Michael Walford

Michael Moore Walford (27 November 1915 – 16 January 2002), often known as "Micky Walford", was an all-round sportsman: a British field hockey player who competed in the 1948 Summer Olympics,[1] a first-class cricket player for Oxford University and Somerset and a rugby union centre three-quarter and stand-off half good enough to play in an international trial for the England national rugby union team. He was born at Norton-on-Tees, County Durham and died at Sherborne, Dorset, where he was for many years a schoolmaster at Sherborne School.

Olympic medal record
Men's field hockey
1948 London Team competition
Micky Walford
Personal information
Full nameMichael Moore Walford
Born(1915-11-27)27 November 1915
Norton-on-Tees, County Durham, England
Died16 January 2002(2002-01-16) (aged 86)
Sherborne, Dorset, England
BattingRight-handed
BowlingLeft-arm slow
RoleBatsman
Domestic team information
YearsTeam
1935–38Oxford University
1946–53Somerset
1950–51Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC)
First-class debut11 May 1935 Oxford University v Lancashire
Last First-class1 September 1953 Somerset v Nottinghamshire
Career statistics
Competition First-class
Matches 97
Runs scored 5327
Batting average 33.71
100s/50s 9/28
Top score 264
Balls bowled 381
Wickets 8
Bowling average 31.12
5 wickets in innings 1
10 wickets in match –
Best bowling 6/49
Catches/stumpings 50/–
Source: CricketArchive, 12 July 2011

He was a member of the British field hockey team at the 1948 summer Olympic Games, held in London. The team won the silver medal. He played all five matches as half-back.

Background and education

Walford was educated at Rugby School, where he was in the rugby, hockey and cricket teams. As a school cricketer, he was a middle order batsman and a slow left-arm bowler and he appeared in the schools match at Lord's against Marlborough College, part of the annual public schools games held each year at the then "headquarters" of cricket, in four consecutive years from 1931 to 1934. He was captain of the cricket team at the school in 1934.[2] In 1934, he played for the "Lord's Schools" side against "The Rest" in the annual match of the best of the public school cricketers, and then for the "Public Schools" side chosen to play The Army cricket team.

As a rugby player, he first came to prominence as a 17-year-old when he was named as one of the centre three-quarters in the England public schoolboys' rugby team to play Scotland in the annual match at the start of 1933.[3] In the same fixture in the 1933/34 season Walford's defensive play was singled out in the report in The Times as a factor in the English side's victory.[4]

University sporting career

Walford was playing county standard rugby union before he went up to Trinity College, Oxford, in autumn 1934.[5] At Oxford, his first sporting success in November 1934 was to be selected for the university's hockey team, where he played at centre half.[6] But within four weeks he was also playing for the rugby first fifteen as several players were rested in advance of the University Match.[7] Hockey, however, remained Walford's main winter game in his first year at Oxford and he was awarded his Blue by the hockey captain, Jake Seamer, later to be a cricket colleague at Somerset: the match with Cambridge finished as a goal-less draw.[8]

References
  1. "Olympians Who Played First-Class Cricket". Olympedia. Retrieved 28 July 2020.
  2. "Prospects at the Schools", The Times, London (46744), p. 6, 3 May 1934
  3. "To-day's Schoolboys' Match", The Times, London (46331), p. 6, 2 January 1933
  4. "English Schoolboys Win", The Times, London (46642), p. 5, 3 January 1934
  5. "Rugby Union fixtures: Durham v Derbyshire", The Times, London (46887), p. 6, 17 October 1934
  6. "Hockey: Oxford's first victory", The Times, London (46905), p. 5, 7 November 1934
  7. "Oxford draw with Rosslyn Park", The Times, London (46928), p. 5, 4 December 1934
  8. "Hockey: The Oxford team", The Times, London (46977), p. 6, 1 February 1935
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