This is a lovely story sent to us by a member of staff at the Braemar Lodge Care Home, Salisbury and thanks also go to Keith Templeman at the Somerset Stragglers Club for his help in the research……
“For the last two years, Anthony Collyns has lived at Braemar Lodge Care Home in Salisbury. It was very clear, right from his early days in the home, that he has a passion for cricket. Anthony often speaks fondly of his time playing with the Somerset Stragglers in the middle of the last century. ‘I had many happy times at the club, both playing and watching.’
At the time, (mid 1959s) Anthony was serving in the Somerset Light Infantry (later becoming the Somerset and Cornwall Light Infantry) and would play with the Stragglers whenever he was back at base in Taunton, or on one occasion for the SLI v Stragglers.
One of the Companions at Braemar Lodge decided to contact the Somerset Cricket Museum to find out what memorabilia there might be about Anthony, and his brother Napier who also played.
Using Stragglers memorabilia including the book on their history 1900-2000 and yearbooks, they did some research and produced several pages of information, with statistics on matches that Anthony had played in – including one where he scored a century.
Anthony’s daughter also brought in a replica plaque from the Somerset CCC Legends Wall, where he and his brother are listed (see photos above). We presented these finds to Anthony, in front of some of his fellow residents, who were impressed with his achievements. Anthony was very touched for the research done, and we thank everyone so much for their work in finding this for him.”
Can anyone add to this story….?
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