Retired Hampshire Cricket Chief Executive Tony Baker has died, aged 77, after a long and brave battle against Parkinson’s Disease. His funeral is at Basingstoke Crematorium on Friday 10 November at 12.30pm. This article reflects on the career of one of the area’s leading sportsmen.
Tony Baker dedicated his life to cricket.
An all-rounder who opened the batting and bowling for Old Tauntonians’ and Southampton Touring Club at the peak of their powers in the late Sixties and Seventies, he was one of the finest club cricketers of his era.
A handy basketball player in the winter months, he combined his cricketing talents with organisational skills and, at the Touring Club, was opening batsman and bowler, secretary, fixture secretary and treasurer – all at the same time !
A perfect gentleman and one of the most genuine guys you could ever wish to meet, Tony was heavily involved with the old Southern League (in which he played with considerable distinction), initially as treasurer then the league’s chairman for five years.
He later took up his role as Hampshire’s Chief Executive for a 16-year period before the move from Northlands Road to the Ageas Bowl.
He was previously county treasurer at Northlands Road and was later Cricket Secretary for a period of five years before taking retirement.
A tower of a man both professionally and in sport, Tony was a partner with the Winchester-based accountancy practice Brooking Knowles & Lawrence (BKL) before becoming Hampshire’s Chief Executive in 1986.
“Tony was well known and very popular with Hampshire members and played a pivotal role in moving the Club from Northlands Road to the Ageas Bowl,” recalled Hampshire cricket secretary Tim Tremlett, who played against Mr Baker countless times during his embryo years with Deanery.
In the days before media officers and media teams, Tony was the press contact and spokesman for the club. He handled the media as he did everything else, in an honest and gentlemanly way.
He ensured Hampshire's interests were protected but never shied away from awkward or tough questions. And you knew you were always dealing with a straight arrow of a guy.
Tony Baker’s considerable sporting prowess first became evident at Taunton’s Grammar School, where he excelled both academically, at cricket and on the basketball court, where he was a prolific point-scoring centre.
He played basketball for Old Tauntonians and represented the South.
A Saints season ticket holder in the Dell days, Tony’s uncle George Baker was club secretary at Southampton FC.
After a brief spell with the Inland Revenue, he concentrated in a career in accountancy, but alongside his family – he is survived by his wonderful wife (of over 50 years) Sally (always great fun to spend time with) and sons Paul and Jonathan – cricket was always his first love.
Old Tauntonians were a dominant force in South of England cricket during the pre-league Tony Baker era.
Tall and upright, he opened the OTs batting for years, alongside forming a formidable new-ball bowling partnership with Tim Binks and Bernie Thomason. Few opposing batsmen will forget the long loping Baker run-up, hair waving and then patted back again once he'd delivered the ball.
“In many ways he was a dogged opening batsman, seldom playing many bad shots and always working out ways to score runs when the going was tough,” reflected long time friend and OTs team-mate Derek Tulk, with whom he shared many years of captaincy.
“Everything Tony did was spot on. An inspirational figure, he was as straight as a dye.”
The advent of competitive league cricket in the early 1970s saw Old Tauntonians win three of the first five Southern League championships and finish runners-up to Deanery, their arch Southampton rivals, the sixth.
In 1972, he performed the feat of taking all ten Netley Sports wickets for 26 playing for OTs in the Hector Young Evening Trophy final in the Southampton Parks.
Four years later – by which time Southern League had really become established – he helped set a new first-wicket partnership for Southampton Touring Club, making an unbeaten 126 in a 235-run stand as Australian Old Collegians were beaten by ten wickets at the County Ground, Northlands Road. His long standing Aussie pal Simon Lane was stranded on 99* at the non-striker's end.....
Playing and often skippering Southampton Touring Club took Tony Baker all over the South for all-day Sunday matches, the club boasting a formidable fixture list.
It didn't end there. The Bakers took in cricket overseas on the Bournemouth & South Hants tours to rainy Barbados in 1979 (it poured down for best part of two of the three weeks they were there), muggy Singapore & Malaysia in 1984 (where Tony became the first - and only - Southern League chairman to strike a 50 in the Malay peninsular !) and two years later in Kenya. Those trips and the long flights gave Tony the opportunity to display some of the magnificent sporting cigarette card collection he had assembled; sadly the quizzes he set for the airborne tourists were all too much for most of us ...
Tony Baker was an outstanding cricketer, as well as being a kind and genial team-mate with a great sense of humour – the type of sportsman, sadly, we will rarely see again.
Local cricket will say its fond farewells to Tony at the Basingstoke Crematorium on Friday 10 November at 12.30pm. The wake will be at the Ageas Bowl, not Basingstoke & North Hants cricket club, as previously announced.
Tony Baker dedicated his life to cricket.
An all-rounder who opened the batting and bowling for Old Tauntonians’ and Southampton Touring Club at the peak of their powers in the late Sixties and Seventies, he was one of the finest club cricketers of his era.
A handy basketball player in the winter months, he combined his cricketing talents with organisational skills and, at the Touring Club, was opening batsman and bowler, secretary, fixture secretary and treasurer – all at the same time !
A perfect gentleman and one of the most genuine guys you could ever wish to meet, Tony was heavily involved with the old Southern League (in which he played with considerable distinction), initially as treasurer then the league’s chairman for five years.
He later took up his role as Hampshire’s Chief Executive for a 16-year period before the move from Northlands Road to the Ageas Bowl.
He was previously county treasurer at Northlands Road and was later Cricket Secretary for a period of five years before taking retirement.
A tower of a man both professionally and in sport, Tony was a partner with the Winchester-based accountancy practice Brooking Knowles & Lawrence (BKL) before becoming Hampshire’s Chief Executive in 1986.
“Tony was well known and very popular with Hampshire members and played a pivotal role in moving the Club from Northlands Road to the Ageas Bowl,” recalled Hampshire cricket secretary Tim Tremlett, who played against Mr Baker countless times during his embryo years with Deanery.
In the days before media officers and media teams, Tony was the press contact and spokesman for the club. He handled the media as he did everything else, in an honest and gentlemanly way.
He ensured Hampshire's interests were protected but never shied away from awkward or tough questions. And you knew you were always dealing with a straight arrow of a guy.
Tony Baker’s considerable sporting prowess first became evident at Taunton’s Grammar School, where he excelled both academically, at cricket and on the basketball court, where he was a prolific point-scoring centre.
He played basketball for Old Tauntonians and represented the South.
A Saints season ticket holder in the Dell days, Tony’s uncle George Baker was club secretary at Southampton FC.
After a brief spell with the Inland Revenue, he concentrated in a career in accountancy, but alongside his family – he is survived by his wonderful wife (of over 50 years) Sally (always great fun to spend time with) and sons Paul and Jonathan – cricket was always his first love.
Old Tauntonians were a dominant force in South of England cricket during the pre-league Tony Baker era.
Tall and upright, he opened the OTs batting for years, alongside forming a formidable new-ball bowling partnership with Tim Binks and Bernie Thomason. Few opposing batsmen will forget the long loping Baker run-up, hair waving and then patted back again once he'd delivered the ball.
“In many ways he was a dogged opening batsman, seldom playing many bad shots and always working out ways to score runs when the going was tough,” reflected long time friend and OTs team-mate Derek Tulk, with whom he shared many years of captaincy.
“Everything Tony did was spot on. An inspirational figure, he was as straight as a dye.”
The advent of competitive league cricket in the early 1970s saw Old Tauntonians win three of the first five Southern League championships and finish runners-up to Deanery, their arch Southampton rivals, the sixth.
In 1972, he performed the feat of taking all ten Netley Sports wickets for 26 playing for OTs in the Hector Young Evening Trophy final in the Southampton Parks.
Four years later – by which time Southern League had really become established – he helped set a new first-wicket partnership for Southampton Touring Club, making an unbeaten 126 in a 235-run stand as Australian Old Collegians were beaten by ten wickets at the County Ground, Northlands Road. His long standing Aussie pal Simon Lane was stranded on 99* at the non-striker's end.....
Playing and often skippering Southampton Touring Club took Tony Baker all over the South for all-day Sunday matches, the club boasting a formidable fixture list.
It didn't end there. The Bakers took in cricket overseas on the Bournemouth & South Hants tours to rainy Barbados in 1979 (it poured down for best part of two of the three weeks they were there), muggy Singapore & Malaysia in 1984 (where Tony became the first - and only - Southern League chairman to strike a 50 in the Malay peninsular !) and two years later in Kenya. Those trips and the long flights gave Tony the opportunity to display some of the magnificent sporting cigarette card collection he had assembled; sadly the quizzes he set for the airborne tourists were all too much for most of us ...
Tony Baker was an outstanding cricketer, as well as being a kind and genial team-mate with a great sense of humour – the type of sportsman, sadly, we will rarely see again.
Local cricket will say its fond farewells to Tony at the Basingstoke Crematorium on Friday 10 November at 12.30pm. The wake will be at the Ageas Bowl, not Basingstoke & North Hants cricket club, as previously announced.
