The last 10 years has seen the loss of some well loved members of our club.
Here are some details of those we should never forget
It should go without saying, that all of these embraced the ethos of The Vagabonds Cricket Club, not least the social side of matters. In fact it is probably be fair to say that most excelled more in this area than on the field of play !
Tony Gray
In happier times ...
Peter Knatchbull-Hugessen
Peter was an honorary member of the Vagabonds C.C. and a great enthusiast of the club and its ethos. As stepfather to Will,Hugh, and Alex Crichton- Stuart he often turned up at Bentworth to watch Will and Hugh play.
I fondly recall the times we lunched with Peter and Anna Rose prior to our Ropley CC fixture, and in particular the occasion I asked whether he would like to become an honorary member of our club. His reply was decidedly in the affirmative. I then produced a Vags tie for him whereupon he wrenched off his MCC tie, tossed in the direction of the swimming pool, and wore it from then on at every Vagabond occasion, and apparently at Lords too !
I know that Peter was well into his 90's when he died so he had, as we say, a good innings. He will always be remembered by those ho knew him as the personification of a 'gentleman', impeccably mannered, kind, hospitable, and courteous to a fault : he belonged to a bygone age and represented the best of it.
His was a good life.
Barrie Walshe February 2008
Andy Geach
Andrew
James Geach
28th
May 1971 - 11th June 2007
Vagabond
Member from 1995 to 2007
I regret it is my duty to write this obituary for I
fear that I may never find the words that truly
convey both my own sense of loss, and that of all
the club's members who felt so much affection and
respect for this remarkable man.
Andy's admission to hospital a couple of years back
for a suspected appendicitis, that on his awakening
from surgery turned out to be advanced terminal
cancer, was a horror story too difficult to imagine
: " Oh well, I've always wanted to go to Disneyland
" was his immediate reply to his surgeon ! This was
typical of Andy, not bravado, but an attitude that
rode any ill luck that life threw at him with his
usual brand of sharp humour backed by no little
courage.
From day one Andy fought his cancer and later was
fortunate enough to find love with his nurse
Catherine who in turn loved and cared for him until
the end : I am sure everyone is aware of all the
hard work they both did for the NET Patient
Foundation Charity, and how physically taxing this
must have been for Andy at the time.
Andy was a tremendously enthusiastic member of the
club and loved it's ethos, his own contribution as
a player and social member was incalculable, on the
field of play he will best be remembered for his
canny bowling, and his great wit, from which no one
was immune ! For him cricket, and it's aftermath,
was fun, and he made it so for everyone who played
alongside, and against him - he undoubtedly
epitomised the vagabond club spirit more so than
any other member ever had, or ever will, and that
is saying something !
Affectionately known as Aardvark to his friends,
Captain Courageous, or Mister Mischievous would
have been equally applicable - some of my fondest
memories when wandering down Vagabond Lane are of
the many 90's cricket tours we enjoyed,and of the
post match drinking and clowning in favoured
watering holes, with Andy nearly always being the
central character to all the wild and humorous
activities one associates with Vagabond cricket
tours.
For myself it still hurts to think of him, yet I
feel honoured to have known him and counted myself
a friend of his, Andy's life was tragically short,
but very full, he packed a lot in and created a
happier world for all who knew him. His sort are
very rare and we are all a little richer for the
knowing of him, Andy, thank you for all you gave,
you will never be forgotten.
Barrie.
Joey Lonsdale
Joey died suddenly through a building accident. He was in his late forties.
Sir Derek March
Chris Lentz
Eric Flynn
Eric's Obituary from the Daily Telegraph
ERIC FLYNN, who has died aged 62, was a fine male lead in many West End musicals, including Irene, Side by Side by Sondheim, Calamity Jane and Annie Get Your Gun; he was the original Bobby in Stephen Sondheim's Company and became known to a wider audience when he played Ivanhoe in the BBC's television adaptation of 1970.
Company - entirely set in the moment that Bobby, a bachelor who could not commit himself romantically, took to blow out the candles on his birthday cake - was one of the most innovative musicals of the 20th century.
Flynn was immediately at home in the part, forming afterwards a special affinity with Sondheim's work. He also shone in revivals of more traditional shows.
Over the years, Flynn numbered Julia McKenzie, the American pop singer Suzi Quatro and Barbara Windsor among his leading ladies. Eric William Flynn was born on December 13 1939 on Hainan Island in China, where his father was a Customs officer for the Hong Kong government.
After the outbreak of war, young Eric spent his earliest years interned with his family in a Japanese prisoner of war camp in China - an experience which he was to revisit 50 years later when he played a British prisoner in Stephen Spielberg's film Empire of The Sun.
Eric returned to Britain at the age of 13, and was educated at Chatham House School, Ramsgate, from which he gained a scholarship to Rada, where he met his first wife Fern. After Rada, Flynn was awarded a contract by Granada and presented and sang in shows which featured many of the early popular recording artists.
In 1961 Flynn began his stage career with the Royal Shakespeare Company, playing Amiens in their production of As You Like It, starring Vanessa Redgrave as Rosalind. In 1962-3 he worked at the Old Vic with Tyrone Guthrie and Michael Elliott and played Bassanio in The Merchant of Venice.
He produced a fine performance in the RSC's production of Brecht's Caucasian Chalk Circle (Aldwych, 1962) and the following year appeared alongside Charlie Drake at the Palladium in The Man in the Moon.
In 1964, he was engaged by an unlikely group of angels - the Moral Rearmament Association - to play a Christ-figure in Mr Brown Comes Down the Hill at the Westminster Theatre, which the MRA then owned. It was filmed the following year.
After The March Girl (Leatherhead, 1965), the next year Flynn returned to the West End as a caddish, lecherous drunk in The Professor at the Royal Court, and appeared in the comedy Sweet Fanny Adams at the Theatre Royal, Stratford East, with Ronnie Barker.
By this time, Flynn had already appeared in a number of films, and was constantly in demand. He had taken roles in The Avengers and Dr Who and, in 1962, Dr Syn and The Silent Invasion.
He was also engaged, in 1966, by Anglia Television for a part in Weaver's Green, a short-lived rural competitor for Coronation Street, in which Flynn played the eager young partner of a country vet.
Despite this promising scenario - later to prove such a success for All Creatures Great and Small - the series did not prosper. That year, his "believable blend of baffled irritation and sympathy" in Richard Lortz's The Others (Leatherhead) was much admired.
In 1970, Flynn played Larry, the politically conscientious lead in Terry Hughes and Alan Fluck's musical version of Love On The Dole at Nottingham Playhouse, and burst on to television screens as Ivanhoe.
The series - broadcast during the BBC's prime slot for costume drama, tea time on a Sunday - was their first such programme to be shown in colour, and Flynn proved an "agile and resourceful hero", according to The Daily Telegraph. The Radio Times billed him as "a knight to remember".
Flynn's subsequently concentrated on musicals, in which his fine baritone voice was always in demand. As well as Company, he appeared in Irene (Adelphi, 1975) with Jon Pertwee, and his rendition of Anyone Can Whistle was one of the highlights of Ned Sherrin's 1978 production of Side by Side by Sondheim at the Garrick.
He played Wild Bill Hickock alongside Barbara Windsor in Calamity Jane at Croydon in 1979, and again put on a cowboy hat as Frank in Annie Get Your Gun (Aldwych, 1986), opposite Suzi Quatro.
In 1989, he was much admired as the Count in a revival of Sondheim's Little Night Music at Chichester, which transferred to the Piccadilly Theatre.
Flynn, usually known to friends as "Paddy", lived at Ide Hill, near Sevenoaks, for more than 20 years and was a stalwart of the village cricket team, batting and bowling with the same carefree spirit in which he played the swashbuckling Ivanhoe.
He also discovered the north coast of Pembrokeshire, where he had a holiday home and where the peace was disturbed only by Ide Hill's riotous bi-annual cricket tours.
Flynn met his second wife while touring in South Africa, where he lived and worked for five years in the early 1980s. They then settled in Pembrokeshire, where they restored a Georgian mansion, which Flynn intended to run as a guest house and pottery studio.
The peace there and his annual retreats in India enabled him to face his final illness with great fortitude. He married, first, in 1959, Fern Warner; they had two sons, the actors Daniel Flynn and Jerome Flynn - who, with Robson Green, scored a number one hit with Unchained Melody - and a daughter.
After the marriage was dissolved in 1980, he married, secondly, in 1981, Caroline Forbes, with whom he had a son and a daughter.
George Kempster
David Owens
Janet Chaffey
Wife of Stan (a club founder member and captain for 7 years) and mother to Mark and Raymond, both of whom played for the Vagabonds.
Janet provided teas for the club for some 10 years and set the high standards that Gareth later emulated. Janet displayed a deep affection for the Vagabonds Cricket Club members and loved the concept that inspired it's inception. Janet passed away in 1994 after a long battle against illness during which time she showed great fortitude and spirit - I do not know her exact age but suspect she was in her early fifties.
I was one of many priviged to have known her ...she was a true Vagabond soul.