THE CANDLES FLICKER AND DIM...

I noticed a very brief report in yesterday`s newspaper that Derek Ufton had passed away peacefully in his sleep at the age of 92.  The brief report was buried away right at the bottom of one of the sports pages.  In one respect it was good to see that his contribution to both football and cricket had at least been acknowledged;  but I felt, partly for personal reasons, that he deserved a little more than what was perhaps merely a passing reference.

Now you reach a certain age in life when you develop perhaps an unhealthy habit of looking for obituaries - I have recorded quite a number of them in these pages over the years (click on `obituaries` on the list of labels at the bottom) - and it becomes yet more poignant when they appear for heroes of your own youth.  And Derek was certainly one of mine.

I first saw him play football for Charlton Athletic way back in the 1950s.  At the time, my parents and I had just moved away from my boyhood village by the sea on the shores of Southampton Water to the mean streets of south east London.   An uncle and aunt of mine had a pub, The Dover Patrol, in Kidbrooke and we moved there so that my parents could learn `the licensed trade.`  Kidbrooke is just up the road from Charlton and it wasn`t long before I started to go to The Valley to watch Charlton, having been dragged away from watching the Saints at The Dell.

I enjoyed watching Charlton back then.  They had an interesting team including legendary goalkeeper Sam Bartram, a host of South African imports - John Hewie, Eddie Firmani, Stuart Leary, Sid O`Linn - a rock solid captain in Benny Fenton, pacy wingers in Billy Kiernan and Gordon Hurst....and Derek Ufton, their imperious centre half.  Derek played almost 300 games for Charlton and once for England, in a game against the Rest of the World in 1953.  After a spell of three years managing Plymouth Argyle, he was a club director at Charlton for 26 years.

And he excelled at cricket where he played for Kent alongside his footballing chums Sid O`Linn and Stuart Leary.  As a wicketkeeper batsman, Derek played 149 games for Kent, scoring almost 4,000 runs and taking 313 dismissals behind the stumps.  He became President of Kent County Cricket Club in 2001 and was for many years Chairman of the Lord`s Taverners cricket charity.

So a full and long life comes to a peaceful end.  The candles flickered and dimmed on yet another of the heroes of my youth.   Trouble is, that`s happening far too frequently these days but Derek, like me, was of his time - he did his National Service, loved the games he played with such distinction and knew the peace and comfort of his Kent village of Elham.

  He is rightly honoured and is much missed.