Cricket community says a fond farewell to Geoff Evans

Geoff Evans (left) and Roger Moylan-Jones (right) at a county council reception

LAUGHTER rang round St Peter’s Church in Budleigh Salterton at the funeral of Devon County Cricket Club chairman Geoff Evans.

Mourners came from London, Herefords and Penzance to say their goodbyes to Mr Evans, a retired executive at the Heavitree Brewery in Exeter, who died last week aged 77.Geoff Evans (right) at a cricket dinner with former England captain Mike Gatting

Mr Evans played cricket for Exeter and Exmouth for more than 30 years. He was a member of the Devon side that won the Minor Counties Championship for the first time in 1978.

Surviving team-mates from that Championship-winning side were in the congregation, as were friends and rivals from a lifetime in cricket, which included 33 years service with Devon CCC  as committeeman, secretary and finally chairman.

Mr Evans coffin, which was draped in the county cricket club flag with his Devon cap resting on top, was carried into church by six past and present Devon players, including former captains Nick Folland, Bob Dawson and Josh Bess.

The congregation heard tributes from Canon Ken Parry, who conducted the service, family friend Dr Graham Taylor and Rear Admiral Roger Moylan-Jones, a county colleague on the field and in the committee room.

All three spoke of Mr Evans’ ‘mischievous’ sense of humour, recalling anecdotes that provoked peals of laughter up and down the aisles.

Dr Taylor revealed how his friend found cooking a challenge and told of the time his culinary skills made him violently ill.

“Geoff’s wife Ruth had gone to Canada to see relations and left carefully prepared meals for him,” said Dr Taylor.

“One night he decided to go ‘off-piste’ and have a cheese-and-onion toasty instead,

“That night he was violently ill and couldn’t understand why.

“It was only when Ruth returned and asked where her daffodil bulbs had gone that the mystery behind Geoff’s bad stomach was revealed.”

Rear Admiral Moylan-Jones spoke of a hard-working colleague who won the respect of everyone he came into contact with as a cricket administrator.

“He did not have a single enemy,” said the Rear Admiral.

The service was followed by interment at the church burial ground in Moor Lane, Budleigh Salterton.

Mourners were entertained after the service by the Evans family at Exeter Cricket Club.

Greg Evans, one of Mr Evans’ two sons, said the reception was a fitting way for friends to say their last farewells.

“The family were determined after the week we had to make it a good day and it was,’ said Greg.

“In the days after my father died we had messages of comfort and support from all over the cricket world and as far away as Australia, South Africa, the West Indies and Canada.

“Many more stories were told, including one about the time my father was in a hospital bed next to a man under going a gender realignment operation.

“Suffice to say he was most concerned the nurses didn’t get the medicines mixed up.”

Geoff Evans is survived by wife Ruth – the couple would have been married for 50 years next month – sons Matt and Greg and five granddaughters.

A collection was taken after the service for Budleigh Salteton Hospice Care, Guide Dogs for the Blind and the David Shepherd Cricket Trust.