Role Wicket-keeper 1962–1963 Cambridge University 1971 Berkshire | Relations Jonny Saunders (son) 1964 Oxford University Batting style Right-handed | |
Full name Christopher John Saunders Born 7 May 1940 (age 76) ( 1940-05-07 ) West Worthing, Sussex, England | ||
Christopher John Saunders (born 7 May 1940) is a former headmaster of Eastbourne College and Lancing College, and a first-class cricketer who played for Cambridge University and Oxford University.
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Cricket career
Saunders attended Lancing College, where he played for the First XI and was selected to keep wicket for the Southern Schools against The Rest in their annual match at Lord’s in 1958 and 1959. He went up to Cambridge University, where he kept wicket for the cricket team in seven matches in 1962 and one match in 1963 without earning a blue. He also played a match against Cambridge University in 1963, captaining Col. L. C. Stevens' XI in a match that was scheduled and played as a first-class match but later had its status rescinded by the MCC.
After finishing at Cambridge he went to Wadham College, Oxford. Late in the 1964 season he took over the wicket-keeping duties for the university team, and played in four matches, including the annual University Match against Cambridge, thus gaining his cricket blue at Oxford. He was a neat keeper who conceded few byes (none at all in the University Match), but his batting was unproductive and he usually went in at number 10 or 11.
He appeared in three Minor Counties Championship matches for Berkshire in 1971.
Teaching career
He taught at Bradfield College in Berkshire, where he became a housemaster, before taking up the position of headmaster at Eastbourne College in Sussex in 1981. He later moved to Lancing College in Sussex, serving as headmaster from 1993 to 1998.
He was the chairman of the Independent Schools Football Association from 1982 to 2003, greatly expanding the scope of its activities. Since his retirement from the position, the award for the play of the match in the ISFA final has been awarded in his honour: the Chris Saunders Golden Moment. He is a Life Vice President of The Football Association.
Personal life
He remains active in retirement. In an after-dinner speech to the Worshipful Company of Feltmakers in 2013 he urged his audience to "avoid being like a thrombosis – a bloody clot that circulates around the system".
His son Jonny is a former radio presenter who is now, as his father was, a housemaster at Bradfield College.