Strathmore and Perthshire Cricket Union Handbook 2010

17 Allan Daniel By: Steve Mitchell Cricketers throughout the Union will have been saddened to learn of the death of one of Brechin’s most colourful characters. Allan Daniel passed away in February aged 45. Allan’s funeral took place at St Andrew’s Church in the city and not surprisingly there were many past and present members of Brechin Cricket Club in attendance to pay their last respects. Allan’s mother Grace told “The Brechiner” that Allan had requested that the wake after his funeral be held in the Brechin Cricket Club Social club and that a collection at the funeral would see the proceeds going to the continued support of youth cricket at Guthrie Park, something Allan was a huge fan of. Just after his passing, Grace said: “The past week has been very difficult for everyone who was close to Allan and he made many friends over the years, especially in the cricket world. It’s something I didn’t know anything about, but it was also something that gave him an awful lot of enjoyment for as long as he was able to play. His love of the game increased when we moved into Guthrie Park and from the age of about ten or eleven, his loves were football in winter and cricket in the summer. He won numerous trophies with Brechin and played the game for as long as he possibly could.” Allan had spells as captain of both the club’s Under-18 sides and the BCC 2nd XI and he picked up numerous amounts of silverware, largely for his efforts as a bowler. After he was forced to retire from the game through injury, he also spent time coaching the club’s younger members at under-13, under-15 and Under-18 level. Allan, or “Eck” to his friends, started his working life as a slater upon leaving Brechin High School at 16. He initially worked with local firm Winks and subsequently with William Duthie. However, a fall off a roof with his first employer was to curtail his working life. Grace continued: “Allan was always very accident prone, even as a kid and when he suffered the fall off the roof, he severely injured his back and was never quite the same after that. Not being able to work full-time really had a bad effect on him, although he was always cheery and light-hearted when he was around his friends and family. His disability had an affect on him, no doubt about it. He