David John Mordaunt (24 August 1937 – 28 November 2020) was an English
cricketer
Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by striki ...
, teacher and
expeditioner.
Cricket career
Mordaunt was educated at
Wellington College, Berkshire
Wellington College is a public school (English independent day and boarding school) in the village of Crowthorne, Berkshire, England. Wellington is a registered charity and currently educates roughly 1,200 pupils, between the ages of 13 and ...
, and was a prominent schoolboy cricketer. A right-handed
batsman
In cricket, batting is the act or skill of hitting the ball with a bat to score runs and prevent the loss of one's wicket. Any player who is currently batting is, since September 2021, officially referred to as a batter (historically, the ...
who bowled right-arm
medium-fast
Fast bowling (also referred to as pace bowling) is one of two main approaches to bowling in the sport of cricket, the other being spin bowling. Practitioners of pace bowling are usually known as ''fast'' bowlers, ''quicks'', or ''pacemen''. T ...
, he made his
first-class debut in 1958 for
Sussex
Sussex (), from the Old English (), is a historic county in South East England that was formerly an independent medieval Anglo-Saxon kingdom. It is bounded to the west by Hampshire, north by Surrey, northeast by Kent, south by the English ...
in the game against
Oxford University
Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...
, scoring 96 in the second innings, when he was
caught
Caught is a method of dismissing a batsman in cricket. A batsman is out caught if the batsman hits the ball, from a legitimate delivery, with the bat, and the ball is caught by the bowler or a fielder before it hits the ground.
If the ball h ...
trying to hit his fourth
six
6 is a number, numeral, and glyph.
6 or six may also refer to:
* AD 6, the sixth year of the AD era
* 6 BC, the sixth year before the AD era
* The month of June
Science
* Carbon, the element with atomic number 6
* 6 Hebe, an asteroid
People ...
, which would have given him a century on debut.
['']Wisden
''Wisden Cricketers' Almanack'', or simply ''Wisden'', colloquially the Bible of Cricket, is a cricket reference book published annually in the United Kingdom. The description "bible of cricket" was first used in the 1930s by Alec Waugh in a ...
'' 1959, p. 652. From 1958 to 1960, Mordaunt played 19 first-class matches for Sussex as an
amateur
An amateur () is generally considered a person who pursues an avocation independent from their source of income. Amateurs and their pursuits are also described as popular, informal, autodidacticism, self-taught, user-generated, do it yourself, DI ...
, his final match for the county coming against
Gloucestershire
Gloucestershire ( abbreviated Glos) is a county in South West England. The county comprises part of the Cotswold Hills, part of the flat fertile valley of the River Severn and the entire Forest of Dean.
The county town is the city of Gl ...
in the 1960
County Championship
The County Championship (referred to as the LV= Insurance County Championship for sponsorship reasons) is the domestic first-class cricket competition in England and Wales and is organised by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB). It bec ...
. He scored 586 runs for Sussex at a
batting average
Batting average is a statistic in cricket, baseball, and softball that measures the performance of batters. The development of the baseball statistic was influenced by the cricket statistic.
Cricket
In cricket, a player's batting average is ...
of 24.41, with five half-centuries and highest score of 96. With the ball he took 19 wickets at a
bowling average
In cricket, a player's bowling average is the number of runs they have conceded per wicket taken. The lower the bowling average is, the better the bowler is performing. It is one of a number of statistics used to compare bowlers, commonly use ...
of 28.89, with a single
five wicket haul
In cricket, a five-wicket haul (also known as a "five–for" or "fifer") occurs when a bowler takes five or more wickets in a single innings. This is regarded by critics as a notable achievement, equivalent to a century from a batsman.
Taking ...
of 5 for 42.
Mordaunt left Sussex at the end of the 1960 season. He played his final first-class match in 1964 for
Marylebone Cricket Club
Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) is a cricket club founded in 1787 and based since 1814 at Lord's Cricket Ground, which it owns, in St John's Wood, London. The club was formerly the governing body of cricket retaining considerable global influence ...
against
Ireland
Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...
. With the MCC he also toured North America in 1959, South America in 1964-65, and North America again in 1967.
In 1964 Mordaunt joined the
minor county
The National Counties, known as the Minor Counties before 2020, are the cricketing counties of England and Wales that do not have first-class status. The game is administered by the National Counties Cricket Association (NCCA), which comes unde ...
Berkshire
Berkshire ( ; in the 17th century sometimes spelt phonetically as Barkeshire; abbreviated Berks.) is a historic county in South East England. One of the home counties, Berkshire was recognised by Queen Elizabeth II as the Royal County of Berk ...
, and made his
Minor Counties Championship
The NCCA 3 Day Championship (previously the Minor Counties Cricket Championship) is a season-long competition in England and Wales that is contested by the members of the National Counties Cricket Association (NCCA), the so-called national cou ...
debut against
Devon
Devon ( , historically known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South West England. The most populous settlement in Devon is the city of Plymouth, followed by Devon's county town, the city of Exeter. Devon is ...
. From 1964 to 1974, he played 40 Minor Counties Championship matches for Berkshire. He made his
List A
List A cricket is a classification of the limited-overs (one-day) form of the sport of cricket, with games lasting up to eight hours. List A cricket includes One Day International (ODI) matches and various domestic competitions in which the numbe ...
debut for Berkshire against
Somerset
( en, All The People of Somerset)
, locator_map =
, coordinates =
, region = South West England
, established_date = Ancient
, established_by =
, preceded_by =
, origin =
, lord_lieutenant_office =Lord Lieutenant of Somerset
, lord_ ...
in the 1st round of the
1965 Gillette Cup
The 1965 Gillette Cup was the third Gillette Cup, an English limited overs county cricket tournament. It was held between 23 April and 4 September 1965. The tournament was won by Yorkshire, following Geoff Boycott's 146 runs in the final at Lord ...
, scoring 60, including four sixes off the bowling of
Bill Alley
William Edward Alley (3 February 1919 – 26 November 2004) was a cricketer who played 400 first-class matches for New South Wales, Somerset and a Commonwealth XI.
Whilst in Australia, Alley was also a middleweight boxer, and was undefe ...
, and winning the
man of the match
In team sport, a player of the match or man of the match or woman of the match award is often given to the most outstanding player in a particular match. This can be a player from either team, although the player is generally chosen from the winn ...
award. He played three further one-day matches for the county, against
Hertfordshire
Hertfordshire ( or ; often abbreviated Herts) is one of the home counties in southern England. It borders Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire to the north, Essex to the east, Greater London to the south, and Buckinghamshire to the west. For govern ...
in the 1st round of the
1966 Gillette Cup
The 1966 Gillette Cup was the fourth Gillette Cup, an English limited overs county cricket tournament. It was held between 28 April and 3 September 1966. The tournament was won by Warwickshire County Cricket Club in the final at Lord's.
Format
...
, against
Gloucestershire
Gloucestershire ( abbreviated Glos) is a county in South West England. The county comprises part of the Cotswold Hills, part of the flat fertile valley of the River Severn and the entire Forest of Dean.
The county town is the city of Gl ...
in the 2nd round of the same tournament, and finally against Hertfordshire in the
1976 Gillette Cup. In his four one-day matches he scored 144 runs at an average of 36.00, with two half-centuries and a highest score of 60. With the ball he took three wickets at an average of 44.00, with best figures of 3/24. He represented Old Wellingtonians in
the Cricketer Cup
''The Cricketer'' is a monthly English cricket magazine providing writing and photography from international, county and club cricket.
The magazine was founded in 1921 by Sir Pelham Warner, an ex-England captain turned cricket writer. Warner e ...
between 1967 and 1986.
Main career
Between 1955 and 1957 Mordaunt served in the
Royal Northumberland Fusiliers
The Royal Northumberland Fusiliers was an infantry regiment of the British Army. Raised in 1674 as one of three 'English' units in the Dutch Anglo-Scots Brigade, it accompanied William III to England in the November 1688 Glorious Revolution an ...
.
He became a schoolteacher in Oxford in 1958.
He returned to his old school, Wellington College, in 1963 to teach mathematics.
Mordaunt was also a noted
expeditioner, leading three Royal Geographical Schools Expeditions to the Arctic and, in 1983, a
Royal Geographical Society
The Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers), often shortened to RGS, is a learned society and professional body for geography based in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1830 for the advancement of geographical scien ...
expedition through Nepal to the base of
Annapurna
Annapurna (; ne, अन्नपूर्ण) is a mountain situated in the Annapurna mountain range of Gandaki Province, north-central Nepal. It is the tenth highest mountain in the world at above sea level and is well known for the difficu ...
.
He died on 28 November 2020 at the age of 83.
Mordaunt
/ref>
Family
Mordaunt married Dr Catharine Hilary Mayne in 1990.John Mordaunt John Mordaunt may refer to:
*John Mordaunt (speaker) (d. 1504), Tudor politician and Speaker of the House of Commons
*John Mordaunt, 1st Baron Mordaunt (d. 1562)
*John Mordaunt, 2nd Baron Mordaunt (1508–1571)
*John Mordaunt, 1st Earl of Peterborou ...
, both played first-class cricket.
References
External links
David Mordaunt
at Cricinfo
ESPN cricinfo (formerly known as Cricinfo or CricInfo) is a sports news website exclusively for the game of cricket. The site features news, articles, live coverage of cricket matches (including liveblogs and scorecards), and ''StatsGuru'', a d ...
David Mordaunt
at CricketArchive
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mordaunt, David
1937 births
2020 deaths
Berkshire cricketers
Cricketers from Chelsea, London
English cricketers
Free Foresters cricketers
Marylebone Cricket Club cricketers
People educated at Wellington College, Berkshire
Schoolteachers from Oxfordshire
Sussex cricketers