenge to be overcome.” Curran also played in the 1987 World Cup in India and Pakistan, but made little impact: his international career ended after 11 matches, with 287 runs at 26, and nine wickets at 44.
Instantly recognisable by his surfer-style blond hair, Curran was a hard-hitting presence in the middle order, bowled fast-medium (and occasionally quicker), and was an electrifying presence in the field. “As a youngster, his returns to the keeper would be scrappy – until it was run-out time,” said Fletcher. “Then the ball would be right above the stumps from the outfield, or a direct hit when closer in.” In England, Curran was best known for the 15 seasons he spent with Gloucestershire and Northamptonshire, when he was one of the best all-rounders in the domestic game. An Irish passport – his paternal grandfather had emigrated to Southern Rhodesia in 1902 – meant he did not count as an overseas player, and he joined Gloucestershire in 1985, when his 52 wickets helped their rise from last in the Championship to third. Wisden felt a pace attack of Courtney Walsh, David Lawrence and Curran might be the most formidable the county had ever deployed. He was admirably consistent, passing 1,000 runs in four successive seasons, and adding 65 wickets in 1988, and 60 in 1990, after which Gloucestershire released him amid stories of dressing-room disharmony. Senior coach Eddie Barlow insisted Curran’s departure was “in the best interests of the club”.
He decamped to Northamptonshire, where his friend Allan Lamb was captain: “He was an abrasive sort of player, but an excellent team man. He got up people’s noses a bit, and you definitely wanted him on your side.” Curran contributed fully to four successive top-five Championship finishes, and took three for 41 in the NatWest Trophy final victory over Leicestershire in 1992. “He always felt he was better than anybody else, and I liked that,” said Lamb. “He would always say ‘give me the ball’ if we needed a wicket, or ‘I’ll bat at three’.” Lamb also remembered a subtle motivator: “He got on really well with Curtly Ambrose, and he was good
for him. Sometimes he’d say: ‘I think I’m bowling faster than you this morning, Curtly.’”
In 1993, Curran finished second in the first-class bowling averages, with 67 wickets at 19, including a career-best seven for 47 against Yorkshire at Harrogate. He succeeded Rob Bailey as Northamptonshire captain at the end of the 1997 season after topping 1,000 runs that summer – including a career-best 159 against Glamorgan at Abergavenny – but the club endured a poor time under his leadership, and he was relieved of the post a year later. He returned for just one more season. He played for Natal in 1988-89, and Boland in 1994-95 and 1997-98, and finished his career in 1999 with 15,740 runs in 324 games at nearly 37, including 25 centuries, and 605 wickets at 27. When Zimbabwe achieved Test status in 1992, Curran was completing a ten-year residency qualification in the UK, and decided not to return. He did, however, fill a number of key roles in Zimbabwe cricket, initially as assistant coach of the national team, then as Phil Simmons’s successor as head coach, between 2005 and 2007. He had also coached Namibia and been head of the Zimbabwe Cricket Academy. He went on to become a national selector, and at the time of his death was coach of Mashonaland Eagles.
He leaves three sons, who all inherited their father’s talent. Tom played for Surrey Second Eleven in 2012, Sam was Zimbabwe’s junior cricketer of the year in 2011, and Ben has also displayed great potential. Mashonaland chief executive Vimbai Mapukute said of Curran: “I have yet to meet a man more passionate about cricket in this country.”
CURRIE, MARGARET JOYCE, died on October 5, aged 80. Joyce Currie (later Inness) was a bowler from Christchurch, quite speedy for women’s cricket in the 1950s, who played three Tests for New Zealand. She opened the bowling in a soggy draw at The Oval in 1954, and won two further caps when England toured in 1957-58, taking three for 36 in the First Test at Christchurch. During her England tour Currie claimed six for 22 – from 20 overs – against the West at Torquay.