TRIBUTES have been paid to former Oxfordshire captain, Bob Montgomerie, who died last week aged 79.

Montgomerie skippered the county from 1968 to 1970, leading them to sixth place in the Minor Counties Championship in the last two seasons

After playing a few games for Hertfordshire in the Minor Counties Championship, he made in Oxon debut in 1963, playing 59 matches and scoring 2352 runs at an average of 30.95.

He scored one century, exactly 100, against Wiltshire at St Edward’s School in 1966 and topped the county’s batting averages for four consecutive seasons from 1967-70.

In his final season in 1972 he was the top-scorer for Oxfordshire with 64 in their loss to Durham in the first round of the Gillette Cup.

His son Richard played first class cricket for Oxford university, Northants and Sussex.

His successor as Oxfordshire captain, Peter Smith,t old the Oxfordshire Cricket Board: “Bob was a fine middle-order batsman and an enterprising and genial captain.

“His connection with Oxfordshire started when he was teaching at St Edward’s School, and he stood down from the captaincy when he moved away to Rugby School, where he taught until his retirement.’’

Another playing contemporary, Mike Nurton said: “Bob was a Scottish international squash player as well as a fine cricketer – skills he put to good use with wristy shots to which it was difficult to set a field.

“He was a fierce competitor and yet never lost sight of the fact that the game of cricket was to be enjoyed.”