WELL-known city accountant and one time Headington United player Michael ‘Mick’ Olive has died aged 82.

Mr Olive, the youngest of six children, was born in Alexander Road, Botley, to Daisy and Victor Olive.

The family moved to Churchill Road, Cowley, in 1930 and Mr Olive attended St James Infants School and Donnington Junior School.

A school chum was comedian Ronnie Barker, who lived in Church Cowley Road. The friendship earned Mr Olive a mention in the book Remembering Ronnie Barker by Richard Webber.

As a youngster Mr Olive was spotted by Cardiff City FC and Tottenham Hotspur, and offered training and education with both, but his father urged him to get a ‘proper job’.

Before the war, Mr Olive studied at Oxford Technical School, now Oxford Brookes, and then trained as an accountant with Critchley, Ward and Piggott.

After National Service, he joined the accountancy team with Kings Motors Oxford, in Park End Street, where he became company accountant and company director.

An accomplished cricket player, Mr Olive also played football for Oxford City FC and Headington United, now Oxford United.

In the late 1940s he married his first wife Joan and lived in Cowley and Kennington, where Mr Olive kept pigs. The couple moved to Abingdon and had four children Simon, Chris, Vanessa and Rosalind.

They later divorced and Mr Olive met second wife Jacki, who he married in 1991. The couple lived in Cyprus, then Lincolnshire before moving back to Oxford when Mr Olive developed lung disease.

Mr Olive leaves his wife Jacki, children, stepchildren Kevin and Adam and numerous grandchildren.