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Mike Denness

gilbertfilbert
gilbertfilbert Posts: 2,285
in Other Football and Sports
RIP

Comments

  • CharltonKerry
    CharltonKerry Posts: 2,991
    RIP, another of those great Kent gone to soon.
  • Brendan_O_Connell
    Brendan_O_Connell Posts: 8,938
    RIP
  • Covered End
    Covered End Posts: 52,264
    RIP.

    I remember him as the captain of England, when we were getting skittled by Thomson & Lillee & also the WI.

    It used to be a procession, I especially recall Keith Fletcher never seeming to bat for more than 5 mins.

    Wicket keeper & about 5 slips & 2 gullies :-)
  • mattaddick
    mattaddick Posts: 656
    RIP - odd that a Scotsman should captain England. Denness always suffered because a certain Geoffrey Boycott never rated him
  • addick1965
    addick1965 Posts: 5,092
    RIP
  • Richard J
    Richard J Posts: 8,040
    RIP captained the great Kent side in the early 70's.

    Ended his career playing for Essex.
  • Addick Addict
    Addick Addict Posts: 40,442
    Luckhurst, Woolmer and now Denness - all very much part of my cricketing youth.

    Thanks for the memories.

    RIP
  • CharltonKerry
    CharltonKerry Posts: 2,991
    Addick Addict said:

    Luckhurst, Woolmer and now Denness - all very much part of my cricketing youth.

    Thanks for the memories.

    RIP

    Agree but you forgot the great Colin Cowdey.
  • Shrew
    Shrew Posts: 5,758
    edited April 2013
    Rest In Peace
    http://youtu.be/Z2PmnTvPfn4
  • Bermuda_red
    Bermuda_red Posts: 458
    mattaddick said:

    RIP - odd that a Scotsman should captain England. Denness always suffered because a certain Geoffrey Boycott never rated him

    Yep, Boycott thought he should be England captain and withdrew from England duty for 3 years.

    RIP Mike. Fond memories of summer sundays at Canterbury/Maidstone/Folkestone watching that all conquering Kent team of the 70s.


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  • soapy_jones
    soapy_jones Posts: 21,449
    RIP
  • The_President
    The_President Posts: 14,280
    very sad
  • Fanny Fanackapan
    Fanny Fanackapan Posts: 18,812
    How sad ! One of my favourite players when we started to attend limited over games at Canterbury. Always seemed a real gentleman.

    Rest peacefully, Mike.
  • Lincsaddick
    Lincsaddick Posts: 32,491
    I saw him play in what I think was his debut (if not debut a very early game, he was no7 on the card) v Surrey at Blackheath. Unusually his test batting average is better than his overall batting average. RIP
  • happyvalley
    happyvalley Posts: 8,996
    RIP, a great opening partnership with Luckhurst.
  • sralan
    sralan Posts: 2,032
    Sad news and another hero from my youth gone. RIP
  • _MrDick
    _MrDick Posts: 13,147
    Great Captain. RIP sad news
  • kentaddick
    kentaddick Posts: 18,729
    RIP. used to get coached by his son
  • incorruptible addick
    incorruptible addick Posts: 2,125
    edited April 2013
    Genuinely sad news but not unexpected.

    We became aware that he was seriously ill when he missed the KCCC Supporters Club annual Christmas luncheon in 2011. He was the guest speaker and he was not the type to cancel because he had a common cold.

    KCCC made him club president in 2012 (an annual and honorific office in which no one is allowed to serve for more than 12 months) because the club was aware that it was probably the last chance to honour him.

    I knew him personally for more than 30 years and was once lucky enough to be presented by him with a 'bowler of the year' award at our club, with which he had close personal contacts. I was so excited that I celebrated the honour by drunkenly crashing my car into a wall afterwards, my award symbolically tumbling off the back seat and breaking in two as it hit the car's floor. But that's another story and it was at least a quarter of a century ago!

    Mike was not an easy man in some ways. He was a controverisal character who divided opinion in Kent and was eventually sacked in acrimonious circumstances (are we allowed to say that, or is admin going to impose a Thatcher-style love-in?)

    It was a bitter pill for many of us to see him ending his career at Essex - akin perhaps to Jimmy Seed going on to manage Millwall. But just as when Millwall come to the Valley we carefully avoid mentioning that their fans are housed in a stand named after one of their former managers, when Mike returned to Kent several years later as chairman of the cricket committee, his Esssex connections were diplomatically erased from Kentish memory.

    Sadly his return in an adminstrative role was not entirely happy and he ended up resigning in a row about discipline within the playing squad that was more the fault of Andrew Symonds than Mike. But he again upset the Kent establishment who accused him of ''leaving the club in the lurch.''

    That's why he his return to the Kent fold in what turned out to be the final year of his life was so sweet, with all past acrimony between him and the county he loved finally buried for good.

    RIP, Mike.

  • McBobbin
    McBobbin Posts: 12,088
    RIP

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  • LenGlover
    LenGlover Posts: 31,718
    Lovely piece IA.

    Another of my early sporting favourites gone.

    RIP MHD.

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