Anthony William Haward Mallett (29 August 1924 – 10 December 1994) was an English amateur

cricket 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 ...

er who played for Oxford University and

Kent County Cricket Club Kent County Cricket Club is one of the eighteen first-class county clubs within the domestic cricket structure of England and Wales. It represents the historic county of Kent. A club representing the county was first founded in 1842 but Ke ...

. He was a school teacher who became Principal of Diocesan College in Cape Town, South Africa.

Early life, education and war-time

Mallett was born in Dulwich in south LondonAnthony Mallett

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 ...

. Retrieved 2018-09-26. and educated at Dulwich College where he was an "outstanding schoolboy player".Mallett, Anthony William Haward
Obituaries in 1995, '' Wisden Cricketers' Almanack'', 1996. Retrieved 2018-09-26. He was at school with Trevor Bailey who went on to play 61

Tests Test(s), testing, or TEST may refer to: * Test (assessment), an educational assessment intended to measure the respondents' knowledge or other abilities Arts and entertainment * ''Test'' (2013 film), an American film * ''Test'' (2014 film), ...

for England and was considered almost Bailey's equal.Cartwright GHM (1943
The Public Schools, 1942
'' Wisden Cricketers' Almanack'', 1943, p.294. Retrieved 2018-09-26. '' Wisden'' considered that "no school has ever possessed two such cricketers at the same time" and that it would be no surprise if both had international careers.Cartwight ''op. cit.'', p.266. Both he and Bailey served in the

Royal Marines The Corps of Royal Marines (RM), also known as the Royal Marines Commandos, are the UK's special operations capable commando force, amphibious light infantry and also one of the five fighting arms of the Royal Navy. The Corps of Royal Marine ...

during World War II, playing in a number of war-time cricket matches, including for England XIs. After the war he went up to

Brasenose College, Oxford Brasenose College (BNC) is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. It began as Brasenose Hall in the 13th century, before being founded as a college in 1509. The library and chapel were added in the mi ...

where he read English Language and Literature and won

Blues Blues is a music genre and musical form which originated in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues incorporated spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts, chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads from the Afr ...

in cricket, squash and

table-tennis Table tennis, also known as ping-pong and whiff-whaff, is a sport in which two or four players hit a lightweight ball, also known as the ping-pong ball, back and forth across a table using small solid rackets. It takes place on a hard table di ...

.Megahey A (2005) ''A School in Africa: Peterhouse. Education in Rhodesia and Zimbabwe 1955-2005'', p.84. MacMillan: Oxford.
Available online
Retrieved 2018-09-26.)
CricketArchive. Retrieved 2018-09-26.

Sporting career

He had made his first-class cricket debut in 1945 for an Under 33s team against the Over 33s at

Lord's Lord's Cricket Ground, commonly known as Lord's, is a cricket venue in St John's Wood, London. Named after its founder, Thomas Lord, it is owned by Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) and is the home of Middlesex County Cricket Club, the England and ...

before going on to make his debut for Kent in 1946 and playing for Oxford in the 1947 and 1948 University matches. After university he became a school teacher which limited his opportunities to play first-class cricket. He made a total of 75 first-class appearances, 33 of which were for Kent, generally during the summer holidays.Williams R (1998
Rugby Union: Mallett rights the record Boks
'' The Independent'', 1998-12-02. Retrieved 2018-09-26. He toured Canada with MCC in 1951 and played for a variety of teams throughout a career which lasted, at first-class level, until 1954. Mallett played squash to a high level and reached the finals of the 1949 Men's British Open Squash Championship. He has been described as "intensely competitive" in his approach to sport.

Teaching career

Mallett taught at Haileybury and Imperial Service College before emigrating to

Rhodesia Rhodesia (, ), officially from 1970 the Republic of Rhodesia, was an unrecognised state in Southern Africa from 1965 to 1979, equivalent in territory to modern Zimbabwe. Rhodesia was the ''de facto'' successor state to the British colony of S ...

in 1957,Megahey ''op. cit.'', p.36. joining the staff of the newly founded Peterhouse Boys' School outside Marandellas near Salisbury. He taught English and Latin and was in charge of both cricket and squash. He became housemaster of Ellis House in 1959 and senior teacher in 1961.Anthony "Buzz" Mallett (Staff 1957 - 1962)
Profiles of former members of staff, Peterhouse Nostalgia. Archived 2011-06-29. Retrieved 2018-09-26.Megahey ''op. cit'', p.59.
Available online
Retrieved 2018-09-26.) In 1963 he was appointed Principal of Diocesan College in Cape Town, South Africa, a post he held from 1964 until 1982. The Xhosa language was introduced as a subject at the school during Mallett's time as Principal and black pupils were admitted for the first time under his leadership, although the numbers on non-white pupils remained very low until after he had left the school.History
Diocesan College. Retrieved 2018-09-26.Harvey R (2001) ''The Fall of Apartheid: The Inside Story from Smuts to Mbeki'', pp.79–83. Palgrave: Basingstoke.
Available online
Retrieved 2018-09-26.) Mallett House at the school was named in memory of him when it opened in 2003.Mallett House
Diocesan College. Retrieved 2018-09-26. After leaving the college he taught at King's College, Auckland in New Zealand, under headteacher Iain Campbell who had also played cricket for Kent and Oxford and who he had taught with at Peterhouse, and at

St Joseph's Marist College ST, St, or St. may refer to: Arts and entertainment * Stanza, in poetry * Suicidal Tendencies, an American heavy metal/hardcore punk band * Star Trek, a science-fiction media franchise * Summa Theologica, a compendium of Catholic philosophy an ...

at Rondebosch near Cape Town before retiring in 1989.Megahey ''op. cit'', p.37.

Later life and family

Mallett died of cancer in 1994 aged 70. His son Nick was a rugby union player who played for and later coached the South Africa national rugby union team and coached the Italian national side. He also played first-class cricket for Oxford University. Another son became a headteacher.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mallett, Tony 1924 births 1994 deaths People educated at Dulwich College Alumni of Brasenose College, Oxford English cricketers Kent cricketers Marylebone Cricket Club cricketers Oxford University cricketers Combined Services cricketers Gentlemen cricketers North v South cricketers Free Foresters cricketers Royal Marines personnel of World War II People from Dulwich Cricketers from Greater London