The Twelfth Man 2020

Obituaries News of the death of Malcolm Nash reached us just in time for us to append a footnote to the report of his visit to the Wombwell in January 2019, in last year’s magazine. Taken ill at a function at Lord’s on the evening of 30 July, he died later in hospital; the suddenness would be a shock to all who heard his excellent talk just six months earlier at the Holiday Inn. Malcolm Andrew Nash will forever be immortalised as the unlucky bowler who was hit for six sixes by Sir Garfield Sobers in 1968 at Swansea, but there was so much more to him than that. Born in 1945, he would play his entire first-class career at Glamorgan, where he became captain in 1980 and 1981. When Glamorgan won the county championship, undefeated in the 1969 season, Nash’s contribution was to be leading wicket-taker. In all, he took 993 first-class wickets at an average 25.87 in a 17-year career, also scoring 7,129 runs. At the time of his ignominious treatment by Sobers he was experi- menting with spin bowling as a variant on his usual medium-fast. Despite the experience he would, in fact, go on to dismiss Sobers twice in his career. He left Glamorgan in 1983 and played for Shropshire until 1985, when he retired. Throughout his life he remained active with Abergavenny CC, in the town of his birth. The Society was greatly saddened to learn of the death of a young South Yorkshire cricketer, aged just 19. Haris Hussain had attended the WCLS junior coaching nets for several years before going on to play at Barnsley and most recently at Wath CC. In 2019 he was di- agnosedwith leukaemia and had a bone marrow transplant in July that year and died in February this year. As well as cricket, Haris had excelled at hockey, playing for the Midlands conference at U11 and U13 levels. Commenting on Haris’s untimely death, our coaching co-ordinator Darren Crossland said, ‘He was a great batsman-wicketkeeper. A lovely young man who always played with a smile; always pleasant and well mannered. He was in my Joe Lumb win- ning team in 2018, where his contribu- tions helped us lift the trophy.’ WCLS members held a minute’s silence in Haris’s memory at one of our meetings in March. Rob Barlow, first-team captain at Wath CC had this to say: Although Haris’ life was tragically cut short by a horrible illness, his positivity and infectious happiness touched all who met him. Born in Sheffield, Haris would represent Thorncliffe, Sheffield United, Barnsley and Wath with great credit - as well as excelling in junior cricket for Barnsley Taverners, Joe Lumb, South Yorkshire Schools and Yorkshire Schools. A wicketkeeper batsman of im- mense talent and work ethic, Haris was one of the most gifted glovemen I have ever played with or against. Haris made his debut for Barnsley CC 1st XI in the Yorkshire South Premier League short- ly after he arrived at the club as a 14 year-old where former captain Jason Booth described him as ‘phenomenally talented. Haris moved to Wath in 2018 and would win the South Yorkshire Cham- pionship Wicketkeeping Award in his only season with the club - a brilliant achievement for a then 17 year-old. He top scored against Elsecar with 72 runs against a bowling attack including Lesroy Weekes, Paul Cummins and Mo- hammed Illyas - no mean feat. For his 19th birthday Haris began to raise money for DKMS-UK - a char- ity aimed at beating blood cancer. As of early March, this total had passed £14,000 - an amount which he must be very proud of. The fact that whilst he was personally struggling he was still trying to help others, shows the meas- ure of the man. He will be sadly missed by all who met him. MALCOLM NASH HARIS HUSSAIN 2001-2020 Haris Hussain Ian Spofforth, a member of WCLS who lived in Weymouth, Dorset died in April 2019 but news of his passing only reached us just after the 2019 magazine was published. He was the son of George Spofforth, a long-serving Treasurer of the Society. He was born in Wombwell and attended Wath Gram- mar School from 1965. He studied at the Sunderland School of Pharmacy from 1970 and moved to Weymouth where he set up a pharmaceutical busi- ness. He joined the WCLS in 1981. IAN SPOFFORTH