Researching David Taylor

Taylor played for Hampshire's Second XI in 1993 at the age of 18, and the following year captained a National Association of Young Cricketers side against Minor Counties. He had a further outing for Gloucestershire seconds in 1995, but then dropped out of view for a while. In 1998 he played for Oxfordshire in the MCC Trophy, and three years later still he at last made his List A debut for the same county, against Huntingdonshire in the C&G Trophy at Vicarage Hill in East Challow (the only List A game ever played on that ground). It was not a happy occasion for Taylor: he made only 1 and Oxfordshire lost by 77 runs.

Taylor's next List A game, in the first round of the same competition in August 2002 (though because of the vagaries of the fixture list, this was in fact the start of the 2003 competition), saw him playing for Buckinghamshire, and making by far his highest score at this level: 140 in a huge total of 424/5 which set up a crushing 230-run triumph over Suffolk at Dinton. He also played in Buckinghamshire's much closer (11-run) victory over Shropshire in the second round in September.

For the 2003 season Taylor was signed by Worcestershire with an eye to the first season of the Twenty20 Cup. His first innings was exactly what the county had been hoping for: opening the batting he produced a whirlwind knock of 46 from 20 balls, making a major contribution towards Worcestershire's nail-biting one-wicket victory over Northamptonshire. Unfortunately for him, single-figure scores in three further Twenty20 (and one National League) match spelt the end for him at New Road.

In 2004, after a few games for Berkshire, Taylor was picked up by Derbyshire to play exclusively one-day cricket for the rest of the season; Derbyshire's coach David Houghton had played with Taylor in club cricket and admired his hard hitting.

However, he was not a success, with the only innings of real note being 29 against Middlesex in the totesport League: here he added 69 with Hassan Adnan after Derbyshire had slumped to 48/3. This proved to be Taylor's final innings for the county, however, since he was sacked by Houghton, who said that he had expected "fireworks rather than Polyfilla".

Since then, Taylor has not played at the highest level of the domestic game, although he did appear in a minor match for Minor Counties against Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) and for Surrey's second team against MCC Young Cricketers, both in 2005.

Following many years of successful club cricket, he set a world record in adult 50-over cricket by scoring 330 not out in just 160 balls for Totton & Eling cricket club on 5 May 2012. The number of sixes in the innings, 31, is also believed to be a world record.

Born in Forfar, Scotland in 1954, he was educated at the High School of Dundee before graduating from the University of Edinburgh with a degree in law. He qualified as a solicitor and practised law until 1985, during which time he added to his legal qualifications with an MSc in Economics and an MBA.

Taylor was appointed to General Secretary of UEFA on 1 June 2007, after the UEFA extraordinary congress in Zürich on 29 May 2007 voted to replace the role of Chief Executive with that of General Secretary. He held this position until October 2009, when he moved to a marketing position within UEFA. He was previously the Chief Executive of the Scottish Football Association (SFA).

He died at the age of 60 on 24 June 2014.

He was born in Keppel Township, Ontario, the son of George Taylor, and was educated in Wiarton. He returned to take over the operation of the family farm. He resigned his seat in 1934 to accept an appointment as Deputy Minister of Game and Fisheries.

Taylor was a founder member of the Green Party of England and Wales. In the 1980s, he founded the Green Gatherings festival, and also organised the litter picking at the Glastonbury Festival. He also organised the Bath Anti-Nuclear Group.

Taylor served as a Principal Speaker of the party from 1994 to 1997 alongside first Jan Clark and then Peg Alexander. During this time, he campaigned for a decentralised party, committed to non-violent direct action. He was a Green Party in Northern Ireland candidate for Belfast West at the Northern Ireland Forum election in 1996, on a list which took only 156 votes. At the 1997 general election, he stood in Yeovil, where he took 1.3% of the votes cast. He has also stood for the South West England European Parliament constituency at each election since 1999, heading the party list in 1999 and 2004. The lists took between 7 and 10% of the votes cast, but he was not elected.

Taylor also runs a conference centre and retreat in Somerset.