Players fall silent in memory of cricket club president

A MINUTE of silence was observed at Henley Cricket Club on Saturday in honour of its former chairman, who died last month.

Players lined up on the pitch before the game against High Wycombe to recognise Jim Rance’s contribution to the club.

Mr Rance, who died shortly before his 92nd birthday, first played for the club in the mid-1960s and was also its chairman. He was one of the signatories when Brakspear granted the club a 30-year lease on the ground, off Matson Drive, in 1974. In 2005 the club borrowed £200,000 to buy the land from the pub company and in 2018 made the final repayment to keep it as a cricket ground in perpetuity.

Mr Rance, who was married to Adrienne, who died in 2021, lived at Crazies Hill for 70 years and continued to support the club as he grew older.

He was born on 28 August 1932 in Taplow and survived meningitis as a child, but his brothers sadly died of the disease.

Mr Rance moved with his parents to Crazies Hill when he was 20 when the family bought The Paddocks in 1952, with 26 acres of fields and woodland, where they raised pigs and chickens.

Mr Rance met Adrienne through their shared passion for horses. She was familiar, riding her pony Clover around the village and he was a keen rider. They married in 1963.

The couple had three children, Penny, Sarah and Hugh, and eight grandchildren, George, Will H, Katie, Millie, Harry, Will R, Ollie and Liza. They had a rowing team who stayed with them most summers for the Henley Royal Regatta and competed in the annual Wargrave and Shiplake Regatta.

Mrs Rance died aged 81 and a few months later Mr Rance, aged 90, was moved to Henley Manor care home. He died on May 31.