THE HAMPSHIRE cricket League is mourning the death of Stan Brambley, its former results secretary and the person who 'made it all tick' for almost three decades. He was 88.
Mr Brambley, who lived on the banks of the River Itchen in Bitterne for many years, was the league's results supremo for 28 years between 1975 and 2002.
A Saints season ticket holder for countless seasons, Stan was president of the County Division 1 club Flamingo, which he helped form in 1959.
He reckoned he opened well over 30,000 envelopes in his long, unpaid stint as results secretary of arguably the biggest recreational league in the country.
In a tribute, former HL chairman Colin Savage said the fact that the Hampshire League was so well run was nearly all due to Stan's efforts.
"He was one of the rapidly disappearing band of volunteers who made a commitment and fulfilled it exactly as promised," praised Savage.
"In Stan's case, as Results Secretary, this meant receiving 90 results by phone, fax and post, publishing results and tables to the press, on time, without fail, every week, every season.
"He did a quite magnificent job and the thousands of people connected with the HL - as players and administrators - have much to thank him for."
Stan fondly remembered his days as results secretary.
"Every Monday and Tuesday morning, the lady postman used to bang on the door with a huge pile of envelopes and she'd often stay for a cuppa while I sat down and opened them all," he once joked.
Collating all the weekend's Hampshire League results kept Stan busy at his Bitterne Park home for days at a time.
"It took some while to open all the envelopes, let alone sort them into piles as per division.
"An hour after the postman had been, my lounge table and floor was covered in results sheets. I dreaded anyone coming in the back door on a windy day in case they blew all over place and I had to start all over again."
Savage recalled that Stan had retired from Inland Revenue at age 60 having never seen a computer. "He was in his mid-70s and doing a lot of the results work manually when I was mostly to blame for trying to persuade him to use a BBC Master Compact to speed up the job.
"He needed some convincing, but accepted the challenge and found that it reduced his commitment from about three days every week to only two."
At the end of the 2002 season, though, Stan decided it was time to declare, put his feet up and consign the Master Compact to the Science Museum.
Stan spent many a happy summer's afternoon watching the cricket and puffing on his favourite pipe at Flamingo's picturesque ground at The Holt, high up on the Downs at Upham.
He was a founder member and captain and past chairman of Flamingo, where he had been president since 1997. He was justly proud of the club's achievement in winning the Hampshire League championship in 2001, having worked their way up from the regional divisions.
Stan also enjoyed a long association with Lyndhurst FC, for whom he played in his younger days. Up until last season, he would regularly watch their Southampton League games from the touchline on Saturdays when Saints were not at home.
Stan's funeral is at the Southampton Crematorium (West Wing) on Friday October 29 at 9.40am. The family has requested no flowers.
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