Lives in Cricket No 30 - MJK Smith

27 currency of Hobbs and Sutcliffe. David Onllwyn Brace, the middle name by which he was widely known that of a distant forbear who was a famed Welsh preacher, arrived at Oxford with a few games for Aberavon and Newport to his credit. ‘Most of us had never heard of him,’ says Mike, but Roy Allaway had already encountered Brace and had laid plans for the Welshman to be available for his team. In February Oxford had played at Newport when their 21-6 defeat owed much to the unorthodox tactics of scrum half Brace. He had been partnered that day by a fly half, Roy Burnett, with whom his style of play flourished and whom he now describes as ‘a dancing Dick, an elusive player who would dart around a bit.’ Enjoying a beer with Brace after the Newport match, the Oxford captain heard that he was proposing to take a postgraduate course on the completion of his degree at Cardiff. The seed of an idea was sown. Keenly aware that he had played in two dispiriting Varsity matches, one dubbed the dullest, the next the dirtiest, Allaway shared with Jeff Clements, the new captain of Cambridge, a hope that a way might be found to break the mould. Brace, Allaway felt, could be the man to help him do it and make the Dark Blues worth watching – if he could be persuaded to come up to Oxford. Though Brace had already applied to Loughborough, his heart set on sports management, he was attracted by what Allaway had A cricketer’s hands on an oval ball The Oxford University R.F.C. XV of 1955/56. Standing (l to r): J.C. Walker, M.J.K. Smith, J.L. Reeler, J.G. Abbott, J.D. Currie, J.P. Rigby, R.H. Davies, M.G. Allison. Seated: R.A. Plumbridge, P.W. Watson, R.C.P. Allaway (capt), T.J. Fallon, P.G.D. Robbins. On the ground: D.O. Brace, J. Prodger. Five of this side played in internationals.