Dai Jenkins

It is with great sadness to report that one of our members, Dai Jenkins, passed away on 21 July 2017. He had been battling leukaemia for the last 18 months.

Dai was a graduate of St John’s Oxford (pictured above), as a result of which we had a fixture against the College for quite a few years. Joining the club in the late 1960s, he was principally a leg break bowler with an action, recalls club president John Burmester, "involving his bowling arm coming from somewhere behind his head and bending forward from the waist which probably prevented him from seeing the ball in flight!"

He took over from Robin Atkins as club treasurer in 1971 and fulfilled the role for many years. Although he was a geography graduate, he was very good with figures and went into accountancy. John says: "I remember that his accounts, all written out in hand (the days before computers, spreadsheets, etc), were immaculate and that he was meticulous with his maths."

Andrew Short recalls: "Dai was working in the States when I joined the club so I only got to know him on his return when he didn't play a huge amount. Two things I remember - the enormous gusto he brought to captaining the side against his old college; and his Most Jester-like award winning performance when he locked himself out his wife's car at the Waltham St Lawrence game with the engine still running and his kit still in the boot - the resolution involving a broken window, cut hand and much blood".

There is a reference in the club's history books which sums up Dai’s batting admirably. Coming in at number 11 against Ashtead, the Jesters needed two runs to win off the last ball. Dai stroked a four through extra cover, in the words of editor Michael Meyer, "to a place where no one had ever seen him hit the ball before”.

Dai was an athletics fanatic and could quote virtually any statistic from every Olympic games to obscure meets. In the 1960s, he appeared on TV quiz 'Double Your Money'. Entering with his specialist subject of athletics, he duly won the main prize of £1,000 – quite a lot of money in those days. He also competed in the New York marathon a couple of times.

Dai was a great supporter of the club after his playing days, regularly attending the dinner. As we remember him fondly, our thoughts are with his family at this sad time.