Mike Groves
cricketer
Michael Godfrey Melvin Groves (born 14 January 1943) is a former cricketer who played first-class cricket for Western Province, Oxford University, Somerset County Cricket Club, Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) and the Free Foresters between 1961 and 1968. He was born at Taihape, Manawatu, New Zealand.
Cricket career
The son of Henry Basil Melvin Groves, an Englishman whose single first-class cricket appearance came in India, Mike Groves was born in New Zealand but brought up in South Africa, where he was educated at Diocesan College, Cape Town. Usually a right-handed middle-order batsman and irregular right-arm medium-pace bowler, he played a single match as an 18-year-old in 1960/61 for Western Province as an opening batsman, scoring 5 and 45. He then came to England and played occasional amateur first-class matches in 1962 before going to Oxford University in autumn 1962 as an undergraduate at St Edmund Hall.
Over the next four cricket seasons, Groves played regularly for Oxford University's first eleven cricket team, but in 1963, despite finishing fourth in the university's batting averages with 485 runs at an average of 26.94 runs per innings, he was left out of the team for the University Match and did not win a Blue. His highest score in the season was an unbeaten 74 in the match against Northamptonshire. In 1964, he failed to match either the aggregate or the average, and his only score of 50 or more for the season was 61, but he retained his place through the Oxford season and was awarded a Blue, scoring eight and 10 not out and taking a single wicket, that of Richard Hutton, in the match.
Groves played his single full season of first-class cricket in 1965 and had his best year, with 1048 runs at an average of 29.11. He topped the Oxford batting averages with 743 runs at an average of 32.30 and made 69 and 81, his highest score for the university, in the match against Sussex which came immediately before the University Match.
The public source identifies “Mike Groves” as cricketer. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Mike, Groves and cricketer.
Why this record matters
A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Mike Groves”, the useful work is to connect “cricketer” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.
The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 7, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q6847087. 2 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 1 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1943, 1961, 1968 and 1960.
A concise general-reference account can conceal disagreements about scope, terminology or the weight assigned to individual sources. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.
- Subject orientation
- Search vocabulary
- Locating named sources
The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Mike Groves”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Mike Groves primary sources, Mike Groves archive and Mike research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Mike Groves”?
- What terminology or title could unlock a more precise catalogue search?
- Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Mike Groves” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.