Saunders attended Lancing College, where he played for the First XI and was selected to keep wicket for the Southern Schools against The Rest in their annual match at Lord's in 1958 and 1959.
[4] He was a neat keeper who conceded few byes (none at all in the University Match), but his batting was unproductive and he usually went in at number 10 or 11.
He was the chairman of the Independent Schools Football Association from 1982 to 2003, greatly expanding the scope of its activities.
In an after-dinner speech to the Worshipful Company of Feltmakers in 2013 he urged his audience to "avoid being like a thrombosis – a bloody clot that circulates around the system".
[8] His son Jonny is a former radio presenter who is now, as his father was, a housemaster at Bradfield College.