Jack Mendl

Jack Francis Mendl (6 December 1911 – 27 October 2001) was an Argentine first-class cricketer and educator.

Mendl was born in the Buenos Aires suburb of Hurlingham, where his father was a grain trader.[1] He was sent to England, along with his brother Derek Mendl, where the two were educated at Repton School.[1] From Repton he went up to University College, Oxford to study English and history.[2] He was denied the opportunity to play first-class cricket for Oxford University due to a skiing accident.[1] He debuted in minor counties cricket for Oxfordshire in the 1939 Minor Counties Championship.[3] He served with the South Wales Borderers in the Second World War, enlisting as a second lieutenant.[4]

He began teaching at the Dragon School in Oxford in 1945, and for the next decade he opened the batting for Oxfordshire during the summer holidays.[1] He made 76 appearances for the county in Minor Counties Championship,[5] scoring 5,541 runs at an average of 50.83, with the Oxfordshire player Joe Banton considering him the greatest batsman to have represented the county.[6] He made his debut in first-class cricket when he was selected to play for the Minor Counties cricket team against Yorkshire at Lord's in 1949.[5] He accepted a teaching post in Scotland at the Edinburgh Academy in 1950.[1] He made four first-class appearances for Scotland between 1953 and 1955, as well as appearing a first-class match for the Marylebone Cricket Club against Scotland at Aberdeen in 1957.[5] His most notable innings for Scotland came against Derbyshire, when he scored 65 of Scotland's 100 runs total.[1][7]

He taught at the Edinburgh Academy until his retirement in 1977, serving as a housemaster of Dundas House from 1962 to 1965 and Mackenzie House from 1965 to 1972.[2] Following his retirement, Mendl remained in the Trinity area of Edinburgh and became a keen golfer.[2] Mendl died at Edinburgh in October 2001.[1] He was survived by his wife Betty, whom he had met shortly after arriving at the Edinburgh Academy and married in 1952, and their two children.[2]