The Cricketer Magazine – June 2018

Obituaries

Career
1954–68
First-class
124 Matches
5115 Runs
137 High Score
26.78 Average
10 100s
26 50s
43 Wickets
30.67 Average
1 5-wkt
5-55 BB
70 Catches
2 Stumpings

Don Oslear

Ivo Tennant on the Cleethorpes

fishmonger who rose to umpire at the

highest level and became wrapped up

in the ball-tampering controversy

Don Oslear had an unusual

background in that the great

majority of umpires, with the

exception of him and Nigel Plews,

had played the game professionally.

When he left school in Cleethorpes,

his childhood home having been

destroyed by the Luftwaffe, he went

to work for his father, getting up at

4am and filleting fish on the Grimsby

quayside, fully exposed to the wind

whipping off the North Sea.

He was a talented ice hockey

player and goalkeeper and attracted

the attention of Bill Shankly, who

was then managing Grimsby

Town FC before transforming

the fortunes of Liverpool. Oslear

retained throughout his life the

telegram from Shankly calling him

up to be on standby for one match.

Ultimately he was not required. The

then thriving fish market provided

a better living; increasingly, also,

Oslear was drawn to cricket. He

played and umpired in Lincolnshire

before joining the first-class panel

at the advanced age of 45.

“I umpired many matches with Don

and he never let me down,” said Dickie

Bird. “He was a man of principle, a

hard man, who stuck to the spirit of

cricket. The players may have found

him a bit of a strong character, but he

had a good relationship with them.”

Oslear was to umpire in five Tests,

including two in the momentous

Ashes series of 1981, and eight

one-day internationals, and was

particularly respected for his

knowledge of the Laws.

He became renowned for his firm

stance against ball-tampering. He

gave evidence in the High Court

for Ian Botham and Allan Lamb

in the case they brought against

Imran Khan in 1996, concerning

allegations of class and racism,

but which at its core was Oslear’s

specialist subject, the Laws.

Matters on the field had come

to a head in 1992 when the ball

was changed during an interval

in a match between England and

Pakistan at Lord’s. Oslear was

the third umpire and evidently

suspected the Pakistan bowlers had

roughed it up. He supplied a dossier

to the TCCB. He also collaborated

with Jack Bannister for a book on

the subject and appeared, as did

Imran, on an ITV debate chaired by

Darcus Howe.

“Probably one or two umpires

would have shrugged their

shoulders and allowed it to go on,

but Don did what he thought was

right and he knew the Laws as well

as anyone and had great confidence

in his ability to interpret them,” said

Alan Smith, the chief executive of

the TCCB. “I don’t remember what

happened to the ball but I probably

did lock it away in my desk.” Others

felt that events were covered up.

In addition, Oslear disliked the

introduction of coloured clothing

for one-day matches in 1993, and

was not pleased that umpires, as

well as players, would have to wear

what he and other traditionalists

regarded as pyjamas. When he

emerged from the pavilion at Grace

Road, wearing a bright blue coat

and baseball-style cap, he carried

a crate of bottles, shouting “Milko”.

The crowd, if not the TCCB, thought

this was hilarious.

Don Oslear was born on March 3

1929, and died on May 10 2018

John Pretlove

Ivo Tennant recalls a party-loving

left-hander who was one of the

world’s leading Rugby fives players

As a freshman at Cambridge

University in 1954, John Pretlove

was at the top of the national

batting averages in the early

weeks of the season.

A left-handed batsman who

excelled through his square cut

and who scored a century in the

Varsity match the following year,

it appeared as if he would have a

productive career. He was to play

for Kent for five seasons, scoring

3,128 runs at 23.69 and bowling

left-arm spin, but opted to go into

the construction industry rather

than turn professional.

“He did not make quite as many

runs as I thought he might have

done,” said Mike Bushby, his first

Cambridge captain.

Pretlove was a gifted all-round

games player of the kind that in a

less myopic era was acceptable to

the admission tutors at Cambridge.

He was one of the finest of all

Rugby fives players and a good

enough footballer to play for

Pegasus and Corinthian Casuals.

Pretlove was a lover of a party,

particularly when Yorkshire and

Fred Trueman came to Fenner’s.

‘Pretters’, as Trueman called him,

would disappear to sample such

nightlife as the city afforded in

the 1950s. One evening Pretlove

returned to Gonville & Caius

College to find the gates locked

and had to climb on to the broad

shoulders of the England fast

bowler to reach the windowsill

of his room.

“John’s opening gambit was,

‘where’s the next party?’” said

Derek Ufton, who played with

him for Kent. “But he was a tough

competitor. If we were in a tight

spot, I would put money on him.”

After retiring in 1959 he played

regularly for Bromley and the

Lord’s Taverners. At fives he gained

an entry in the Guinness Book of

Records through winning four

amateur singles championships,

and he also won seven doubles

championships. He served as

president of Kent in 1999.

John Pretlove was born on November

23 1932, and died on April 1 2018 PA

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