)}})
Obituary: Graham Tripp
Somerset County Cricket Club are mourning the sad loss of former player Graham Tripp, who passed away on New Years Day 2024 at the age of 91.
Graham Malcolm Tripp was born in Clevedon, where he lived all of his life, on June 9th 1932 and was introduced to cricket by his father, Charlie, who was a stalwart member of Clevedon Cricket Club for many years.
Young Graham made quite an impression in local cricketing circles as a classy, solid, stroke-playing right-handed batter and was invited to join the staff at Somerset, which he duly did in 1952.
His National Service was spent in the Royal Air Force where he represented the RAF at cricket, before returning to Somerset, where he made his First Class debut against the South Africans in June 1955.
Graham remained in the side for the following game and made his County Championship bow against a strong Middlesex side that included his boyhood heroes Denis Compton and Bill Edrich at Lord’s.
He scored heavily for the Second XI, and in 1956 he played in nine Championship matches, scoring 217 runs with a best of 50, which he achieved when promoted to open the innings against Derbyshire.
Graham’s highest score came in 1957 against Essex when he made 62. He continued to score a lot of runs for the Seconds, topping the Somerset Minor Counties and Second XI competition averages. However, he was unable to replicate this success when he appeared for the senior side in 1958 and 1959.
At the end of 1959, Graham left Somerset and played Minor Counties cricket for Devon which he continued to do until the end of 1964, after which he returned to play for Clevedon.
In all, Graham played in 34 First Class matches for Somerset in which he scored 700 runs.
Graham was an all-round sportsman and for a number of seasons he played football for Clevedon AFC. He was a county-standard badminton player and also had a spell with Clevedon Hockey Club.
In later years, Graham took up golf, where at his best he enjoyed a handicap of four and played for Somerset Seniors.
Up until last summer Graham enjoyed coming to Taunton to watch Somerset playing and regularly attended the Former Player gatherings.
Ken Palmer, who was a team mate of Graham’s back in the 1950s, said: “When I first joined the staff ‘Trippy’ was the senior one among us youngsters and he did a good job helping us all. He was a good batter, a good slip catcher and a brilliant fielder. He knew the game very well.”
A private cremation will be taking place, followed by a Thanksgiving Service for Graham at 11:30am on Friday 19th January at Christchurch, Chapel Hill, Clevedon, BS21 7LL.
