Alan Butcher first stepped onto the pitch as an Addiscombe Colt at the age of 11. But before his prowess could develop much, his family emigrated to Australia. His cricket flourished Down Under and four years later he was representing the South Australian Under 15’s before his family decided to come home to Blighty.

Alan returned to Croydon with flowing blonde hair, an Aussie twang and an Aussie’s cricketing ebullience. He arrived back in time for the Sunday 2nd XI’s opening game in 1971 at The Mote in Kent. It was a scintillating debut. He scored quick runs and took great wickets and completed a stunning run out from extra cover. We lost the game, but Alan Butcher had arrived!

A prolific season for Addiscombe ensued. In those days Butch was very much a Sam Curran kind of player. He bowled lively left arm seamers and showed great batting talent coming in at 5 or 6. The brilliance in the field he showed on his debut was also regularly replicated. The Oval were quickly on his trail and Surrey coaches regularly visited Sandilands to see how ‘Butch’ was coming along.

In 1972 Alan was signed by Surrey CC, ironically as a bowling all-rounder. But before long though his batting came to the fore and by the mid-1970’s he was opening the innings. He was awarded his Surrey County Cap in 1975 and England captain Mike Brearley rated him one of the top players of fast bowling in the county game.

In 1979, he was picked to play for England against India in a Test match at The Oval. He opened the batting alongside Geoff Boycott, scored 14 and 20 but was never selected for England again. He became known, somewhat unfairly as a “one cap wonder” and the answer of many pub quiz cricket questions.

During his 15 years at The Oval, Butch averaged between 1,300 and 1,700 runs each season. For his benefit year in 1985 Addiscombe organised a game at Sandilands on the 1st January. A bumper crowd turned up in the freezing conditions. The pitch was somewhat ‘bowler-friendly’ so the wickets kept tumbling and not many runs were scored, but it was great fun.

In 1987 Alan moved to Glamorgan where he became captain and he scored heavily in the final seasons of his career. In 1990 he scored over 2,800 runs in all cricket and was a Wisden 'Cricketer of the Year' in 1991. Some argued for an England re-call but this never came.

On retirement Alan took up coaching firstly with Essex, and then Surrey. He helped his son Mark regain his England Test place by re-modelling his technique. He then ventured to Zimbabwe in 2010 where he was a successful Head Coach during the Mugabe years. His book The Good Murungu tells the story of his time in Zimbabwe. He has been back in the UK for a few years now and was Batting Consultant at Sussex for the second half of the 2019 season.

Alan is the member of a remarkable cricketing dynasty. His brother Martin was on the Lord’s ground staff and was an Addiscombe star in the 80s and 90s - and still does a great job as ACC’s groundsman. His youngest brother Ian played for Gloucestershire and Leicestershire.

And then there is Alan’s two sons: Mark who played 71 Tests for England, scored 8 test centuries and is now a respected cricket commentator. And his younger son Gary who also played for Surrey and Glamorgan and coaches at Kings College, Wimbledon.

Chris Whitehouse