Early Career
Rogers was born at Muswell Hill. A fair-haired right-handed middle-order batsman who sometimes opened the innings, Stuart Rogers was educated at Highgate School and went to Cambridge University before joining the Chindits during the Second World War. He played in the wartime university match against Oxford University in 1942.
After one first-class appearance in India in 1946-47, he joined Somerset as an amateur player in 1948, appearing in seven matches but making little impact. The following year, Rogers played 13 times, appearing in two periods of the season. In June, he made his first three 50s, with 54 against the New Zealanders, 51 against Gloucestershire and 61 against Hampshire in successive matches. He was less successful in August, when the efforts of other amateurs helped Somerset to overcome the handicap of losing 15 out of 26 County Championship matches, as many as any other county side, and finish joint ninth out of 17.
At the end of the 1949 season, George Woodhouse, the Somerset captain, retired to the family brewery business. Somerset, who had struggled through 1948 under a series of temporary captains, were not keen to repeat the experience. Rogers was the only available amateur willing to commit to a full season, and was duly appointed captain for 1950.
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