Des Cashell was ‘old school’ in every sense of the word, at ease in any company, the epitome of good manners and the ‘right thing to do’, someone for whom the ‘Spirit of Cricket’ needed no promotion, someone to whom it came as a matter of course.

The traditional starting point for every touring side to England was a fixture against the Duke of Norfolk’s XI and following the death of the 16th Duke a feature of Ireland’s bi-annual tour between 1985 and 1995 was a fixture against his widow Lavinia Duchess of Norfolk’s XI at the beautiful Arundel Castle ground.

With her eldest daughter Anne marrying Colin Cowdrey she had yet another reason to have an interest in the game and in him a ready-made taxi driver to ferry the Irish players kit bags from the Norfolk Arms to the ground.

Imagine the surprise to find Sir Colin, as he was by then, loading your bag into the back of his large estate car with personalised registration MCC 307 (his initials as luck would have it, and his highest first-class score) and then personally unloading it at the pavilion door for you.

Arundel never disappointed. Lavinia was amongst other things a St.Leger winning racehorse owner with horses in John Dunlop’s stables which are within the grounds of the Castle.

A visit to the stables on the walk to the ground from the hotel was mandatory and the tips from the stable lads funded many a post-match party over the years.

On one of the Irish visits a small group of ‘Blazers’ was advised by one of the household staff that the Duchess herself would be coming down from the castle shortly to see a little of the game and that there were a number of niceties in terms of protocol and mode of address which should be observed.

Sure enough as promised down the path came the Duchess, and the reception party readied themselves trying to remember their lines when, with a squeal of delight she skipped the last few yards and flung her arms around Des - “Oh Des, how delightful to see you again!”

The rest of the party were not so favoured but when the formalities were completed off trotted Des and the Duchess arm-in-arm discussing the chances of her runner in the 6.30 at Kempton that night.

My next favourite photograph is one I took of Des in the MCC Committee Room at Lord’s - sitting in an armchair beside the open window with a view over the ground.

I couldn’t imagine anyone more at home in those surroundings it is almost a ‘Master of all he surveys’ pic - and who that knew him would argue against that.