By OLLIE SMITH

PAST-and-present players of the former Alphington and Countess Wear clubs came together to celebrate the life of Graham Weeks, who died in June, aged 68.

Weeks, who also played football professionally for Exeter City and Bournemouth, had a long standing affiliation with the erstwhile cricket clubs, Exeter St Thomas, and Alphington. He served as chairman of the latter between 2001 and 2008.

His roles didn’t stop at chairman, an accomplished wicketkeeper-batter, Weeks also umpired and served as an administrator for Alphington prior to their merge with Countess Wear.

You can read a full obituary for Graham Weeks here.

On Sunday, August 2, players of both Alphington and Countess Wear (and Alphington & Countess Wear) played a memorial match to honour Weeks.

Countess Wear Old Boys, captained by James Bovey, batted first and posted 169, the Alphington Old Boys, captained by Jack Mills, fell 15 runs short with 154.

Andy Mills, a former first-team and second-team captain at Alphington, was pleased with how the day honoured a much-loved club member.

“The match was originally going to be a Chairman versus President’s game but it was changed after the death of our much-loved ex-player, chairman, and vice-president Graham Weeks,” said Mills.

“We turned it into an Ex-Alphington versus Ex-Countess Wear match, and it was a cracking game with PA supplied by Mark Tyler (Talk Sport, whose son James is formerly of Alphington).

“There was also a fund-raising aspect to the day, and in total we managed to raise £6,000 towards our changing room renovation through an auction and our bar.

“The match will now be an annual event, with Countess Wear the first winners of the Graham Weeks Memorial Trophy.”