A Hertfordshire man who waited 365 years to become a member of the world's top cricket club has died two weeks after realising his ambition.
Nathaniel Mousehole, of Hatfield, had been waiting to join the MCC ever since his name was added to the membership waiting list on the day he was born in 1746. But he was always let down by the mortality of his sponsors.
On his birthday his father, Sir Francis, an officer with Munro's Foot regiment, was in Scotland with the Duke of Cumberland, about to defeat Bonnie Prince Charlie at the battle of Culloden. He had left instructions that if his pregnant wife had a boy, his name was to be put on the membership waiting list at Lord's.
Nathaniel's neice, Laura, told us: "Uncle Nat was always optimistic about becoming a member - he never let it get him down. But every time he got to the top of the waiting list, he'd find that both his sponsors had died.
"Without valid sponsors, he went back to the bottom of the list and had to find two more.
"But this year he made it and he enjoyed a drink in the Long Room Bar the day before he died."
The MCC has 22,000 members and there is an 18-year waiting list to join, though this is getting longer as the population ages.
A spokesman at Lord's said: "For Heaven's sake, have you any idea what you're talking about?
"Surely the application of the most basic journalistic standards would have led you to the information that Mr Mousehole could not have had his name put down in 1746 because the MCC was not founded until 1787.
"Furthermore, he wouldn't have gone to the bottom of the list if his sponsors had died, two more could easily be found.
"And have you even addressed the issue of his age?
"Get lost."
