Hubert Martineau

Hubert Martineau was equally at home on the piste and bob runs at St. Moritz, as he was at the leading English cricket grounds, and famous racecourses like Goodwood.

Martineau served as president of the St. Moritz Bob Club for more than 45 years, and with his support, Tony Nash and Robin Dixon won their Olympic bobsleigh gold medal in 1964. Martineau was also a keen figure skater and founded the Westminster Ice Martin’s Club. He was a judge at the 1948 St. Moritz Olympics.

A keen follower of the turf, Martineau owned some fine horses who raced in what would be classed as Group One races these days. But it is perhaps as a cricketer that he was better known. Martineau played just three First Class matches, for Sir Henry Dudley Gresham Leveson Gower’s XI in 1931-32 against Oxford and Cambridge Universities. However, Martineau formed his own team, H. M. Martineau’s XI, and played on his own private ground at Holyport Lodge near Maidenhead. Between 1926 and 1932, the visiting teams from Australian (1926), New Zealand (1927), West Indies (1928) and India (1932), opened their tours with a match against the Martineau XI. Between 1929-39 Martineau also took the team on a tour of Egypt and engaged in “Test Series”. Strangely, despite being educated at Eton College, Martineau never played for the school cricket XI

In 1916, Martineau stood as a liberal party candidate in the General Election at Monmouth. He lost to a majority of nearly 3,000. In 1970, his book “My Life in Sport” was published.