Barrow Gurney CC were sad to hear that Roy Hodges was retiring from helping maintain the Hobbs Lane ground.
For many years Roy, (pictured above on the right), has helped with the preparation of the playing area and in recent years has particularly focused on floral arrangements such as the hanging baskets from the pavilion and other floral displays.
Barrow Chairman, Pete Holdaway said that he was sad that Roy had decided to call it a day as his “colourful displays have been the talk of the town for over 10 years at the club!” But more than that Pete enjoyed his discussions with Roy about Gloucestershire cricket past and present. However, Pete came to realise that his knowledge of Glos CCC was pretty patchy compared to Roy’s in-depth memories, including seeing the great Wally Hammond live at Bristol.
All at Barrow Gurney want to thank Roy (a former Clubman of the Year) for all his hard work over so many years and wish him a happy retirement. We hope he may still come up and visit us occasionally to watch some play at the ground he loved so much and have a cup of tea with us in the pavilion and tell us some his cricketing memories over the years.
Barrow is lucky to have so many friends and former players who volunteer to keep the facilities at Hobbs Lane up to such a high standard, but as Pete says it is those like Roy “that give to the club and don’t actually play who are, to my mind, the most precious of all”.