Mandy Mitchell-Innes

The former was the All India Amateur Golf Champion in 1893 and 1894, while the latter captained Prestwick Golf Club.

He moved to England with his family at the age of five to live in Minehead, Somerset, and gained a scholarship to Sedbergh School based in Cumbria.

At Sedbergh he developed quickly as a cricketer, first playing for the school's first team aged 15.

The subsequent year, he scored 302 not out in a house match in one afternoon.

Norman Stewart "Mandy" Mitchell-Innes (7 September 1914 – 28 December 2006) was an amateur cricketer for Somerset, who played in one Test match for England in 1935.

Norman Stewart Mitchell-Innes was born in Calcutta on 7 September 1914, where his father was a businessman of Scottish descent.

Both his father, also named Norman, and his grandfather, Gilbert, were keen golfers.

Between 1931 and 1949 Mitchell-Innes played 132 first-class matches, appearing 69 times for Somerset, and 43 times for Oxford University.

In these matches he scored 6,944 runs, including 13 centuries and a top score of 207.

He was well-regarded for the grace of his batting, but his cricket career was limited by both hay fever and his overseas work commitments.

Mitchell-Innes made his debut for Somerset while he was still a schoolboy at Sedbergh School in 1931.

He subsequently went to Oxford University and appeared in the annual match against Cambridge in each of his four years.

His total of 3,319 first-class runs is a record for the Oxford University team, and he is regarded as one of the best university cricketers ever.

After completing each year at Oxford, he returned to play for Somerset.

He played his best years of cricket while at university, passing 1,000 runs in the season during three of his four years there.

In the summer of 1931, after scoring two half-centuries for Sedbergh against Durham School and Stonyhurst College, Mitchell-Innes was called up to play for Somerset County Cricket Club in a County Championship match against Warwickshire.

He had to travel down from Scotland by overnight train for the fixture at the County Ground, Taunton.

He took two wickets, and scored 23 runs in the match, which was drawn.

In both 1932 and 1933, Mitchell-Innes captained the Sedbergh School cricket team, and was invited to play at Lord's Cricket Ground for representative school sides, and he also made eight further County Championship appearances for Somerset.

He failed to make a mark for the county in 1932, recording a batting average of 6.50, but in 1933 he achieved his first half-century in first-class cricket, scoring 57 against Warwickshire, before hitting his own wicket.

In a review of their cricket side in July 1933, The Sedberghian says of Mitchell-Innes that "such cricketers seldom come this way", praising his consistency, fielding and captaincy, though it does note that his off drive often failed to score him boundaries, and that his bowling lacked accuracy at times.

Mitchell-Innes also played fives and rugby for the school, and was president of the debating society.

On completion of his studies at Sedbergh, he won an exhibition to study Law at Brasenose College, Oxford.

Mitchell-Innes was selected for the university cricket team during his first year at Oxford and made his debut against Gloucestershire.

He scored his maiden first-class century in the first innings of the match which Oxford nearly won.

He achieved two further centuries for Oxford that year, hitting 140 runs against the Minor Counties in a high-scoring draw, and then 171 against Surrey at The Oval.

In all matches for the university that season he scored 998 runs at an average of 55.44, leading Oxford batsman that year, though Fredrick de Saram scored more runs.

Mitchell-Innes won his Blue—the awarding of the Oxford "colours" to sportsmen—by appearing in the 1934 University match against Cambridge, a match in which he batted with moderate success, scoring 27 and 42 in a drawn match.

In comparison to his performances for Oxford, Mitchell-Innes struggled during his eleven first-class matches for Somerset that summer: he averaged 20.93, and only passed fifty runs once, against Sussex.

In the same match, he recorded the best bowling figures of his first-class career, taking four wickets for 65 runs.

Mitchell-Innes' performances during the season earned him selection for the Gentlemen against Players fixture at Folkestone.

The Oxford cricket historian Geoffrey Bolton describes the next two years as being "full of disappointment" for Oxford.

Partially indicative of this, Mitchell-Innes once again topped the batting averages, and led all Oxford batsmen in terms of runs scored, but his figures were in stark contrast to the previous year: he averaged 38.70 for his 774 runs.

He hit centuries against Lancashire and Surrey, and against the touring South Africans.

After graduating from university, he joined the Sudan Political Service and missed the 1938 cricket season entirely.

He was only available for Somerset during periods of leave thereafter, often playing for around four to six weeks.

In 1948, he was one of three players to captain Somerset when the county struggled to appoint anyone on a permanent basis.

He played his last first-class matches in 1949.

Mitchell-Innes left the Sudan Political Service in 1954, and became the company secretary at Vaux Breweries.

Upon the death of Alf Gover in October 2001, he became England's oldest surviving Test cricketer until his own death in December 2006, when the distinction passed to Ken Cranston.