Barrow Gurney Cricket Club was sad to hear of the death of Colin Nutt, who played for the club from the late 1950s to the 1980s.
Former Barrow captain, and long-time friend, Geoff Warren shared some memories of Colin at his funeral recently and the BGCC website is pleased to provide an edited version in tribute to Colin:
Colin started playing for BGCC in the late 1950’s and together with Sadie and his daughters Janette, Carol and Gillian, the family have been associated with the club ever since.
Colin was club secretary for many years and also made the fixtures with other clubs. In those days there were no mobiles and few people even had telephones. Fixtures were therefore made by postcard and Barrow Gurney still has cards from many clubs now long gone. Colin was also proudly present at the cricket club’s 100th anniversary back in 1974.
Throughout the 1960’s and early 1970s the club had the minimum of facilities – there was no water, electricity, no toilet, no catering facilities and a very small hut for the 22 players to change. Today, of course Barrow Gurney CC have a lovely ground and some magnificent facilities, but much of the groundwork was down to Colin and his enthusiasm in the early days, which was later enhanced by other members.
Colin was instrumental in obtaining a medium size tea hut which he somehow obtained from Rolls Royce and when we finally had running water with his son-in-law, Simon he provided and installed a Calor gas water system enabling us to finally have a shower which was most welcome.
Of course, in those early days we sometimes struggled to field just one side each weekend so quite often when we were short of players, Colin used to collar some unsuspecting members of Bishopsworth British Legion to play, with words like “Do you like cricket, if they answered in the affirmative, he would continue “that’s good you are playing for us today” and he would taxi them up to the ground and back afterwards. Brother Bill was also a long time player for the club, and a fine bowler of off-cutters.
Colin was one of the club’s best batsman back in the day, opening the batting for many years. Although he made his share of ducks he regularly scored 30 or 40 runs. This doesn’t seem many now, but in those days a total team score of 100 was a winning score, as the wicket had as many weeds as grass on it and was rolled by a hand roller. Today, of course a score of 250 is no guarantee of victory.
He also kept wicket for years and was well known for his jokes and often funny stories. One unsuspecting new member in 1967 was immediately placed at first slip next to Colin and stayed there week in week out until Colin retired in the 1980s. His numerous stories were repeated and embellished every year with sometimes a new one added in. His most famous story of a little boy with a red hat who had been eaten by a lion at the zoo, unfortunately cannot be repeated here!
Colin was the instigator of many social and fundraising events such as raffles, quizzes, karaoke nights, etc. Members were invited to his many family occasions and this was reciprocated over the years.
Colin Nutt was the type of person who was vital to the success of any local cricket club, and we were very lucky to call him one of our own. Barrow Gurney CC is and always has been a family club and Colin will always be remembered as an integral part of that family for a very long time. Thank you, Colin.
In this team photo from the 1950s, Colin can be seen front row 2nd right next to then team captain Gerry Weadon (centre) with Colin’s older brother Bill to his left.