Terry Neville (1935-2018)
Monday December 10th 2018

Terry Neville

The club is saddened to announce the passing of former player and Cricket Section Chairman Terry Neville at the age of 83.

A fine all round sportsman, Terry was a member of the 1975 Lancashire League championship winning side when every player had a birth qualification for the club.

At the time Terry was head of English at Hollins High School.

He later became headmaster at Moorhead.

In his retirement he enjoyed reading, holidaying and watching Accrington Stanley and Blackburn Hawks.

Between 1968 and 1976 Terry claimed 162 victims for Accrington before a knee injury forced his retirement.

Terry broke the club wicketkeeping record in the Worsley Cup winning season of 1970 when he picked up 41 league victims to break Jack Collier's 10 year-old record of 40 victims.

The record stood until 1989 when Billy Rawstron broke it with 43 victims.

Terry’s funeral will take place on Thursday 20th December.

11.30am Requiem Mass at St. Charles Roman Catholic Church, St. Charles Road, Rishton, BB1 4HR followed by a cremation at 1pm at Accrington Cemetery and Crematorium, Burnley Road, Accrington, BB5 6HA. Family flowers only please. Donations to: North West Air Ambulance.

Former First Team captain Peter West: "I first came to know of Terry Neville in the 1960s when I was a pupil at Accrington Grammar School and he joined Holy Family School as PE master.

"He was young (albeit that even then he had that full head of white hair), smartly attired (not for him any old pair of crumpled “trackie” bottoms) and he was full of enthusiasm. The complete opposite of the stereotypical PE master as portrayed by Brian Glover in that wonderful film “Kes”.

"It was no surprise when he later pursued further and higher education and thereafter became first a Deputy Head and later a much respected Headmaster.
It was only in the early ‘70s that I eventually met Terry after I returned from university.

"I played football with him with Old Accringtonians in the Lancashire Amateur League. He was the goalkeeper for the second-eleven having in his youth played at higher and representative level. He was also a highly qualified and respected F A Coach and like many others I thoroughly enjoyed undertaking the preliminary F A Coaching course under his tuition on wet and windy Sunday mornings throughout one winter.

"It is, however, with Accrington Cricket Club that I have my best memories of Terry.

"He had been first-team wicket-keeper in 1969 and 1970 (he was part of the Worsley Cup winning team in the latter year) but had then been displaced by the young (much younger) prospect Andy Breckell and it wasn’t until Andy sustained an eye injury that Terry came back into the First Eleven in 1974 following which he remained a regular until his retirement in 1977.

"Those later years saw the signing of Alan Worsick as Professional and the winning of the Lancashire League Championship in 1975 (as well as being Runners-up and losing Worsley Cup Finalists in 1976).

"Terry was a First Eleven wicket keeper par excellence and played his full part in the success enjoyed by Accrington in all those years. He had the reflexes and safe hands of a goalkeeper and was equally adept standing up to the wicket as is evidenced by his record in League matches (27 catches and 10 stumpings in 1969, 37 catches and 4 stumpings in 1970, 25 catches and 7 stumpings in 1975 and 21 catches and 3 stumpings in 1976).

"Although batting at number 11, Terry also won matches with the bat - often to our (and, if he was honest, his) surprise. There were many tight matches where the later batsmen pulled the team through with scampered runs but Terry wasn’t able to do that (he frequently reminded us about his many knee and ankle injuries/operations) and we could only hope that he could “stay in” while someone else was able to save the day. Then he would hit two fours “out of the blue” and win the game for us. He would leave the field with a huge grin on his face and couldn’t wait to tell us that “it was easy” and “I can’t understand why the rest of you found it so difficult”.

"There is nothing to compare with the atmosphere of a cricket dressing room for getting to know your teammates. You are in there for many hours every match day concentrating on the game but enjoying “the craic”.

"Terry was in his element telling tales of his exploits or his time in the forces (the rest of us were all far too young to have encountered National Service) and it was a surprise to no-one who knew him that in later years he would give talks to luncheon clubs and write a book of short stories which it was his ambition to publish. Indeed only a few weeks ago he was regaling us with tales of his school days and had us laughing joyfully.

"He was a competitor in everything he did but he played in the true Corinthian Spirit with a smile on his face and a friendly word for everyone, be they team mate or opponent and as a result was loved by all."