members of the cricketing ‘family’ came together to pay their respects to the late worcestershire first team scorer dawn pugh whose funeral was held at christ church, broadheath today.
dawn, 65, sadly passed away last month after a brave and lengthy battle against cancer.
scorers from surrey, gloucestershire, sussex, derby, northamptonshire, somerset, glamorgan, warwickshire and, of course, worcestershire in phil mellish and sue drinkwater plus umpire nigel cowley attended the service in a packed church.
worcestershire’s coaching staff, support team, players and officials were also out in force including director of cricket steve rhodes, skipper joe leach and chairman stephen taylor.
one of dawn’s sons, david, gave a moving address and spoke of her love for sport and animals and how she was also a keen footballer for kays ladies and even played in a match at white hart lane.
he thanked on behalf of the family everyone for their messages of condolence and support.
cannon michael nott also spoke warmly of dawn – who was married to husband john in the same church 44 years ago – as a person and there was a poignant reading of the poem ‘she is gone’ by geoffrey kington.
there then followed a gathering in the graeme hick pavilion at New Road for light refreshments at which steve rhodes gave a short address.
he said: “dawn has been a huge party of our family at worcestershire. she was a wonderful lady and looked upon the players and staff as ‘my boys.’
“when we got promoted this year, joe leach got the guys together for a toast in the dressing room and said ‘we are missing one of our group’ and we toasted dawn with the promotion.
“she was very proud of what they did and she was very humble and understanding when things didn’t quite go so well.
“everyone loved her from our playing side and staff side but also the other scorers as well from around the counties and it was great to see them here after travelling a long, long way.”
donations in memory of dawn can be made to st. richard’s hospice or sent to av band funeral directors, 41 st nicholas street, worcester, wr1 1uw.
