David Robert Walsh (born 17 December 1946,

Bombay Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' financial centre of India. According to the United Nations, as of 2018, Mumbai is the second-m ...

, Maharashtra,

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 ...

) is a former 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 officia ...

er and current cricket administrator. He is also a historian.

Education

Walsh was educated at Marlborough College, where he captained the First XI in 1965 and played in the annual match for the

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 ...

(MCC) Schools XI against

Combined Services The Combined Services cricket team represents the British Armed Forces. The team played at first-class level in England for more than forty years in the mid-twentieth century. Their first first-class match was against Gentlemen of England at Lo ...

at Lord's. He went up to

Brasenose College 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 m ...

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 th ...

Cricket career

A middle-order batsman, Walsh made his first-class debut for

in 1966, scoring 56 against

Hampshire Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in western South East England on the coast of the English Channel. Home to two major English cities on its south coast, Southampton and Portsmouth, Hampshire ...

in his second match, but was unable to maintain his form and lost his place in the side. He struggled again in 1967, but kept his place in a weak side, and "fought his way doggedly out of his past to achieve reliability". He played all 15 of Oxford's matches, scoring 325 runs at an average of 16.25 with a top score of 46. In the six matches he played in 1968 he was more successful, and he finished with 300 runs at 33.33. He hit 76 not out in the second innings against Glamorgan ("a splendid defensive innings") and 65 and 28 against

Cambridge University The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209 and granted a royal charter by Henry III of England, Henry III in 1231, Cambridge is the world' ...

at Lord's, adding 131 for the second wicket with the captain,

Fred Goldstein Fred Goldstein washttps://www.marxists.org/history/etol/writers/goldstein/goldstein.html a leader of an American Workers World Party. He was a member of the Secretariat, a six-member leading body of Workers World Party. He was a contributing edit ...

. In the third match in 1969 he "produced a variety of strokes hitherto unseen from him" when he scored 207 against

Warwickshire Warwickshire (; abbreviated Warks) is a county in the West Midlands region of England. The county town is Warwick, and the largest town is Nuneaton. The county is famous for being the birthplace of William Shakespeare at Stratford-upon-Av ...

, with 32 fours and two sixes, adding 270 for the sixth wicket with Stuart Westley. He also scored 138 and 41 against D.H. Robins' XI. He finished the season with 748 runs at 37.40, and played in his third

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, ...

. He played seven matches between 1966 and 1972 for Sussex Second XI, but all his first-class cricket was for Oxford University.

Later career

After two years teaching at

Melbourne Grammar School (Pray and Work) , established = 1849 (on present site since 1858 - the celebrated date of foundation) , type = Independent, co-educational primary, single-sex boys secondary, day and boarding , denomination ...

, Walsh was appointed to

Tonbridge School (God Giveth the Increase) , established = , closed = , type = Public schoolIndependent day and boarding , religion = , president = , head_label ...

in 1972 and spent the rest of his career there, retiring in 2009 as Second Master. He was Chairman of Headmasters' Conference Schools cricket for twenty years. He has held various administrative positions with the

(MCC), and is a trustee of the MCC Foundation. Walsh is the author of three books. ''A Duty to Serve: Tonbridge School and the 1939-45 War'' was published by Third Millennium in 2011; ''Public Schools and the Great War: The Generation Lost'', co-written with Sir

Anthony Seldon Sir Anthony Francis Seldon (born 2 August 1953) is a British educator and contemporary historian. As an author, he is known in part for his political biographies of Margaret Thatcher, John Major, Tony Blair, Gordon Brown, David Cameron and Ther ...

, was published in 2013 by

Pen & Sword Pen and Sword Books, also stylised as Pen & Sword, is a British publisher which specialises in printing and distributing books in both hardback and softback on military history, militaria and other niche subjects; factual non-fiction, primaril ...

; ''Public Schools and the Second World War'', again co-authored with Sir Anthony Seldon, was published by Pen & Sword in August 2020.

References

External links

David Walsh at CricketArchive
{{DEFAULTSORT:Walsh, David 1946 births Living people Cricketers from Mumbai People educated at Marlborough College Alumni of Brasenose College, Oxford English cricketers Oxford University cricketers British schoolteachers Oxford and Cambridge Universities cricketers English cricket administrators 21st-century English historians