Andy Murtagh


Andrew Joseph Murtagh is an Irish-born former English first-class cricketer. He is now a cricket biographer.

Cricket career

Andy Murtagh was a right-handed batsman who bowled right-arm medium pace. He represented Hampshire, making his first-class debut against Gloucestershire in 1973. That same season he made his one-day debut against local rivals Sussex. After the end of the 1973 County Championship Murtagh played for Eastern Province in South Africa, representing them in a single first-class match against Natal.
Murtagh represented Hampshire until 1977, his final first-class match against Gloucestershire and his final one-day match against the same opposition at the United Services Recreation Ground in Portsmouth. He was more at home in the one-day form of the game. In his 48 one-day matches for Hampshire he took 23 wickets at an average of 19.73 with best figures of 5 for 33 against Yorkshire in 1977. He batted mostly in the lower-middle order, with one first-class fifty and one one-day fifty to his name: both scores of 65, which helped Hampshire to victories.

Later career

After he retired from professional cricket, Murtagh became an English teacher and cricket master at Malvern College. He stayed there for 30 years.
Since his retirement from teaching, writing as Andrew Murtagh, he has written several biographies of cricketers:
His nephews, Tim and Chris Murtagh, have played first-class and List-A cricket - Tim for Surrey, Middlesex and Ireland, Chris for Surrey.