Sheffield Cricket Lovers' Society Year Book 2020

24 twitter: @scloverssociety How do I do justice to David Drabble? As current secretary, it is a privilege but also, very sad to be representing the Sheffield Cricket Lovers’ Society today. Over the 29 years I knew ‘DD’, it was obvious that the SCLS was really the DDLCS - the David Drabble LOVING Cricket Society ; it really was ... along with his family... his life. David was the Founding member and Secretary of the Society for 58 years - starting it in April 1960 with his father, George, and later also with Anne as Treasurer and Assistant Secretary, David Tunbridge, and several chairmen. But it was David who worked tirelessly to build the successful Society it is today. Since I took over from him in 2017 I know how much time and effort that must have taken – many, many hours. I walk very much in his shadow and his boots are certainly big ones to follow in. Perhaps his service to cricket is best summed up by the very fact that David was presented with The ICC Centenary Medal in April 2010 for his work with the Society and the 22yrs service he gave to the Yorkshire County Cricket Club as a Committee man, going on to be a Vice President. This Medal recognised the volunteers - those people who give their time for the benefit of others and who are crucial to preserving cricket’s special values as well as sustaining and developing the game at grassroots level. The International Cricket Council awarded only 1000 Medals worldwide to those who had demonstrated exceptional commitment to the game - a select band for anyone to join and a fitting one for him. In the earlier days David led tours to all manner of places and you only have to look at the heart-warming messages on our Twitter account following his death to see how much fun people had and how much genuine affection people had for him. His 80th birthday dinner 2 years ago was full of members and friends - quite an achievement for an octogenarian! Many of the Speakers who came along in the early days became life-long friends – Sir Michael Parkinson (just arriving back from Australia today), Geoffrey Boycott, Sir Tim Rice, Jeffrey Archer, Leslie Crowther to name but a few. David would be proud to see so many of those friends and members of the Society here today – they have enjoyed many happy hours from his labour of love, Sheffield Cricket Lovers’ - always apostrophe after the ‘s’ Society – and woe betide anyone who didn’t get the apostrophe in the right place! We all tried, pretty much in vain, to modernise DD and get him to use his laptop and email more often, But he never could get his head around why - particularly - cricketers, wouldn’t answer letters. And Bob Cratchit would have been proud of David’s accounts in the big red book which he handed to me in 2017, balanced down to the last penny. A fitting tribute... David’s funeral was very well attended and our own Dorothy Betts was asked if she would deliver a eulogy on behalf of us all. It was received with genuine appreciation and is worthy of a repeat here both for those who were there, and for those that couldn’t attend.