Devon Cricket Board - Ton-up Tolchard going strong at 65

Ton-up Tolchard going strong at 65

THERE are golden oldies and golden oldies, but few quite so golden as former Leicestershire and England wicketkeeper-batsman Roger Tolchard.
Devon Seniors have so many players in the O60 these days they have started a 2nd XI to give them all a game.
Tavistock's Stuart Munday is skippering the new team, which got off the mark with a 193-run win over Somerset at Bagborough high in the Quantocks.
Tolchard - 66 next birthday - stroked 152 in a Devon total of 297. Tom Overthrown (63) and Tolchard put on 150 for the first wicket.
Somerset were all out for 104 in reply with Graham Darke (2-10) and Stuart Brace (2-18) have the best sets of figures.
Devon-born Tolchard played First Class cricket between 1965-83, notching more than 15,000 runs plus another 6,000-plus in one-day cricket.
He played four times for England in Test matches - and would have played more had he not been competing against Alan Knott and Bob Taylor for a place.
Overthow said it had been a pure pleasure being at the other end while Tolchard was making his runs.
'Admittedly the bowling wasn't Thompson and Lillee, but Roger still has all the shots - both sides of the wicket and straight,' said Overthrow.
'Roger's timing was still superb and clearly there was nothing wrong with his eyesight - just as well as he does a lot of umpiring these days.
'To score 150 in any form of cricket you have to put away a lot of boundaries, and he certainly did that.
'Not only did he bat well, Roger also took a brilliant one-handed catch at gully.'
Tolchard was cricket professional at Malvern College after leaving Leicestershire in 1983.
When he retired a second time and moved back to Torquay, Tolchard was appointed to the Minor Counties list of umpires.

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