David Mordaunt

The death has been announced of David Mordaunt (Old Wellingtonians), one of the leading all-rounders in the first decades of the Cricketer Cup. David made his first class debut for Sussex in 1958, played 19 matches for the county as an amateur from 1958-60, and then over 40 times for Berkshire from 1964-74, scoring over 2000 runs and taking 63 wickets in the Minor County Championship. In the Cricketer Cup he played 36 matches for the Old Wellingtonians between 1967 and 1986, also serving on the Cricketer Cup committee in the very early days. His tally of 1127 Cricketer Cup runs at an average of 43 is the third highest total of OW batsmen, and his 46 wickets at 19, including 6-46 against Harrow Wanderers in 1977, has not been surpassed by any other Wellingtonian.

Chris Potter recalls ‘a hard hitting batsman, medium fast bowler and brilliant fielder who was the spearhead of Old Wellingtonian Cricketer Cup teams from 1967 through to the mid-1980s, and unquestionably the best all-rounder Wellington produced until the emergence of the Curran brothers’.

On a personal note your correspondent remembers David coaching him for the Marlborough maths scholarship exam (unsuccessful), help welcomed only on the understanding that David would give him a net in the garden afterwards. We then found ourselves in the 1970s as respective masters-in-charge of the Wellington and Tonbridge 1st XIs in many a closely fought match. I also remember David nearly plucking victory for Wellington from the jaws of defeat in the 1980 Cricketer Cup final between Marlborough and Wellington with a typically hard-hitting 44.

DRW