Don Oakes captained the AP 1st XI for four seasons from 1968 to 1971, taking the Club to the final of the Kemps Cup at The Oval ground on 8 September 1968.

A great servant of the club, who demonstrated dogged determination and sheer guts while fighting arthritis and, ultimately, cancer, Don died on 13 June 1977, at the age of 48.

On 7 July 1980, the Don Oakes Award memorial board was placed in the Clubhouse as a tribute from the membership. At the close of each season, the cricket committee decide whom among the Club’s players produced the most outstanding individual personal performance during the season. On one occasion it was a player recording his first century at the age of 66. Another time it was a player taking all ten of the opposition’s wickets. The player’s name is inscribed on the board in gold leaf for all to see.