Alexander Colin David Ingleby-MackenzieOBE (15 September 1933 – 9 March 2006) was an English first-class cricketer: a left-handed batsman who played for Hampshire between 1951 and 1966, captaining the county from 1958 to 1965 as Hampshire's last amateur captain and leading his side to their first County Championship in the 1961 season. He was later president of the Marylebone Cricket Club from 1996 to 1998, during which time women were first permitted to join.
Early life
Ingleby-Mackenzie was born in Dartmouth, Devon, to Sir (Kenneth) Alexander Ingleby-Mackenzie (1892-1961), a surgeon officer in the Royal Navy who ended his career as a Vice-Admiral,[1][2] and Violetta Constance, daughter of judge Amyas Philip Longstaffe.[3][4]
Ingleby-Mackenzie played his first match for Hampshire in 1951, having been spotted at Eton by Desmond Eagar, although he was bowled for a duck by Alan Oakman in his debut innings.
First-class cricket career
He did National Service with the Royal Navy, during which time he played cricket for Combined Services and, on leave in the summer of 1952, for Hampshire.
He played a full season for Hampshire in 1954, then declined a place at Trinity College, Oxford to work for Slazenger, who gave him copious leave to pursue a parallel cricket career with Hampshire.
Nevertheless, he was often absent pursuing his sport in a swashbuckling fashion. Hampshire's victory in the 1961 County Championship was, in part, due to Ingleby-Mackenzie's bold captaincy: 10 of their 19 victories that season are attributable to bold declarations on the third (and last) day, in a summer when the opposing team could not be made to follow-on. The team included West Indian opening batsman Roy Marshall, veteran swing and seam bowler Derek Shackleton, and fast bowler David White.
In his first-class career, he scored 12,421 first-class runs, including 11 hundreds, at a relatively low average of 24.35, this figure depressed at least in part because of his attacking instincts: in only one season (1956) when he played more than a handful of games did he average above 30. However, he passed 1,000 runs in a season five times.
He wrote his autobiography, Many a Slip, in 1962. John Arlott said the book "reflects a considerable capacity for the enjoyment of most pleasures ... [and] presents a picture of a young man engagingly carefree in a way that seems to belong to a different age from ours".[6]
After cricket
He retired from first-class cricket in 1965, and later became chairman of Holmwoods. He led the firm through a 33 million pound management buyout from Brown Shipley in 1992 and oversaw the sale of the business to HSBC in 1997, becoming deputy chairman of HSBC Insurance Services.
Ingleby-Mackenzie served as president of Marylebone Cricket Club from 1996 to 1998. He was in the post when the new media centre at Lord's was approved and building work began. He led a campaign in favour of women's membership, ultimately convincing members to vote in favour of the change in September 1998, after forcing two votes on the matter within seven months.[7] He pronounced himself "absolutely delighted" at the decision.[8] and he is famously quoted as saying "Women are a very fine species."[9] He became president of Hampshire in 2002.
Personal life
He married Susan Marion Clifford-Turner in 1975; they had a daughter.[10][11] He was awarded the OBE in the summer of 2005, just a few months before his death at the age of 72, following surgery for a brain tumour. The hearse carrying his coffin passed beneath and adjacent to the stands as it circled Lord's Cricket Ground before making its way to Kensal Rise Crematorium. A memorial service was held on 29 June 2006 at St Paul's Cathedral which was attended by more than 1,600 people.[12] His wife died on 12 November 2023, aged 83.[13]
References
^Obituary: Sir ALEXANDER INGLEBY-MACKENZIE K.B.E., C.B., B.M., B.Ch in British Medical Journal, vol. 1, issue 5221, Jan. 28, 1961, pp. 296-297
^Who was who: a cumulated index 1897-2000, A. & C. Black, 2002, p. 422
^Isle of Wight Times, Thursday 10th October 1929, p. 2- "Ryde surgeon married in London"
^Debrett's Peerage, Baronetage, Knightage and Companionage, ed. Patrick Montague-Smith, Kelly's Directories Ltd, 1971, p. 2418
