Rupert Webb: Sussex cricket legend who starred in ‘Four Weddings and a Funeral’

The veteran wicketkeeper, who in later years acted, was involved in a headline-grabbing row over a dropped catch that allegedly cost his team the County Championship in 1954

Webb, who performed for the club between 1948 and 1960, disputed the claims made against him by his former captain in 2004 (Rex)

Rupert Webb’s career as the Sussex wicketkeeper for more than a decade did not qualify him as one of cricket’s quirkier characters – the summer game produces a disproportionately high number of oddballs and eccentrics. His later life, however, was replete with peculiar twists and turns.

Webb, who was Sussex’s oldest living ex-player until his death at the age of 96, made more headlines than he ever did as a player when he became embroiled in a row with a one-time county colleague over an alleged incident more than half a century ago. He also had an acting role in what became the highest grossing British film in history. And he was married for 38 years to a woman who once turned down a marriage proposal from rock’n’roll royalty.

The dispute with his former captain Robin Marlar over an alleged dropped catch by Webb in 1954 was bizarre for several reasons. It remained dormant until 2004 when Marlar, who had gone on to become cricket correspondent for the Sunday Times from 1970 to 1996, wrote an article for Wisden, the sports bible, to mark Sussex’s success in winning the County Championship in 2003 for the first time in the club’s 164-year history.

Marlar lamented that the long wait might have ended half a century earlier but for Webb supposedly spilling a catch offered by the Yorkshire batsman Vic Wilson off his bowling at Hastings. Webb, who had caught Wilson off Marlar’s off-spin in the first innings, was initially upset, later becoming angry. “The batsman got a thick edge and it dropped short of first slip,” he recalled. “I had nothing to do with it. It wasn’t even a chance.”

Sussex asked the curator of its museum to try to resolve the issue. He trawled the archives, noting that the club scorer in the mid-1950s was renowned for an attention to detail which included recording dropped catches. He found no mention of such a mistake by Webb, adding that other players who took part in the match had no recollection of any fumble.

Webb attributed the claims to Marlar’s background at Harrow and Cambridge, saying: “He thought he was better than everybody else.” His adversary said simply: “The facts are the facts.” The facts of the Harrow-born Webb’s career with Sussex between 1948 and his retirement in 1960 reveal a wicketkeeping specialist – in 255 first-class appearances he made 129 stumpings – and a batsman who never passed the 50 mark. He also took one wicket as a bowler.

After hanging up his gloves Webb became manager of a fuel company. Later his greying matinee-idol looks earned him work in modelling, while in the 1994, he played the father of Hugh Grant’s jilted bride in Four Weddings and a Funeral. By then he was married to actress Barbara Whatley, 80, who survives him (she famously once turned down a marriage proposal from Elvis Presley). The couple renewed their vows on their 30th wedding anniversary in 2013.

Webb was a regular spectator at Sussex matches, having also served Seaford as a player and president. When he turned 90 the county held a luncheon in his honour. Ms Whatley said of Marlar’s absence: “Oh dear. Perhaps his invitation got dropped on the way to the post box.”

Rupert Thomas Webb, cricketer, actor and model, born 11 July 1922, died 27 August 2018