DOUG Martin was a county cricketer and associate member of Oxfordshire Cricket, who once had the West Indian team ‘laughing on the floor’ after serenading them.

Mr Martin, who played cricket across the county during his youth and went on to become a teacher, has died aged 81.

The City of Oxford High School pupil played in the Minor Counties Championship for Oxfordshire.

After growing up in the county and being educated at Oxford University he moved to Plymouth to become a French teacher.

Douglas Martin was born in Hill View Road, off Botley Road in 1936.

He went to West Oxford Infants’ School and Cranescourt Prep School in Iffley Road before moving to City of Oxford High School for Boys in 1947.

When he left school he did National Service with the RAF in Lincolnshire before returning to study French and German at Exeter College, Oxford.

His love of cricket had developed from a young age and in his teenage years he joined Adastral CC and played for various representative sides in the county – scoring his first century at the Pressed Steel ground.

He joined Oxford City CC and was selected for Oxfordshire.

It was during his cricket-playing youth that he met his future wife Pat Brunsdon, when he was 14.

The couple married in 1959 before moving to Plymouth, where Mr Martin had taken a job at Plymouth College.

They had four children, Lloyd (1960), twin daughters Nicola and Teresa (1962) and Kathryn (1970).

He continued his cricket playing for Plymouth Cricket Club and being selected to play county cricket for Devon.

During a charity game, featuring England and West Indies internationals he treated the global superstars to his full repertoire of pub songs.

He died on January 7 and is survived by his wife Pat, his four children and four grandchildren.