Lives in Cricket No 30 - MJK Smith

19 when he presented himself at St Edmund Hall. Teddy Hall, as it is colloquially known, predates all Oxford colleges as a seat of learning. However, as a mediaeval hall, its affairs were for many years overseen by neighbouring Queen’s College and it was not until 1957, the year after Mike left, that it acquired full collegiate status. Shortly before Mike’s arrival a new principal, the Reverend Dr John Kelly, had been installed. A theologian who had earlier been its chaplain, Dr Kelly was determined to raise the profile of Teddy Hall in the university. To achieve this he set about attracting undergraduates with sporting credentials. Mike may admit to having had three shots to get the credit in School Certificate Latin that Oxford and Cambridge required, but at Teddy Hall he was exactly the kind of applicant on whom Dr Kelly had set his sights. Before Mike could take up his place at Oxford there were two years in the Royal Army Service Corps. Perhaps surprisingly for a man who would later be readily chosen as a leader, Mike was turned down for a commission, but he has no regrets. ‘I was better off without one,’ he says, able to look back on an unbroken time in the Aldershot area, where he served as a sergeant with responsibility for administering standard IQ tests to new recruits. It was a post in which he was allowed ample time for sport. His matches for the R.A.S.C. were ‘good quality cricket, a grade up from school cricket.’ Ron Nicholls of Gloucestershire and Tony Catt, who would later play for Kent, were among county cricketers alongside whom Mike played. Another capable batsman was John Currie, better known as a rugby international but a good enough cricketer to play a few games for Oxford and Somerset. Perhaps curiously, Mike was never asked to represent the Army or Combined Services, but these were years when the services teams could call on many future Test players such as Jim Parks, Ray Illingworth and Micky Stewart, while there was still a wish to keep a few places, usually as batsmen, for regular officers one or two of whom, like Commander M.L.Y. Ainsworth and Lieutenant Commander J.E. Manners, could point to success in the county game. Going up to Oxford in the autumn of 1953, Mike played a few games of rugby for the University side, but there was to be no Blue in his first year. However, when the cricket season came round, it was a different story. A trial-match century brought a place in the side to meet Gloucestershire, the first county to visit The Parks. Oxford skipper Colin Cowdrey won the toss and chose to bat. At 87 for three Mike joined his captain at the wicket. For Mike there Records fall at Oxford