The whole of cricket mourned when Andy Ducat died while batting at Lord’s in 1942. A double international and fine batsman in a brilliant Surrey side, he was a universally popular figure.
The sudden death at Lord’s, on July 23, of Andrew Ducat, Surrey batsman of high talent and effective execution, England international Association footballer, captain of a cup-winning Aston Villa team, and in recent years cricket coach at Eton, came as a shock to countless friends and admirers. A man of delightful disposition, quiet and unassuming, he endeared himself to all who met him and as a reporter of games, after giving up activity in the field, he revealed his character in unbiased, accurate descriptions of matches and criticisms of the high-class players who were his successors.
The last time I saw Ducat he sat a few feet from me in the press box at Lord’s. He passed a pleasant remark as he joined his fellow writers and we watched the cricket, intent on the players in the field. Next thing I heard of him, a few days afterwards, was his final and fatal appearance at the crease, where we had seen other cricketers play the game with all the energy of keen sportsmen such as always identified his own efforts.
That Ducat should collapse and die, bat in hand, was the last thing anyone would have expected of such a well-set-up, vigorous, healthy-looking and careful-living man. Evidence of those in the field proved clearly that he expired directly after playing a stroke and as he prepared to receive another ball, for he was dead when carried to the pavilion. The medical report gave the cause of death as failure of a heart that showed signs of definite weakness.
So far as I have seen, no one has mentioned any parallel case to the suddenness of the Ducat tragedy, with death of a first-class cricketer occurring on the field of play, but in 1870, at Lord’s, John Platts, the Derbyshire fast bowler, playing for MCC against Nottinghamshire, bowled a ball which caused the death of George Summers. The batsman received so severe a blow on the head that he died from the effects of the accident a few days afterwards.
Pitches at Lord’s at that time were notoriously bad, and, as the outcome of this accident, far more attention was paid to the care of the turf. Over the grave of George Summers at Nottingham, the MCC erected a memorial tablet “testifying their sense of his qualities as a cricketer and regret at the untimely accident on Lord’s ground.”
