Born On This Day: 8th December

Desmond Eagar was born in Cheltenham in 1917. As a Hampshire cricketer Desmond Eagar had a modest record: he was essentially a batsman and in 311 first-class matches he scored just over 10,000 runs at an average of 21.02 with eight centuries in 12 seasons. 

In the field, his outstanding contribution was taking catches close to the wicket – mainly short-leg – and he is one of the few regular Hampshire cricketers to average better than one catch per match.

Beyond that playing record, however, Eagar was one of the most important figures in Hampshire’s history. He played first for his native Gloucestershire from 1935-1939 and won a ‘blue’ at Oxford University in 1939. After war service, he applied successfully for the twin roles of captain and secretary at Hampshire, and by combining them, retained his amateur status on the field.

As with many counties, he inherited an ageing side of men returning from war and so he set about assembling a group of good professionals from elsewhere, occasionally overseas, and crucially a core of promising local youngsters. Reflecting his own skills, he insisted on high standards of fielding, and appointed one of his pre-war professionals Arthur Holt as coach.

As captain his great year was 1955, as he led just 13 men to third place in the Championship for the first time. Those 13 included seven Hampshire-born, after which, over the next two years, Eagar gave Ingleby-Mackenzie opportunities to develop his captaincy skills and the young man took over in 1958, at which point Eagar became full-time secretary and saw his efforts come to fruition in 1958 (second place) and 1961 (Champions).

That side was ageing, so he set about building another, and in 1973 Eagar saw that side win a second title and they had begun to win limited-overs titles when he died unexpectedly, while on holiday, at the end of the 1977 season.

Also today: Bob Caple (1961-1967), Stephen Jefferies (1988-1989) Charles Yaldren (1912)