WGCCC are sad to announce the sudden passing of former First XI scorer and club historian Andrew ‘Altie’ Edwards.
Altie first joined the club as a teenager in the early 1980s and quickly made his home in the old orange scorebox, despite the vertiginous climb to the scorers’ desk via its rickety woodworm-ravaged ladder.
A meticulous scorer and cricket badger, Altie barely missed a match in an almost 25-year spell as the first-team’s statistician, recording thousands of games with his trusted pencil and blue biro - he was ‘old school’ in that regard.
He even took the field as a player from time to time, and fulfilled the role of skipper of the Sunday Third XI for a number of seasons, before regaling with great delight and detail his team’s game-by-game exploits in his own indomitable style at Presentation Nights: ‘And so, on to Little Gaddesden…’
Altie was a true English eccentric, with a character all of his own, and although his ability with bat and ball was somewhat limited, his skill in the scorebox was beyond reproach, and his love of the game was irrefutable.
The eldest of three brothers and a former pupil at Sir Frederic Osborn School in WGC, Altie eventually relocated to Rochester, Kent in the early 2000s to be closer to his mother, and for a time made the long journey to and from Digswell Park, often staying in the pavilion overnight, to continue scoring for the ones.
He finally found a club closer to home at Bickley Park CC, where he became a much-loved and ever-present member of their cricketing community as he marked every dot ball, extra, run and wicket over the last 20 years without ever missing a game home or away.
Each weekend, Altie would post a humorous preview of Bickley Park’s upcoming fixtures on Facebook, just as he did on Saturday. Tragically, Altie suffered a heart attack on the way to a T20 game on Sunday morning, and despite the heroic efforts of the emergency services, passed away at the age of 58.
Altie, a unique and gentle soul, will be sorely missed by all who knew him. He was WGCCC through and through.
Andrew ‘Altie’ Edwards
16.8.1967-14.6.2026