The former Oxfordshire captain Peter Smith died on 15 April aged 80. Captain from 1971-77, he led the County to the Minor Counties Championship in 1974, only their second ever title, the first coming in 1929. A popular and inspiring leader, his positive approach was rewarded with five victories from 10 matches and only one defeat. Having finished top of the table, they were challenged by Cornwall for the title, a match played at the Morris Motors ground. Peter led the way, taking 5-26 in the visitor’s first innings as the match ended in a draw, thus making Oxfordshire champions. He finished top of the bowling averages that year with 25 wickets at an average of 12.44, in a strong bowling side that included Roger Busby, Brian Jeffries, Simon Porter, and Dennis Lock. Wisden recorded that ‘Oxfordshire were outstanding in the field where many fine catches were taken.’ Peter himself took several of these catches, contributing to his excellent career total of 88.

A Magdalen College schoolboy, Peter then progressed to Oxford University for whom he played 5 first-class matches but did not win a Blue. He captained Oxfordshire Colts and was selected for the England Schools team. He made his debut for the county in 1963 and in total he played 127 matches for Oxfordshire in the Minor Counties Championship, scoring 1869 runs at an average of 15.45 and taking 227 wickets at an average of 18.66. He made five fifties for the County, with a highest score of 65 not out in the second innings against Bucks at High Wycombe in 1964 to see Oxfordshire to a seven-wicket victory. A lively seamer, his most productive season for the county was in 1969 when he took 39 wickets at an average of 12.94. His best bowling performance was 8-45 against Cornwall at Witney Mills in 1973, taking 10 wickets in the match as Oxfordshire won by 124 runs.

On resigning the captaincy in 1977, the County’s annual report included the following tribute: ‘His ability to use the resources available to him was quite outstanding and his tactical expertise was brilliant. An inspiring leader, he set standards on and off the field which are a credit to Oxfordshire cricket.’

A schoolmaster, in later life he became Headmaster of Bradfield College from 1985 to 2003. The current headmaster has commented that ‘It was clear from early in my tenure that the Bradfield of today owes much of its current health and reputation to the outstanding development of the College under Peter’s leadership.’

Two of the members of that 1974 Championship winning side have sent their memories of Peter. Alan Crossley recalls: 

‘Peter, as well as being the most congenial of team-mates, was a quite outstanding captain,

totally transforming Oxfordshire cricket and in 1974 bringing home the Minor Counties

trophy for the first time in 45 years. His novel approach to the two-day game was in those days almost as shocking as the recent ’Bazball’ impact in the Test arena: Peter took the

simple view that if we could win 5 games in a 10-game competition we would be champions,

rendering the draw (that most common result in two-day games) rather useless, an outcome to

be avoided at all costs. He was quite aware that his team was comparatively weak in batting,

but took that to be almost as an advantage, since it would encourage opponents to make generous declarations. Above all he was determined to speed progress on the first day of

games, so he broke up Oxfordshire’s established stolid opening partnership and encouraged every batsman to take risks and to score as quickly as possible. His priority was to have as

much time as possible on the second day to negotiate and to manoeuvre. As for the bowling,

he replaced Oxfordshire’s established ‘old guard’ and put together a younger, flexible, and

potentially formidable bowling attack, backed by an outstanding fielding side. At that time, it

was still acceptable for half of a Minor Counties fielding side to be ‘hidden’ at third man or

even in the slips, but Peter had no patience with that: he needed to set aggressive fields and

also control the run-flow. So he expected each team member to set himself the highest

standards of concentration and commitment in the field: and his 1974 success owed much to

consistently brilliant out-fielding as well as remarkable close catching.

Peter’s single-minded pursuit of victory frequently astonished his own team. In one game

Roger Busby, having made an important breakthrough early on the first day, was bemused when Peter immediately took him off, explaining that it was day two that really mattered, and

it was then that he would be needed: of course we won that game. Peter’s cool assessment of

possibilities was applied equally to his own game: he knew that on some pitches his bowling

would be innocuous, so he simply did not bowl; but if conditions were favourable he did not

hold back, and to our delight took five wickets in two of the 1974 games. In several other

games, when our opponents were chasing easy targets, Peter did not share our relief when we

took wickets and might therefore hope to save the game; his great fear was that too many wickets too soon would force opponents to put up shop. In our second win against

Buckinghamshire he repeatedly took off successful bowlers and continued to dangle the

carrot until their last established batsman, who had long been comfortably blocking out, was left with no choice but to go for victory and was caught in the deep. As we laughed

afterwards in the dressing room I remember assuring Peter that all 10 of us had been behind

him all the way, but with knives in our hand. In fact we had just witnessed yet another

example of inspired leadership. Peter was a remarkable man and it was a privilege to be in his

team.’

Mike Nurton has sent the following:

‘Peter and I grew up together as opponents in school cricket and then as opponents in club cricket before becoming colleagues for many years in the Oxfordshire County Cricket team.  He became a life-long friend and someone I admired greatly.  He was a talented all-rounder capable of producing match winning performances.  Many considered him unlucky not to have been given the man of the match award in a Gillette Cup game against Cambridgeshire. I can vividly recall his match winning knock against Bucks at Marlow when he played an audacious scoop shot past fine leg in the last over of the game to secure a victory which enabled us to go on to win the Minor Counties Championship in 1974.  His mission was accomplished at Weymouth when nerves got the better of him in a tense game and he remained in the pavilion unable to watch until a victory was secured.  He could best be described as an early version of Bazball.  He always played with a positive attitude; never afraid to gamble; and intensely loyal to his teammates.  He retired too soon from competitive cricket when promotion and other challenges were presented to him in the field of education.  My most recent memory was having lunch with him and some old adversaries on the cricket field i.e. messrs Yeabsley, Wagstaffe and Garth Watson.  He was also devoted to his family and our sympathy at this time is extended to Diana and his daughters Helen and Liz.’