Barry Smith – Tony Smith remembers..

BARRY SMITH
​It is with great sadness to hear the news that former player Barry Smith had passed away in Gosmore Nursing Home in early November; he had two spells with the Club broken by National Service between 1958 and 1975.
​Barry was a medium paced bowler, his armoury being prodigious away swings and a middle order batsmen, who was without doubt one of our key players during these years.
​The Club had undergone a dramatic rebuild in the mid-fifties and under the leadership of Martin Raffell our young squad held together, helped by the emerging talents of Chris Newell and Michael Whitmore, the latter who went on to play for Bedfordshire .
` ​To complete an extraordinary season in 1959, having lost all our opening games in May, we went to Clifton CC on the last Saturday of the month where Barry’s seven wickets crushed the opposition.
​We remained unbeaten for the rest of the season, Barry claiming 101 wickets, the first occasion that it had ever been achieved for the Club, however, the following two seasons proved more challenging in part due to both Barry and Martin being called up for National Service duty, along with the loss of some other players to other clubs.
​Thankfully for Preston CC this was short-lived and having dutifully served their country, Barry and Martin were back and the club rebuild was on! Barry went on to continue his cricket with Preston and in 1972 returned his best figures of 9-22 against The Flycatchers