A Personal Memoir – Tony Woodhouse by Brian Heald

DateLine: 20th February 2005

 

Tony Woodhouse died in January at the age of 71. As many members will know, he was the Chairman of the ACS for many years. Although by the time I joined the Committee his role had been taken over by our first President, Richard Streeton, I still had the pleasure of being with Tony at many committee meetings.

 

I first met Tony in 1973 at the inaugural meeting of the Association. At the time I had no idea of his encyclopaedic knowledge of cricket, especially Yorkshire cricket. He seemed to know everything about the County's history and players. This was borne out by his article on League Cricket in Yorkshire for The Cricketer. I soon learned that not only did he follow the county's first-class matches, but visited many grounds where league cricket took place. Indeed, whenever the County wasn't playing, Tony could often be found at a league ground, and was as passionate about cricket below first-class level, as much as he was about the County. During the season, Tony could be seen at a match on most days from April to the end of September.

 

Tony was a traditionalist. He thought that cricket should be played properly according to the Laws of the game. He didn't like the limited-overs version of the game and coloured clothing was anathema to him. One of his friends suggested, tongue in cheek I assume, that if he had been born in the 19th century he would have been aghast at the change to roundarm and later overarm bowling, and the coming of all white clothing.

 

Tony was a great collector. His cricket book collection was, as far as is known, second only the Geoffrey Copinger's. His library numbered over 12,000 titles and his collection of cricket and football cigarette and trade cards was in excess of 35,000.

 

As I got to know him, I soon realised that Tony was someone special, especially in his role as a part-time cricket book dealer. He managed to obtain books from a wide variety of sources and sold them on to collectors. His prices were usually a fraction of those of be found in dealers' lists. His attitude was that as he hadn't paid much for them, he would sell them cheaply. He was more interested in books finding a good home where they would be cherished, rather than making a huge profit. Would that other book dealers would do likewise!

 

Tony was always willing to share his vast cricket knowledge with fellow cricket lovers. His knowledge was so great that for many year he selected Five Cricketers of the Year of the Statistical Surveys of the 1860s and 1870s for the ACS. Quite often I would get a telephone call on or about 1 October to say that his cricket season had finished and that he was ready to do other things. When I told him what year it was that the next Survey covered a letter would arrive usually within a week in his distinctive handwriting.

 

Tony's other love was football, in particular Leeds United. On his wedding day the celebrations were interrupted by a visit to watch his team play Huddersfield Town.

 

I could go on for many paragraphs about my affection for Tony but space forbids. Put simply, I have lost a good friend and so has the ACS and the cricket world in general. In January his funeral was held at Headingley Methodist Church and was conducted by Malcolm Lorimer, Tony's successor as ACS Chairman. There were not many people for whom I would attempt a round trip of over 400 miles in weather conditions as they were but Tony was the type of person who merited that. Over 300 people came that day which is testament to the affection he earned. I am sure that our members and anyone reading this tribute will want to join me in passing on their condolences to his widow Audrey and son Philip. There are many of whom it has been said that we shall never see their like again – Tony was one of these.

(Article: Copyright © 2004 ACS)