When did Michael Colin Cowdrey play cricket for Oxford?
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Michael Colin Cowdrey, Baron Cowdrey of Tonbridge, (24 December 19324 December 2000) was an English first-class cricketer who played for Oxford University (1952–1954), Kent County Cricket Club (1950–1976) and England (1954–1975). Universally known as Colin Cowdrey, he "delighted crowds throughout the world with his style and elegance", and was the first cricketer to play 100 Test matches, celebrating the occasion with 104 against Australia in 1968. In all he played 114 Tests, making 7,624 runs at an average of 44.06, overtaking Wally Hammond as the most prolific Test batsman, and taking 120 catches as a fielder, breaking another Hammond record. Cowdrey made 22 Test centuries (an England record until 2013) and was the first batsman to make centuries against the six other Test playing countries of his era; Australia, South Africa, the West Indies, New Zealand, India and Pakistan, making hundreds against them all both home and away. He toured Australia six times in 1954–55, 1958–59, 1962–63, 1965–66, 1970–71 and 1974–75, equalling Colin Blythe's record, and in his last Test fans hung out a banner 'M.C.G. FANS THANK COLIN – 6 TOURS'.
Colin Cowdrey
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Cowdrey won a Heath Harrison Exhibition award and a place at Brasenose College at Oxford University to study geography in the autumn of 1951. He played for the Oxford University Cricket Club in 1952 and 1953 at the start of the season and the rest of the summer for Kent. He made 50 and 57 for the Gentlemen vs the 1953 Australians at Lords. In 1954 he captained Oxford University and was a surprise choice for the MCC tour of Australia, replacing Willie Watson. Len Hutton later told him that his selection was a gamble, but it was thought that his technique would be good on the hard Australian wickets. At 21, Cowdrey was the youngest man in the side and the schoolboy photographs used in the brochures made him appear younger. He had yet to make a century in the County Championship, go on tour or play a Test, though he was made twelfth man for the Fourth Test against Pakistan and fielded for 20 minutes, but was so nervous he could barely watch.
Colin Cowdrey
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Michael Colin Cowdrey was born on his father's tea plantation at Ootacamund, Madras Presidency, although his birthplace was usually misrecorded as Bangalore 100 miles to the north. His father made an application for him to join the prestigious Marylebone Cricket Club while still an infant. Cowdrey had no schooling in India, but his father and servants taught him cricket as soon as he could walk.
Colin Cowdrey
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Cowdrey won a rackets blue in his first term at Oxford. He was also a useful golfer playing off a six handicap and in his youth Harry Weetman wanted him to give up cricket for golf, saying he was good enough to play in the Ryder Cup. In late 1969 he won the Turnberry-B.O.A.C. Foursomes Tournament, in partnership with Brian Huggett. In 1970 he had a hole in one at the 195-yard first hole playing for the International Cavaliers against Caymanus Golf Club in Kingston, Jamaica.
Colin Cowdrey
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Cowdrey's father, Ernest Arthur Cowdrey, played for the Surrey County Cricket Club Second XI and Berkshire County Cricket Club in the Minor Counties, but lacked the talent to enter first-class cricket and his father made him join a bank. Ernest Cowdrey had been born in Calcutta, moved to India to run a tea plantation and played the 1926–27 MCC touring team for the Madras Europeans XI and top scored with 48. His mother, Molly Cowdrey (née Taylor), played tennis and hockey.
Colin Cowdrey
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The South African tour was cancelled and as the cricketers needed practice against a top team before going to Australia, and to fill MCC coffers, a Rest of the World XI under Gary Sobers was organised from overseas cricketers playing for English counties. Cowdrey was still easing himself back into cricket when the First 'Test' was played and he was not selected, but played in the other four and made 1 and 64 in the Second, 0 and 71 in the Third, 1 and 0 in the Fourth and 73 and 31 in the Fifth, a total of 241 runs (30.13). England lost the series 4–1, but three of their defeats were close and they were playing the best team in the world. These were counted as Tests at the time, but the ICC subsequently disallowed them. This meant that Cowdrey passed Wally Hammond's record of 7,249 Test runs when he made 71 at Trent Bridge to become the most prolific Test batsmen, and would do it again in Australia.
Colin Cowdrey
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Basil D'Oliveira was a Cape Coloured who emigrated to England so he could play first-class cricket from which he was banned in South Africa. When he was not included in the MCC team for South Africa after his match-winning century there was a press storm in what was known as the D'Oliveira affair. It appeared that he was omitted as he was unacceptable to the South African government, then at the height of apartheid. Cowdrey and the selectors maintained that he had not been chosen for purely cricketing reasons, but when Cartwright was declared unfit they brought in D'Oliveira, who was the first reserve. To President Vorster of South Africa it looked like the MCC was caving in to anti-apartheid pressure and he cancelled the tour. Cowdrey offered to fly to South Africa to mediate, but it would be 26 years before England next played South Africa.
Colin Cowdrey
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Graham Robert Cowdrey (born 27 June 1964) is a former English cricketer. He is the third son of the cricketer Colin Cowdrey and his first wife Penny Chiesman. He was born in Farnborough in 1964 and educated at Wellesley House and Tonbridge School. After one year as a student at Hatfield College, Durham, Cowdrey chose to embark on a professional career. He played for Kent County Cricket Club as an attacking batsman in first-class and List A cricket from 1984 to 1998.
Graham Cowdrey
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Tonbridge Printers Cricket Club was founded in 1948, to provide cricket for the working men of Tonbridge. The club trained and played at the Racecourse Sportsground, now Tonbridge Park. At the club's 50-year anniversary in 1998, the committee elected for a name change. It was decided that the club should honour Colin Cowdrey, Baron of Tonbridge, one of the finest batsmen ever to play for Kent and England. Today, Cowdrey CC plays competitive cricket in Division IV of the Kent League (both 1st and 2nd XIs), fielding up to three sides on a Saturday and two on a Sunday.
Cowdrey Cricket Club
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When Cowdrey was five he was taken to England and attended Homefield Preparatory School, Sutton in 1938–45, where the headmaster Charles Walford instilled in him the purity of batting technique that would become Cowdrey's hallmark. Cowdrey made a century in his first game for the school, but a recount made it only 93 and Jack Hobbs sent him a letter of commiseration and a cricket bat. His parents returned to India in 1938 and because of the Second World War he did not see them again until they came back to Britain in 1945. During the holidays he stayed with relatives in Croydon and Bognor Regis, where he watched dog-fights in the Battle of Britain and on his uncle's farm near Market Bosworth.
Colin Cowdrey