Tony Wood died peacefully, aged 74, at Mt. Alvernia Hospital, Guildford on 16th December 2003 with his wife Jean and daughters Catherine, Suzy and Pippa at his bedside after a long illness patiently borne.
He played 679 matches for Sydenhurst
Ramblers over 28 years - 163 more than any other member. In 1970 he played in 41
matches (the next best in a season was by Roy Hardy (36 in 1965)). A member of
M.C.C., in later years he was usually to be found in the Warner Stand (Top
Level) with friends and customers during the Test match. He was also a member of
Hampshire for whose 2nd XI he played one game in 1962.
Tony, a left hand bat, usually opened the innings and together with Nic Harper - also a left hander, they made a formidable partnership. He hit 16 hundreds during his career - the highest being 140 against Perrin's Woodflakes at Brook, 1961. In 1966 he scored 5 centuries including two on consecutive days - 106* v. Old Ardinians at the Ibis Ground, Chiswick on May 29th and 117* the following day at Liphook. This latter innings helped produce a record stand for the 6th wicket of 97 which still remains unbroken 37 years on. He also made 102 fifties including 10 in one season (1970).
Anthony Kenneth Wood was the younger of 2 brothers born and brought up at Hambledon near Godalming, Surrey. Tony, whose father was a woodwork instructor, trained as a carpenter and worked at St.Thomas's Hospital, Hydestile. He did his National Service in the RAF. While in Singapore during this period at RAF Selata Bay, he managed to fall off the wing of a Sunderland flying boat and not being a great swimmer had an interesting moment before being rescued. Needless to say, he often had his leg pulled in the dressing room thereafter. Tony joined his brother Lionel in 1952 working as a sales representative for Docker Brothers, a Birmingham based paint manufacturer, whose South of England depot was at Portsmouth Road, Milford. The Area Manager was 'Mike' Gauntlett who ran a 'tight ship' and Tony spent much time behind the wheel of his Hillman Husky pursuing business in the region.
Both the Wood brothers played their early cricket on Hambledon Green with their father. However, 'Mike' Gauntlett who had become captain of Brook in 1951- in addition to his involvement with the Ramblers, made it clear that their talents would be better suited in assisting him to raise the standard at Brook from village cricket to top club cricket level. Both brothers had already started playing for the Ramblers. Tony played his first match in 1949 at Haslemere where he made 13 and caught a catch. He played in 16 matches for the Ramblers that year and secured his first fifty versus Walton-0n-Thames.
In his early years, Tony Wood usually batted at no. 3 following openers Charlie Izzard and Ronnie Gethen. He often took the new ball, however, and his right arm seamers produced 6-27 against Ferring-by-Sea on June 14th 1953. In all he took 5 wickets in an innings on 11 occasions during his career. The best return was in 1961 against Horsley CC at West Horsley on April 30th. Having opened the Ramblers' innings and scored 37 runs out of the Ramblers' total of 129 all out, he was handed the new ball and in 1 hour 42 minutes, bowling 11.5 overs unchanged to return 9-39. Six of the wickets were catches. This is the 5th best analysis in the history of the Club. In all Tony Wood took 443 wickets @ 20.09 - the 3rd most successful career with the ball.
It is, however, his batting record that makes the more impressive reading. Seven times Tony scored 1000 runs in a season or more (his best was 1364 in 33 innings in 1964 @ 47.03 including 5 hundreds). He passed the 500 run mark on June 12th that year from 11 innings. He scored 500 runs in a season on 8 occasions, a feat only surpassed by Nic Harper (12 times). He hit 163 sixes in his career (19 in 1961) and 2245 fours (181 in 1966). He had 49 ducks.
As a fielder, Tony preferred slip and held 252 catches in his career. Only 3 Ramblers have held more than 100 catches and his brother, Lionel (217) and Nic Harper (131) follow him.
In addition to playing for the
Ramblers, Tony Wood was also active behind the scenes in the 1950s and 1960s. In
1957 he followed Charlie Izzard as Hon. Secretary of the Club. He was groundsman
at Brook for a number of years at a time when this work was undertaken on a
voluntary basis. Often he would deliver paint in Southampton by 8am and be back
at Brook to mark out a wicket ready for mid-week match beginning at 11.30am that
same morning. It was characteristic of him to be seen mowing the outfield seated
shirtless behind a 36" Dennis with a pipe in his mouth. During the winter months he provided transport to nets at Alf Gover's Indoor School and, later, Sunningdale.
Tony was largely self-taught and
claimed he derived much enjoyment from reading an english dictionary! He had
a
sense of humour which involved such instances as changing the names of
sandwiches prior to a reception at the Crown & Cushion, Haslemere to reflect the
'habits' of certain guests; being photographed with a belisha beacon globe
between his legs at Everdon Hall on the 1967 Midlands Tour and encouraging the
ordering of drinks from the top row of a bar at Knowle & Dorridge when the
Ramblers were being served by an attractive barmaid in an extremely short skirt.
Indeed, one of the notable attractions of the early Ramblers' tours were the
young ladies who accompanied Tony.
Above all he and his brother, Lionel have been the backbone of the Sydenhurst Ramblers almost from the Club's inception and their appointment as Life Members earlier in 2003 was entirely appropriate.