OBITUARIES

Obituaries

Martin Stovold - 16/05/2012

Martin Stovold, the former Gloucestershire batsman who played for the county alongside his elder brother Andy, has died aged 56 after a lengthy illness.

Stovold played 25 first-class matches for Gloucestershire and 34 one-day games between 1978 and 1982. His highest first-class score was 75 not out against Oxford University in The Parks, April 1980.

Stovold, a left handed batsman and occasional off-spinner, followed Andy to Loughborough Colleges in 1974 where he qualified as a teacher and then joined the staff at Cotham Grammar School in Bristol where he taught PE and geography.

He made his first team debut against Essex in a Player League match at Gloucester in 1978 and combined playing for Gloucestershire with coaching at Wynberg School in Cape Town, where he nurtured the talent of the young Jacques Kallis, during the winter months.

Stovold continued to coach at Wynberg after he was released by Gloucestershire but he returned to England as cricket professional at Cheltenham College in 1986 and became master in charge of cricket seven years later.

Cheltenham produced future Gloucestershire players, Mike Cawdron and Dominic Hewson, while Stovold was in charge of cricket, and improvements to the pavilion and scoreboard at the College Ground were driven by him.

He also taught geography at Cheltenham and was a much respected Housemaster of Newick, carrying out his College duties until a few days before his death, from a debilitating lung disease.

Dr Alex Peterken, Headmaster of Cheltenham College said, “Martin was one of the most dedicated teachers in the College's long history and inspiration to generations of young people as a Housemaster, Geography teacher and Master in charge of Cricket.

“Just last week he emailed staff from his hospital bed to lament the effect the wet weather was having on the College’s cricket schedule. ‘The tide will turn and the sun will shine’ he said. These proved to be his last public words and the sun now shines on his memory.” 

Louis Vorster - 19/04/2012

Louis Vorster, who was shot dead by armed robbers at a petrol station in between Pretori and Johannesburg, was a batsman who played one first-class match for Worcestershire against the West Indies at New Road in 1988.

Vorster, 45, also played county Second Xi cricket for Worcestershire in 1988, as well as for Warwickshire in 1987.

He enjoyed a long and varied first-class career that began with his debut for Transvaal B against Eastern Province B at the Wanderers in 1985 and ended in October 2009, during a spell as player/coach with Namibia in October 2009.

Vorster played first-class cricket for ten different sides in four countries and scored almost 2,000 runs in 95 matches, including seven centuries. His highest score was 188 for Northern Transvaal B against Orange Free State B in 1993.

His only appearance for Worcestershire came in rain-blighted tour match, dominated by Graeme Hick’s 172.

Vorster, who worked as a cattle and game farmer, was shot dead on Tuesday April 17 as he pulled out of a filling station.

Jack Watson - 19/03/2012

Durham is mourning Jack Watson, who was their oldest surviving former player and President of the Durham Old Players’ Association, who has died at the age of 90.

Watson played Minor Counties cricket for Durham and Northumberland but his career also included two List A matches, both in the 9164 Gillette Cup.

He did not bat or bowl in the seven wickets win over Hertfordshire in the first round at Darlington and he went wicketless and finished two not out as Durham were beaten by 200 runs by Sussex at Hove in the next round.

Watson, an off-spinner, played 131 matches for Durham between 1945 and 1966 and 75 matches for Northumberland between 1949 and 1955.

His best Durham figures were eight for 88 against Staffordshire at Walsall in 1953 with his highest Minor Counties  score of 102 coming for Northumberland against Lancashire’s Second XI at Jesmond in 1954.

He continued to play league cricket into his seventies and also worked as a football scout for a number of clubs including Middlesbrough, Darlington and Sunderland. 

Geoff Hill - 19/03/2012

Former Warwickshire left arm spinner, Geoff Hill, has died aged 77 after a lengthy illness.

Hill made the first of his 42 first-class appearances for the Combined Services against Warwickshire at the Mitchells and Butlers’ Ground in Edgbaston in 1957 when he opened the bowling and claimed Tom Cartwright as the first of his 108 wickets.

He made his Warwickshire debut against Leicestershire at Edgbaston the following summer and went on to play 41 times for the county, scoring 247 runs and taking 107 wickets for them.

Hill took three five wicket hauls, the best of them eight for 70 in a draw with Gloucestershire at Cheltenham in August 1958 when his victims included Arthur Milton, Tom Graveney and George Emmett.

Hill played for Warwickshire until 1960 but he retained close links with the county as a regular attender of Warwickshire Old County Cricketers’ Association functions.

His funeral will take place at Whitechapel Church near Preston in Lancashire on March 27 (12 noon).

Simon Massey - 23/01/2012

Simon Massey, who spent three seasons on Hampshire’s staff between 1980 and 1982, has died aged 50 from a suspected heart problem.

Massey, a right hand batsman and off-spinner, took four five wicket hauls for Hampshire’s Second XI, three of them in 1980 including seven for 49 against Essex at Northlands Road.

After he was released by Hampshire, Massey had second team trials with Worcestershire, Somerset and Derbyshire and he also played Minor Counties Cricket for Berkshire from 1987 to 1988.

He played club cricket for New Milton, with whom he won the Hampshire League Batting Award in 1999, and Finchampstead.

Massey later qualified as a coach and he worked at the Ken Barrington Centre at The Oval and in Surrey’s coach education programme.

01/01/2012

Northamptonshire are mourning three of their former players, whose deaths have just been made known to the club.

Doug Greasley, a middle order batsman and slow left-arm bowler, died in Northampton last month, aged 85.

Greasley, a Yorkshireman from Hull, made his debut against his native county in 1950 and went on to make 58 appearances for Northamptonshire.

He scored 1,659 runs - including 104 not out against Leicestershire in 1951, in only his fourth Championship match - and also took 16 wickets.

After he was released at the end of the 1955 season, Greasley spent a decade playing and coaching club cricket in Scotland.

John Swinburne, another Yorkshireman, passed away in September aged 71.

Swinburne, a schoolteacher, joined Northamptonshire in 1970 after he impressed playing Minor Counties cricket for Devon.

He played 29 times for the County, mostly in 1970 and 1971, and claimed 83 wickets, including 6-57 against Warwickshire in 1971.

Swinburne returned briefly to the club in 1974, taking 5-22 to help Bishan Bedi dismiss Nottinghamshire for just 67. He later returned to Minor Counties cricket with Shropshire.

Eddie Davis, the younger brother of another County stalwart, Percy, died in July at the age of 89.

Brackley-born Davis made 104 first-class appearances for Northamptonshire as a batsman, between 1947 and 1956, scoring just over 4,000 runs including three centuries.

His career-best score of 171 came against Leicestershire at Northampton in 1949.

After leaving Wantage Road, Davis became a club professional at Wisbech CC and turned out for Cambridgeshire in the Minor Counties Championship.

Roy Tattersall Obituary - 9/12/12

Roy Tattersall, the former Lancashire and England off-spinner, has died aged 89.

Bolton-born Tattersall played a prominent role in helping Lancashire share the County Championship with Surrey in 1950, by taking 193 wickets at an average of 13.59. He was voted the first-ever Cricketers' Club Young Cricketer of the Year for his efforts, in 1950.

He was called up as a replacement for the following winter’s Ashes tour and made the first of his 16 England appearances in the fourth Test in Adelaide.

He took four five wicket hauls in Test cricket, including seven for 52 and a match return of 12 for 101 against South Africa at Lord’s in 1951.

Tattersall was eventually replaced by Jim Laker as England’s first choice off-spinner but he continued to play for Lancashire until 1960. He came out of retirement to make a farewell appearance for the MCC against Lanacsshire at Old Trafford in 1964.

Tattersall took 1,369 first-class wickets, with a career-best of nine for 40 against Nottinghamshire at Old Trafford in 1953.

Tattersall subsequently settled in Kidderminster with his wife Phyllis, and continued to follow Lancashire's fortunes with keen interest.

He recently contributed a foreword to a book, that has just been published, to celebrate Lancashire's County Championship success last season.

Basil D’Oliveira Obituary - 21/11/11

Basil D’Oliveira, the former Worcestershire and England all-rounder who unwittingly found himself at the centre of a political stand-off, has died aged 80 after a lengthy illness.

D’Oliveira passed away in his adopted city of Worcester from Parkinson’s disease, said his son Damian, a former Worcestershire batsman and now the county’s academy director.

D’Oliveira found himself in the headlines in the autumn of 1968 when he was surprisingly omitted from England’s squad for their winter tour of South Africa, but then called up as a replacement, after Warwickshire seamer Tom Cartwright withdrew because of injury.

But, South Africa’s right wing regime under Prime Minister John Vorster announced that they would refuse D’Oliveira entry to his native country and the tour was called off by the MCC, beginning many years of cricketing and sporting ostracism for South Africa.

D’Oliveira had few opportunities to progress as a cricketer in a segregated sporting system, though his performances for the St Augustine’s club and the South Africa Non-European team brought him to the attention of cricket broadcaster John Arlott.

With the help of John Kay, then cricket correspondent of the Manchester Evening News, D’Oliveira was offered a professional’s job at Middleton in the Central Lancashire League. With the fundraising efforts from his team-mates at St Augustine’s he was able to start a new and successful life in England.

England batsman Tom Graveney persuaded Worcestershire to sign D’Oliveira, having played alongside him in representative sides in Kenya and Pakistan, though he had to spend a year qualifying to play competitive county cricket.

D’Oliveira divided his time between county Second XI cricket and Middleton and was 32 when he made his county debut against Australia at New Road in 1964.

Within two years he was playing for England as a powerful back foot batsman and useful change bowler who could bowl swing or off-spin as conditions demanded. He averaged 40 in his 44 Tests and helped England win the Ashes in Australia in 1971/72 and retain them the following summer under the captaincy of Ray Illingworth.

He was dropped after the first Test of the 1968 Ashes but recalled for the fifth at the Oval on the recommendation of Graveney, after Roger Prideaux withdrew through injury.

D’Oliveira made 158, his highest Test score, but was not included in the tour party for South Africa which was announced shortly afterwards, ostensibly because his bowling would not have been suited to South Africa conditions.

During a 25 year career D’Oliveira scored almost 19,500 first-class runs and took 551 wickets. He scored 3,770 runs and took 190 wickets in one-day cricket.

D’Oliveira retired from playing at the end of 1979 but continued his involvement with Worcestershire as senior coach.

Damian D’Oliveira followed his father into Worcestershire’s first team and there is now another D’Oliveira on the county’s staff. Damian’s son Brett, a talented leg-spinner, made his senior debut in a CB40 match against Yorkshire at Headingley in August.

Brett is spending the winter playing for his grandfather’s old club St Augustine’s in Cape Town but will fly home to attend the family funeral.

Peter Roebuck Obituary - 14/11/11

Peter Roebuck, the former Somerset captain and batsman, has died in Cape Town aged 55.  

Roebuck, who was covering the South Africa v Australia Test series for the Sydney Morning Herald and the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, died at a hotel close to the Newlands ground. He is believed to have committed suicide.

Roebuck was a solid but effective batsman who scored more than 17,500 first-class runs in a 17 year career that began at Cambridge University where he graduated with a first in Law.

He passed 1,000 runs nine times in 12 seasons and given his solid dependability it was a surprise that he did not win a Test cap though he did captain England XI in two one-day matches in Holland.

He was part of the star-studded Somerset side that won five limited overs trophies between 1979 and 1983 but Ian Botham, Joel Garner and Viv Richards could not prevent them from slumping to bottom of the County Championship in 1985.

Roebuck took over as captain the following season and Somerset rose only one place in the table. Civil war broke out when Roebuck secured backing for Richards and Garner to be sacked as overseas players which prompted Botham to resign in support of his friends.

The departure of Richards and Garner was confirmed at a special general meeting and Botham subsequently signed for Worcestershire.

Roebuck was billed as the villain of the piece but he remained a consummate professional and averaged 40 in four consecutive seasons from 1984 to 1987. He was named as one of Wisden’s Five Cricketers of the Year in 1988.

Millfield-educated Roebuck retired from first-class cricket but he enjoyed a successful career in Minor Counties cricket with Devon, captaining them to four successive championships from 1994 along with two one-day crowns.

He forged a new and successful career as a cricket journalist and broadcaster, writing perceptively and trenchantly for a number of publications including the Sydney Morning Herald and Melbourne Age. He also wrote a number of well received cricket books.

Peter Roebuck was one of six children born to two teachers. One of his brothers Paul also played first-class cricket for Cambridge University, Gloucestershire and Glamorgan.

Graham Dilley - 06/10/11 

Graham Dilley, the former England, Kent and Worcestershire fast bowler, has died aged 52 after a short and brave battle against cancer.

The father of four passed away at a hospice in Leicester after he was taken ill in Loughborough, where he had spent eleven years working as the director of cricket at the university.

Dilley played 42 Tests and 36 One Day International for England between 1979 and 1989 but he is probably best remembered for the innings he played in the 1981 Ashes Test at Headingley.

Dilley matched Ian Botham blow-for-blow in his swashbuckling 56 - his highest Test score - in an eighth wicket partnership of 117 in just 80 minutes which transformed the match in the most dramatic fashion. Dilley ‘s lack of wickets in the series meant that he was dropped for the next Test.

Born and raised in Dartford, Dilley trained as a diamond cutter at a Hatton Garden jewellers from where he was called up by Kent for his first-class debut in 1977.

Within two years he was making his international Test debut in Australia as a 20-year-old. If it wasn't for neck and knee injuries, Dilley would probably have played more international cricket.

He took 138 Test wickets including six five wicket hauls, the best being six for 38 against New Zealand in 1988.

He left Kent for Worcestershire in 1987 and helped his second county win successive County Championships in 1988 and 1989 during a golden era at New Road.

Injuries brought Dilley's playing career to a premature end in 1992 and he then forged a second career as a coach working at various times for Cheltenham College, Surrey, England Women and as a bowling coach to the England senior side in India in 2001/02.

He settled longest at Loughborough where the University attained first-class status during his time in charge and he was responsible for the development of the likes of Monty Panesar, Jimmy Anyon, Ruel Brathwaite, Jimmy Adams and, mostly recently, Leicestershire allrounder, Rob Taylor.

Graham Dilley was twice divorced and leaves four children including Chris Pennell, captain of Premiership Rugby Club, Worcester Warriors.

Elvis Reifer – 21/09/11

Elvis Reifer, who played for Hampshire as an overseas player in 1984, has died at his home in Barbados aged 50.
 
Reifer was a surprise choice as a locum overseas player while Malcolm Marshall was touring England with the West Indies as he had played no first-class cricket before he joined Hampshire.
 
He took eight wickets in his debut match against Cambridge University but his figures in the students' first innings - four for 43 - proved to be his best in his 20 matches for the county.

Reifer was not retained at the end of 1984 and he went on to play one more first-class match, for Barbados against Trinidad & Tobago in 1986.
 
He came from a well-known cricketing family in Barbados five of whom played for first-class cricket for the island. His brothers Leslie and George played for Barbados, his nephew Floyd captained the West Indies against Bangladesh two years ago, and one of his sons Raymon plays for the Combined Campuses and Colleges.
 
Elvis Reifer's wife Carol Roberts is a well-known radio and television personality in Barbados.

Neal Abberley – 08/08/11

Warwickshire are mourning their batting coach and former batsman Neal Abberley, who died in hospital this morning aged 67.

Abberley had been battling with a lung condition for some time, but he had been working on a part-time basis in recent years. He was at Edgbaston for Warwickshire's most recent home championship match against Sussex.

Flags will be lowered to half-mast at Edgbaston for this week's third England v India Test, and England batsman Ian Bell, one of Abberley's many protégés, will wear a black arm band. India's fielding coach Trevor Penney also played for Warwickshire in the late 1980s, when Abberley was Warwickshire's Second XI coach.

Though Abberley's 16-year first-class playing record was modest (10,082 runs at an average of 24.47 and three centuries) he did tour Pakistan with a strong MCC Under-25 side – effectively England A – in 1967, though he suffered ill health on the trip.

He moved into coaching in 1980 and served Warwickshire for more than 30 years as Second XI coach and more recently with a roving brief working at all levels from senior to youth sides.

"To me he was a mentor, a confidante but, most of all, a friend," said Warwickshire's director of cricket Ashley Giles.

"We knew he was getting a little bit fragile but we didn't realise how fragile so his death has come as a shock to everyone.

"When I last spoke to him last week his concerns were for the team, not his own health, which typified Neal. The team always came first.

"He gave his life to Warwickshire and there are a lot of players who owe a huge debt of gratitude to him. He got a lot of us through.

"Without Neal Abberley I would not be Warwickshire's director of cricket and I would not have played 54 Tests for England.

"When I was first met him I was an 18-year-old triallist and I was still wet behind the ears having come from living at home with mum and dad.

"He helped me to grow up. He was old school and it was a tough school at times and a steep learning curve.

"But Neal was a great influence on me, and he set me on the road to where I am now."

Abberley passed 1,000 runs in a season three times, his best in 1966 when he made 1,315 runs including his highest score of 117 against Essex at Edgbaston.