Service for Coco

Colin was given a send off in a charming service led movingly by his sister Jane at Mortonhall Crematorium. With numbers strictly limited, 6 Crossers were in attendance: Shifty, Mahmood, JB, King, Smudger and Charlie (many thanks to Smudger for liaising with the family and ensuring the the Cross were really well represented). 

Jane affectionately detailed his childhood love of words games and music and his mischievous sense of humour. She went on to describe his supportive and caring side and read from a story that Colin regularly read to her children. Fairport Convention's Who Knows Where The Time Goes? was a moving choice of song as we were invited to think of our own personal memories of Coco (my mind drifted to an image of Colin, fag in hand, rolling the wicket in the evening sunshine...). 

Both Jane and Colin's wife Anne thanked all those who had sent cards and who had left comments online about Colin since his death.  Shifty (looking more like McGill with every passing day!) gave a superb eulogy (as previewed on the HX blog) which captured Colin's character -and his ability to make us all laugh- wonderfully well. We left the chapel to the strains of the TMS theme Soul Limbo which ended proceedings on an uplifting note. It's just a pity that so few people were allowed to attend- the place would have been thronged with East League cricketers in normal times.  Colin's wife Anne hopes we can have a celebratory match at Arboretum in Colin's honour. Hopefully things will ease enough to allow us to hold such an event sometime this summer. 

With Hugh & Colin dying within a few months of each other, it’s clearly a sad time for the club. They were-I’m sure people would agree- very different characters, though they had a shared passion for cricket and statistics. In their different ways they both characterised the spirit of the club and its ability to contain within it a wide variety of personalities. With Colin’s passing we’ve certainly lost one of our great characters though he will long be remembered by us all and those he spent time with on and off the field.