- South Dartmoor back to winning ways in cups
- Tom Allin tournament raised more than £5,000 for air ambulance
- Taverners kit bag delivered to Sri Lankan youngsters
- Devon trying to contact the class of 56
- Paceman Tshepo running in Virgin London Marathon
- Five Devon women in Western Storm squad for Kia Super League
- Registration night for all ages at Topsham on Monday
- Lots pouring in for auction at Allin Memorial tournament
- Thames Valley Gentlemen Cricket Club
- Bradninch add Argentinian flavour to Devon League
- Ipplepen youth registration night on Friday
- Final call for Groundsmans first seminar this year
- Devon League official tackling London Marathon for charity
- Bovey on familiar territory in Aaron Printers Cup
- Brockman Cup - Cup Kings lie in wait for holders
- Shepherd Trust helps Kingsbridge build for sustainable future
- DCL - Umpire Appointments 2016 (May 7th - July 2nd)
- Long standing records beaten
- North Devon see off Paignton chase
Barton CC ready to board the coach for a day out in 1969. Roy Horswell is fifth from the left in the front row
DEVON Cricket Board coach Jim Parker has led the tributes to former footballer and cricketer Roy Horswell, who has died aged 84.
Horswell, who lived in Torquay, was a Barton cricketer for more than 30 years, where he made a big impression on the young Parker.
Parker followed in Horwell’s footsteps as Barton CC captain, winning Premier Division titles and Devon KO Cups along the way.
Horswell was a winning captain and player for Barton in the Narracott Cup and Brockman Cups. Parker said what he learned from his mentor stood him in good stead.
“I played my first game at Barton when I was just 12,” said Parker, now the club’s director of cricket and still playing in the 2nd XI aged 56.
“Roy was there then, a larger than life character who was respected by everybody.
“I looked up to him and his wife Esther and he guided me during my early playing days.
“He was a hard task-masker, a man who believed in discipline and playing the game hard. He was a legend at Barton and I and many, many others, owe him so much.”
Veteran cricketer Tim Price, who played for nearly 60 years before retiring in 2011, was a Barton team-mate of Horswell’s through the 1960s and early 1970s.
Price remembers Horswell with great respect and affection.
“Roy Horswell was the finest captain I played under – and I had a few over the years,” said Price.
“I was 15 when I first went to Barton, but was too young to get in the side regularly so went to play for Shiphay St John for a while.
“Roy brought me back and we finished up opening the batting together for years.
“Barton were not an easy side to captain, but Roy did it with a hand of iron if he needed to.
“I will always remember the 1968 side of Roy’s as I scored 1,000 runs and it was the best side I ever played in.
“Roy was a very good captain as well as a fine cricketer. The one thing which surprised me after he finished playing was that Barton never asked him back to run the show as he would have been good at that.”
Horswell (pictured, right) had one outing for Devon in the 1957 season, but failed to secure a regular place in the side.
Mike Janes had two views of Horswell as a cricketing rival and a footballing colleague.
Janes, who played cricket for Torquay Corinthians, turned out in the same Torquay United Reserve side as Horswell during the mid-1950s.
Janes said Horswell was an uncomplicated footballer who held the side together.
“I was a 14-year-old Torquay Grammar School boy when I went to United and started playing in the A Team with Roy, which played in the South Devon League Division One,” said Janes.
“Roy was an exceptional inside forward who could also play wing-half who had been signed from Hele Rovers.
“Roy and Colin Maddicott – an uncompromising centre-half – were the stabilising influences in what was a pretty young side.
“After a year in the A Team we were both promoted to the Reserves, and I can still remember our first South Western League game against Penzance.
“We were only in the South Western League a year when Torquay switched to the Western League Division Two, where we played together for four or five years.
“I stopped in 1956-57 because I was promoted at work and had to work some Saturdays. From then on cricket was number one for me.
“Roy carried on a bit longer at Plainmoor before moving to Taunton Town. At Torquay you got travelling expenses and that was it. Taunton had a bit more money and Roy went up there with a winger called Danny Knapman, who had been displaced from the team by Ernie Pym.
“If I had to write an epitaph for Roy it would be: he was a terrific sportsman and a nice bloke.”
Roy Horswell and his wife Esther (83) were married for 57 years.
Apart from two years in the Army, Horswell spent his working life as a blacksmith with Torbay Council before retiring 30 years ago.
He died at Torbay Hospital after being taken ill at home in Ellacombe, Torquay.
Mrs Horswell said she wanted to thank all the neighbours and friends who have supported her since Roy’s death.
She added: “We had 57 happy years together. What more could I want?”
No date has yet been set for the funeral, but Esther wants any donations in lieu of flowers to be made to the local Alzheimers Group or the intensive care unit at Torbay Hospital.
