Lives in Cricket No 30 - MJK Smith

111 Hotelier of Wootton Court turn out for D.H. Robins’ Eleven against the Universities and the Indian tourists, were conspiring to ensure that there would be no long-term future for him with Banbury. By this time Mike was reaching the same conclusion. Wishing to have a few days’ rest from cricket rather than play for Robins’ Eleven also reflected Mike’s concern with his own business plans. His time with Banbury had given him an insight into the running of squash clubs and he had begun investigating the possibility of owning one himself. Initially he had been intending to work in partnership with his Warwickshire team-mate Jack Bannister, and they had found a suitable property outside Wolverhampton. The deal was agreed and a deposit paid, but before the contract had been signed they were gazumped, quite a common occurrence in those times. However, any disappointment quickly evaporated when a mutual friend drew their attention to another property on the market. Located at Leek Wootton, a village within the triangle of Warwick, Leamington and Kenilworth and very accessible from Coventry, Wootton Court was to prove ideal for what Mike had in mind. With over 100 acres of farmland, Wootton Court had originally been a modest farmhouse, but a German who bought it in 1862 took the first steps towards converting it into a mansion, and the transformation was completed by its next owner, Francis Beresford Wright. A keen botanist and geologist, who moved in in 1882, Wright landscaped the gardens and created a lake from a passing stream. Raising a family of nine children and with staff of Victorian proportions, Francis Wright further extended the house, Wootton Court, where Mike and Diana made their home and established their hotel and country club in 1972.