Shropshire and Staffordshire cricket loses great servant Heather
Tributes have been paid to a cricket lover who was given special recognition by the England and Wales Cricket Board for her service to the game.
Heather Evans, who has died aged 86, also served Bridgnorth as a scorer and treasurer and the club was so grateful for her service they named the score box after her.
Heather and her husband Ray joined the Bridgnorth club in 1976 after moving from Codsall, where she was also a scorer for the village cricket club.
After moving to Bridgnorth, Ray served as head groundsman for many years, while Heather immediately took on the cricket treasurer's job as well as scorer.
She was one of the first to used coloured pens for each bowler, so they and the batters could see who scored what runs off each individual player at the end of the game.
As treasurer, she and friend and colleague Jacqui Ward were responsible for pulling the club out of debt with the brewery and getting the club financially viable.
As the league moved to scoring off laptops she moved to help the second team and retired completely in 2020 – in total she scored games for 50 years between Codsall and Bridgnorth.
Heather also acted as a fundraiser and cleaner at times for Bridgnorth and was also a passionate supporter of the Shropshire County Cricket Club.
In 2021 she was a given a special recognition in the grass roots cricket awards by the ECB as a lifetime achiever and continued to watch cricket and hockey matches in her later years.
A tribute from Bridgnorth Cricket Club on its Twitter page read: "As well as being our much loved and respected first team scorer for over 40 years, Heather was the ultimate supporter and stalwart of our club.
"We simply would not be where we are today without the phenomenal, passionate and determined efforts of this amazing lady."
Shropshire County Cricket Club also paid tribute to Heather, saying its thoughts were with her family and friends at this sad time.
Her daughter Lynne said: "Mum was very passionate about cricket at grassroots level and gave years of devotion to Bridgnorth and before that Codsall in scoring games, raising money, doing whatever was needed to keep the clubs and the game at club level going. Cricket has lost a great servant."
Heather's funeral will be held at Telford Crematorium on Friday September 22 at 4.30pm, with drinks after at the Bridgnorth club. Mourners are asked not to wear black clothing as the family wish it to be a celebration of her life."
