Researching Ian Hunter

He marked the start of his career with impressive try scoring feats (2 on debut and another in his second test) but was controversially dropped from the England side after his 3rd test in favour of Tony Underwood following the 10-9 loss to Wales.

He did not feature regularly for the England side after that but played numerous games for Northampton Saints and was selected for the 1993 British Lions tour to New Zealand. However, injury cruelly struck on the Lions Tour and he was the first player sent home through injury when he dislocated his shoulder in a tackle in the first game against Northland.

His seventh and final appearance for England came against France in the 1995 World Cup.

His shoulder never properly healed enough to stand the demands of top class rugby and he retired from the game in 2001.

Ian was noted throughout his career for being remarkably fit - in 1993 he finished top of the England Squad on the much-vaunted VO2 test.

Hunter first played for Durham during the 1997 Second XI Championship, taking a wicket in a draw against Hampshire's Second XI. He played consistently in the Second XI for six years. Hunter was released by Durham in 2003 and played briefly for Cumberland in the Minor Counties Championship Eastern Division, before being given a two-year contract by Derbyshire.

Hunter is colourblind and has admitted he finds playing cricket indoors to be a struggle.

In 1999 Hunter played in three youth Test matches against Australia Under-19s.

Mott the Hoople achieved some commercial success, and attracted a small but devoted fan base. As a solo artist, Hunter charted with lesser-known but more wide-ranging works outside the rock mainstream. His best-known solo songs are "Once Bitten, Twice Shy", later covered by Great White, and "England Rocks", which was modified to "Cleveland Rocks" and then covered by The Presidents of the United States of America, and became one of the theme songs used for the American TV series The Drew Carey Show.

Hunter was born in Leeds, Yorkshire, but his family moved to Scarborough. He studied at the Scarborough School of Art. His friend Ian Parkinson inspired him to be an artist and they both studied at the Leicester College of Art and Design. He became a lecturer at the Luton School of Art, the Guildford School of Art and the Farnham College of Art. He was based for a year at Stout University, Menomonie, Wisconsin, in the United States. He then moved to the Falmouth School of Art and the Cheltenham School of Art, where he became the Head of Fine Art. In the 1980s, he became the Dean of Art at Central St Martins. He was appointed as a full professor, but took early retirement. Later he was Head of Fine Art at the Winchester College of Art, before moving to southern Spain in 1999 where he joined the Andalucian International Artists group and became a member of the Asociacion Espanola de Pintores y Escultures.

Hunter mainly painted in oils, typically including human figures, but also produced sculptures using wood and canvas. At the age of 73, he started to paint using an iPad, influenced by David Hockney. At the end of his life, he moved to Scotland. He exhibited widely, including at the Barbican Centre, Hayward Gallery, and Royal Academy of Arts in London. He held a major solo exhibition in 1983 at Newlyn Art Gallery in Cornwall.

Ian Hunter met his first wife Maureen Blowman in Scarborough and they married in 1960. He married his second wife Susie Lee in 1975.