Neil Stafford Hotchkin (4 February 1914 – 6 February 2004) was an English

first-class cricket First-class cricket, along with List A cricket and Twenty20 cricket, is one of the highest-standard forms of cricket. A first-class match is one of three or more days' scheduled duration between two sides of eleven players each and is officiall ...

er active 1934–48 who played for

Cambridge University , mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts. Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge. , established = , other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...

and

Middlesex Middlesex (; abbreviation: Middx) is a Historic counties of England, historic county in South East England, southeast England. Its area is almost entirely within the wider urbanised area of London and mostly within the Ceremonial counties of ...

. He was born and died in

Woodhall Spa Woodhall Spa is a former spa Village and civil parish in Lincolnshire, England, on the southern edge of the Lincolnshire Wolds, south-west of Horncastle, west of Skegness, east-south-east of Lincoln and north-west of Boston. It is noted for ...

Lincolnshire Lincolnshire (abbreviated Lincs.) is a county in the East Midlands of England, with a long coastline on the North Sea to the east. It borders Norfolk to the south-east, Cambridgeshire to the south, Rutland to the south-west, Leicestershire ...

, where his family had developed a golf course.Neil Hotchkin at CricketArchive
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Sporting career

Hotchkin was educated at

Eton College Eton College () is a public school in Eton, Berkshire, England. It was founded in 1440 by Henry VI under the name ''Kynge's College of Our Ladye of Eton besyde Windesore'',Nevill, p. 3 ff. intended as a sister institution to King's College, C ...

and played in the

Eton-Harrow match The Eton v Harrow cricket match is an annual match between Public school (United Kingdom), public school rivals Eton College and Harrow School. It is one of the longest-running annual sporting fixtures in the world and is the last annual school ...

in 1931, 1932 and 1933. He then went up to

and opened the batting for

Cambridge University Cricket Club Cambridge University Cricket Club, first recorded in 1817, is the representative cricket club for students of the University of Cambridge. Depending on the circumstances of each individual match, the club has always been recognised as holding ...

in the 1935

University match The University Match in a cricketing context is generally understood to refer to the annual fixture between Oxford University Cricket Club and Cambridge University Cricket Club. From 2001, as part of the reorganisation of first-class cricket, ...

against

Oxford 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 ...

. He played a handful of matches for Middlesex, the last in 1948, and some matches for the

Europeans cricket team The Europeans cricket team was an Indian first-class cricket team which took part in the annual Bombay tournament and Lahore tournament. The team was founded by members of the European community in Bombay who played cricket at the Bombay Gymkha ...

while stationed in

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. In 23 first-class matches he scored 736 runs at an average of 21.02. His father, Stafford Hotchkin, developed a golf course at the family home of Woodhall Spa Manor in 1891. Neil Hotchkin was president of the

English Golf Union England Golf is the governing body for male and female amateur golf in England. It represents over 1,900 golf clubs with over 740,000 members and is affiliated to The R&A, the joint global governing body of golf. It was formed in 2012 as a merg ...

(EGU) in 1972, and sold the

Woodhall Spa Golf Club Woodhall Spa Golf Club is a private golf club in England, that is located to the north of Woodhall Spa, Lincolnshire. The club was founded in 1891. In 1995 the club was purchased by the English Golf Union, who have since relocated their headqua ...

to the EGU in 1995. The EGU relocated the National Golf Centre to Woodhall Spa, and main course at the club was named the Hotchkin Course.

Military career

Neil Hotchkin joined the part-time Territorial Army in 1936, being commissioned as a

Second lieutenant Second lieutenant is a junior commissioned officer military rank in many armed forces, comparable to NATO OF-1 rank. Australia The rank of second lieutenant existed in the military forces of the Australian colonies and Australian Army until ...

in the Lincoln Battery of 60th (North Midland) Field Regiment,

Royal Artillery The Royal Regiment of Artillery, commonly referred to as the Royal Artillery (RA) and colloquially known as "The Gunners", is one of two regiments that make up the artillery arm of the British Army. The Royal Regiment of Artillery comprises t ...

(RA), of which his father was at the time the Honorary Colonel. During World War II he served with the RA in the

Dunkirk Evacuation The Dunkirk evacuation, codenamed Operation Dynamo and also known as the Miracle of Dunkirk, or just Dunkirk, was the evacuation of more than 338,000 Allied soldiers during the Second World War from the beaches and harbour of Dunkirk, in the ...

, the Middle East, and in India. Then in late 1943 the 60th Field Regiment was converted to infantry and trained to join the

Chindits The Chindits, officially as Long Range Penetration Groups, were special operations units of the British and Indian armies which saw action in 1943–1944 during the Burma Campaign of World War II. The British Army Brigadier Orde Wingate form ...

in the Long Range Penetration (LRP) role. By now a

Major Major (commandant in certain jurisdictions) is a military rank of commissioned officer status, with corresponding ranks existing in many military forces throughout the world. When used unhyphenated and in conjunction with no other indicators ...

, Hotchkin commanded an LRP Column formed by 60th Field Regiment in the gruelling Naga Hills campaign in

Burma Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John Wells explai ...

during April–July 1944.Thomas Joesbury, '60 and 80 Column Chindits 1944' at Burma Star Association.
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References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hotchkin, Neil 1914 births 2004 deaths English cricketers Middlesex cricketers Cambridge University cricketers Europeans cricketers Lincolnshire cricketers People from Woodhall Spa People educated at Eton College British Army personnel of World War II Royal Artillery officers