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, 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.
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. 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.
