Devon Cricket Board - Tributes paid to Ray Starkey

ONE of the true gentleman of Devon cricket has died after a gallant battle against illness at the age of 84, writes Conrad Sutcliffe.

Ray Starkey, who lived in Totnes, was a player, umpire, scorer and finally administrator for more than 60 years.

He moved to Devon when he retired in the early 1990s and started umpiring for Dartington CC. Later he looked after the scorebook and stayed with the club until 2005, by when they had merged with neighbours Totnes. He is pictured with former South Devon captain David Knowles.

Starkey switched allegiances to South Devon CC in 2006 and did the 1st XI scoring for the next three seasons. When he finally laid down his coloured pencils, he took over as one of the Devon League’s panel of results secretaries.

Daughter Beverley said her late father was a cricket nut, who met his future wife through the game in the late 1940s when they both lived in London.

“My father met my mother when they both played for the Baptist Church youth team in north London, where they were living at the time,” said Beverley.

“They were married in 1950 and moved to Stratford-upon-Avon, where he joined the local club.

“I can remember as a young girl going to matches and watching the games from a disused railway line which overlooked the ground. He was a batsman who also bowled some slow right-armers.

“In later years my mother and father would go to the cricket together, she with her knitting while she sat in the car. Going to cricket was something they really enjoyed.

“He loved being involved in cricket and when he stopped scoring he took on the divisional secretary job to retain an interest. He learned all about the Internet so he could do it all on-line, quite something for a man in his late 70s.

“Only recently he felt he would not be well enough to carry on this summer. There were tears in his eyes when he rang the league secretary to tell him.”

Ray Starkey was born in Wimbledon, but lived all over west and north London as a young man before getting married.

Ray and Mavis were married in 1950 on the Channel Island of Guernsey. Ray did two years National Service in the REME, then worked for a while as a traveling salesman. He eventually settled into a career as a chauffer.

In his chauffeuring days, he was the UK tour specialist, and prided himself on his knowledge of the UK,” said daughter Beverley.

“He had a couple of clients from the UK who returned every summer for personalised tours with him.”

Away from cricket, he enjoyed classical music concerts, crosswords, steam locomotives and railways, walking and the history of the Second World War, a subject he had several hundred books on.

He was also an avid campaigner about local issues, including for the local action group Bridgetown Alive.

He was a committed member of the Methodist congregation in Totnes, always willing to help out with odd jobs around the church.

The tributes to Starkey were led by David Moseby, the former chairman of the Devon Association of Cricket Officials.

“I was shocked to hear of the passing of Ray Starkey. Ray had been a long-standing member of DACO and before that the DCUS.

“It was always a pleasure to talk to Ray when we attended various meetings

“He was a results secretary on the Devon Cricket League committee and I met him there on a monthly basis.

“When I umpired you always knew if Ray Starkey was in the score box the score would always be perfect.

“ “Whenever I stood with an umpire , who had not met Ray before I always introduced him as THE gentleman of DACO.

“That indeed is what he was - a charming gentlemen of the old school and one who had a really keen sense of humour.

“We will all miss him dearly.”

Barry Widdicombe, South Devon CC’s long-serving chairman, said Starkey was a well-liked and well spoken member of the club.

“Ray’s score books were always immaculate,” said Widdicombe.

“ He always attended our dinners and annual meeting.

“In recent years he would call into the ground on most Saturday afternoons and then visit other clubs on his way back to Totnes.

“His conversation was always polite and he was a nice guy to spend time with.”

Justin Osborne, who was Dartington captain when Ray first moved to Devon, remembers his old friendly fondly.

I got to know him well in the time that he was with the club,” said Osborne.

“Both he and Mavis were permanent fixtures at our league matches, with Ray initially standing as umpire before later taking on the scorer’s role.

“I can especially remember the array of coloured pencils he used to painstaking complete the scorebook. His creations were works of art that the players would pore over admiringly at the end of play each week.

“Ray was a true gentleman and the kind of person without whom cricket clubs across the land would be much poorer places.”
Ray Starkey’s funeral will take place at the Methodist Church in Totnes on Friday, March 30 at 11.30am. Son Glenn and daughter Beverley have asked for donations in lieu of floral tributes to the Prostate Cancer Research Centre.