1:20pm Thursday 17th December 2009
A CRICKET enthusiast who was still playing the game he loved up well into his 70s, has died two weeks after his 85th birthday.
Cecil Lilley was an honorary life member of Herefordians Cricket Club, for whom he played most of his cricket in a long career.
Growing up at Capler, he started his cricketing life with Brockhampton and also played for AEI/Smart & Brown, for whom he worked at Rotherwas, in the Hereford Evening League. In semi-retirement, he also worked at Tesco in Bewell Street.
He was an old-fashioned opening batsman with a penchant for the sweep shot and a wicketkeeper who kept wicket until three months before his 75th birthday.
He scored back to back league 50s for Herefordians at the age of 60 and was invariably out to “the best ball of the day”.
Cecil, who was also an umpire and football referee, played for Herefordshire Over 50s until he was 70 and helped to look after the cricket ground at Grafton Park for nearly 20 years.
Still fully alert on his 85th birthday, Cecil had cherished photographs of Brockhampton and Herefordians at the side of his bed in Hampton Grange Nursing Home where he died. His cremation will be held at Hereford Cremator-ium on Friday at 1.30 pm.
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