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Obituary: David Hughes
The Somerset cricketing community is mourning the loss of David Hughes who sadly passed away on February 20th at the age of 90.
David Garfield Hughes was born in Taunton on 21st May 1934 and after attending North Town Junior School he won a scholarship to Taunton School.
David didn’t enjoy the best of health growing up and only played cricket occasionally whilst he was at school and that was as an all rounder, bowling medium pace and batting in the top order.
When he left school David trained to become a chartered surveyor and after impressing whilst playing in a cricket match as a replacement wicket-keeper he was offered the chance to join Taunton Cricket Club, who at that time played their home matches at the Cooper Associates County Ground.
That was the start of a long association with the county town club who he went on to captain before switching to join Staplegrove CC on the outskirts of the town where he played alongside Roy Palmer, Richie Richardson and John Jameson.
David first appeared for Somerset Second XI in 1953, but with regular ‘keeper Harold Stephenson all but ever present his opportunities were limited.
His only First XI appearance came when Stephenson suffered a family bereavement and became absent at short notice. As a result, David was drafted in as a replacement to play against Nottinghamshire in late May 1955 at the County Ground .
In the match, he took one catch, made one stumping and contributed two runs to Somerset’s second innings after not batting in the first.
That was to be David’s sole appearance for the First XI but he went onto play for Somerset’s Second XI over many years, with his final appearance for the side in 1979, in addition to which he also played Minor Counties cricket for Wiltshire.
The funeral service followed by burial will take place at St John’s Church, Staplegrove on Thursday March 27th at 1.30pm and afterwards refreshments will be served in the Long Room, Somerset County Cricket Club.
