Brian Close's forthright views had never been welcome at Lord's and the affable Colin Cowdrey returned to lead the M. C. C.

Cowdrey asked Snow to give him a few overs at full stretch in the nets before the First Test to test his fitness, but Snow refused as he had not exercised for two days and bowled only medium pace.

Cowdrey had been May's affable vice-captain, had a shrewd cricket brain and was seen as his natural successor, but had inherited his cautious tactics and the Marylebone Cricket Club was crusading for " brighter cricket ".

Cowdrey withdrew from the final Gentleman v Players match at Lord's because of kidney stones even though he had been appointed captain, which usually indicated the selectors ' intentions.

He reached the milestone when he had Neil Hawke caught by Colin Cowdrey at slip in the Fifth Test at The Oval.

Of the next generation of England batsmen, Peter May tried to adopt Hutton's mental approach to both batting and captaincy, while Colin Cowdrey later said " I had tried to model myself on Len Hutton ever since I started playing serious cricket.

Peter May had missed the two Tests in 1961 and declined to make the gruelling 8 Test tour of India and Pakistan in 1961 – 62 and Colin Cowdrey, Fred Trueman and Brian Statham also declined to go.

The West Indies had made 526 / 7 and England replied with 404, where Cowdrey ( 148 ) and Barrington ( 48 ) added 133 for the third wicket.

After a good season for Kent in County cricket in 1984, Cowdrey was selected for England's 1984-85 tour of India, led by his friend David Gower, ostensibly taking Ian Botham's place after Botham had opted out of the tour.

Following the tour, where he had scored 96 runs and taken four wickets Cowdrey was not selected by England until 1988, and the infamous " summer of four captains ".

In that year Cowdrey, who had taken Kent to the top of the Championship table, was given the job to lead the Test side in the fourth Test of a five match series against the West Indies.

Willis, who knew that Illingworth and Cowdrey had little knowledge of his bowling, later credited his call up to the influence of senior member of the touring party John Edrich, Willis ' long-term friend, mentor, and Surrey team-mate.

His greatest century was against the West Indies in 1957 when England followed on 288 runs behind at Edgbaston, he made 285 not out, the highest score by an England captain until Graham Gooch's 333 in 1990, adding 411 with Colin Cowdrey ( 154 )-still an England record for any wicket-and destroyed the mesmerizing hold the spinner Sonny Ramadhin had over English batsmen.

The selectors had long regarded Colin Cowdrey as England's natural cricket captain, but he broke an Achilles tendon early in the season and Illingworth was his surprise replacement after only a month as county captain.

In the Third Test at Sydney England reached 308 / 2 before Hawke had Colin Cowdrey, M. J. K.

Allen had protected Colin Cowdrey at the other end, who was pressed into bat with his broken arm in plaster.

Colin Cowdrey snapped his Achilles tendon and the selectors made the surprise choice of Ray Illingworth as his replacement.

However, Ray Illingworth and Colin Cowdrey, captain and vice captain of England's Test side, contacted him via telephone to ask him to travel to Australia and join the current England tour there.

This was the beginning of one of the greatest periods in English cricket history with players such as captain Len Hutton, batsmen Denis Compton, Peter May, Tom Graveney, Colin Cowdrey, bowlers Fred Trueman, Brian Statham, Alec Bedser, Jim Laker, Tony Lock and wicket-keeper Godfrey Evans.

The Racquets court itself was opened by Sir Colin Cowdrey.

His fielding, in particular at gully and short leg, was consistently of a high standard, in particular his acrobatic catch to dismiss Colin Cowdrey.

Cowdrey writes, " he ( Gregory ) was surprisingly flexible, feeling his way and therefore perplexing both rigorous collaborators ... and cautious and steady-minded ones ... His zeal, moral force, and religious conviction, however, ensured that he should retain to a remarkable degree the loyalty and service of a wide variety of men and women.

Michael Colin Cowdrey, Baron Cowdrey of Tonbridge, CBE ( 24 December 19324 December 2000 ), better known as Colin Cowdrey, was the Captain of Oxford University, Kent County Cricket Club and the England cricket team in a career that lasted from 1950 to 1976.

Colin Cowdrey was born in Bangalore, British India.

Brian Close was dropped as England captain in favour of Colin Cowdrey.

But, Smith was known as a good tourist and was made captain of the England tour of India in 1963-64 when Ted Dexter and Colin Cowdrey were unavailable and without England's top bowlers Brian Statham and Fred Trueman.

Back in England in 1965, Smith beat a weak New Zealand 3-0, then lost 1-0 to South Africa, but was appointed captain for the MCC tour of Australia in 1965-66 with Cowdrey as vice-captain, despite support for the Kent captain at Lords.

He was replaced by Cowdrey and retired at the end of the following season.

With Peter May and Colin Cowdrey declining to tour India and Pakistan in 1961-62 Dexter was chosen to lead the MCC team.

Dexter captained England in the First and Second Tests against Pakistan, winning two big victories, but Colin Cowdrey was put in charge for the Third Test.

Sheppard made 112 for the Gentlemen and was chosen for the tour, but Dexter was confirmed as captain for the remainder of the home series and the forthcoming tour of Australia and New Zealand with Cowdrey as vice-captain.

His cause was not helped by the announcement of the Mike Gatting's Rebel tour of South Africa in the middle of the series, which removed the England players Bill Athey, Kim Barnett, Ian Butcher, Chris Broad, Chris Cowdrey, Graham Dilley, Richard Ellison, John Emburey, Phil DeFreitas, Neil Foster, Bruce French, Paul Jarvis, Matthew Maynard, Tim Robinson, Greg Thomas and Alan Wells from contention.

In 1985 Lady Herries of Terregles married the cricketer Colin Cowdrey, who in 1997 was given a life peerage as Baron Cowdrey of Tonbridge.

In the fifth Test at The Oval, he was expensive taking 2 / 192 from 47 overs, the two wickets, which proved to be his last in Test cricket, were those of Colin Cowdrey ( 182 ) and Ted Dexter ( 172 ).

He also scored a century ( 184 runs ) in his 100th Test, becoming only the fifth player to do so ( after Colin Cowdrey, Alec Stewart, Gordon Greenidge and Javed Miandad ; Ricky Ponting subsequently emulated the feat ).

He beat both the West Indies and New Zealand 2-0 and was confirmed as captain even when Cowdrey recovered.

The addition of new GM Josh Roehr coming from the Omaha Nighthawks of the United Football League ( UFL ) and the hiring of Bruce Cowdrey as head coach has made the Beef an even more solid franchise.

He made 148, his first Test century at Lords, and became the sixth batsman to make 6, 000 Test runs after Wally Hammond, Don Bradman, Len Hutton, Neil Harvey and Colin Cowdrey.

His career aggregate of runs was the highest in Test cricket until surpassed by Colin Cowdrey in 1970.

While scoring 140 in the first Test, he passed the total number of runs scored by Jack Hobbs to become the leading run scorer in Tests, a record he held until it was broken by Colin Cowdrey in December 1970.

Another historian, H. J. Cowdrey, argued that the laudes were composed at Winchester.

In March 2001, he gave the tribute to Colin Cowdrey ( Lord Cowdrey of Tonbridge ) at his memorial service in Westminster Abbey.

* Cowdrey, H. E. J .. Lanfranc.

Earlier alumni include Henry Addington, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Elias Ashmole founder of the Ashmolean Museum, John Buchan, author of The Thirty-Nine Steps, John Clavell, highwayman and author, Colin Cowdrey, English Test batsman, William Webb Ellis, often credited with the invention of Rugby football, John Foxe author of Actes and Monuments popularly abridged as Foxe's Book of Martyrs, William Golding, winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature, Douglas Haig, 1st Earl Haig, and Robert Runcie, Archbishop of Canterbury.

* Cowdrey, H. E. J.

Various dates are given, with Ian Walker, the biographer of Harold arguing for between 1053 and 1055, but H. E. J. Cowdrey, who wrote Robert's Oxford Dictionary of National Biography entry, says on 26 May in either 1052 or 1055.

His father named him Michael Colin Cowdrey, to give him the same initials as cricket's most famous club the Marylebone Cricket Club.