This week we lost a young Club member who made an immense impact on his team mates in the short time he was with us.
I have known Stefan (or “Frenchie”, as we called him; our first – and only – French-born cricketer) for 8 years, from when he joined the club as a cheeky member of the junior section.
Stefan grew from the cheeky Colt to be a fine young man, a source of genuine human warmth and good humour, who could share a joke with his team mates or the opposition, who always played the game the right way – to win, yes, but not at any cost.
I last played with him just 7 weeks’ ago, in our final League game of 2014. Stefan opened the batting and top scored for us; we could not quite find a way to win the game (our opponents might just as well say that we just managed to save the game)…good cricket, played in a great spirit. Most games with Stefan felt like that.
The Club lost two senior members in the last year – players the Club has known for 40 or 50 years, who have played and served on Committees, had a beer or two in the bar, and grown (more or less gracefully) older with us.
Men of whom it could truly be said “they had a good innings” (metaphorically, if not literally with the bat).
The news of Stefan’s sudden passing, at just 20 years of age, has shocked and saddened everyone at the Club. Stefan has left us all too soon.
Keep smiling Frenchie. And ‘though you won’t be with us, we will keep smiling when we think of you.
The Teesra 