REAPER DEXTEROUS
Cricketer Ted Dexter has died aged 86. A right handed batsman, Dexter was captain of the England cricket team in the 1960s. He was nicknamed Lord Ted for his aloof and self-assure nature, on and off the crease. At school he beat up Peter Cook. At cricket he thrashed South Africa and others. At life, he married a supermodel. He self-taught himself golf to a near professional standard, became the administrator who overhauled the cricket rankings, and wrote several cricket crime novels and even a hymn.
He also decided to run for Parliament and stood against future Prime Minister Jim Callaghan in Cardiff in the 1964 general election. So confident in success was he, that Ted Dexter said he was unavailable for selection in the Winter test cricket matches. An odd campaign in which he made speeches about how grubby the poor of Cardiff were, resulted in Dexter managing to increase Callaghan’s majority from 800 to 8000!
He was a unique pick for Final Whistle. Ted Dexter is also, to date, the only England cricket captain to try and become a Tory MP. When David Cameron phoned up modern legend Darren Gough to ask him to become one, Gough told Cameron to fuck off.
In fairness, that might have been a general principle we can all applaud.
Ted Dexter
15 May 1935 – 25 August 2021
unique