Whilst I knew that Don was in hospital, it is a great shock to hear that he is no longer with us - and I think it is a most appropriate gesture to have a tribute to him and a minute's silence at both games today.

My memories of Don go back to 1969, when as a colt, I started playing the odd game in the senior teams. His journey from Anerley to Addiscombe took him past the bottom of our road (The Glade in Shirley), so I was a passenger in his comfortable Rover 3.5 many times, and not just on the way to playing for Addiscombe. The smell of leather seats and pipe-smoke were the first impression as the car-door was opened!

Don also ran many other games, including the STOICS and the RIBA (Architect's) team, and as a schoolboy keen to play as much cricket as possible (particularly in the school holidays), I became a regular last-minute replacement for many of the mid-week games where last minute drop-outs are a fact of life!

I had discovered the delights of beer as soon as I started playing club cricket, and Don would never let me put my hand in my pocket to buy a drink. This was a lesson which lived on with me throughout my playing career. He explained: "when I started playing cricket (which I guess in Don's case was in the late 40s/early 50s), the older players always insisted on paying for my beer, so I will do the same for you. I hope you will remember this when you are my age!". As a teenager, this thought stuck with me, and when I became captain of the Saturday 3rds and Sunday 2nds in the late 70s and early 1980s I happily carried on Don's legacy by ensuring that the young lads in my team always had a beer in their hands after a game.

On the field, Don was a very useful all-rounder - a fast bowler and hard-hitting bat who had joined MCC as a playing member - but the first time I played in the Saturday 2nds in 1970, when he was captain, his bowling had reduced to a military medium. He encouraged me (as a young wicket-keeper) to stand up to the wicket (something which was normally limited to slow spinners), and he was so accurate, that it was a joy to keep wicket to him.

Of course, as many Addiscombe stalwarts will know, Don was still playing throughout the 1980s - a very valuable member of my team, and always the first on the team-sheet when we were selecting. He made the first-slip position his own, and was a great mentor as I learned the skills of captaincy standing next to him behind the wicket. By then, his bowling had changed to a leg-spinner (finger- rather than wrist-spin), and in this lower level of cricket a leggie was worth his weight in gold - and I remember that he carried quite a bit of weight in those later days!

I also got to know Don very well off the field - he was in the famed ADDSPARKLE Music Hall for every show from the very first in 1971 to the final one on 1985, and was an excellent Chairman (the Master of Ceremonies). He was always meticulous in his preparation, and the few VHS videos which remain show Don as the consummate 'mine host'. He was also a member of the Barber-shop quartet, which also included Derek Locke, Peter Brinson and Eric Hicks. I had been drafted in to be the 'musical director' - in other words, to help non-singers to sing 4-part, a capella music to a paying audience!

So, many happy memories, and a very sad loss to Addiscombe - a club he served for half a century as a player, an umpire, an entertainer, and a vice-president.

Ian Harris

Following on from my brothers tribute to Don there is nothing really that I can add to his kind words. However I suppose my earliest memory of Don would be when Dad was skippering the Saturday two's in the early sixties. I remembering saying to me (I was around nine or ten years old) that there was new member playing in his team that day, also called D Stevens. A youthful DWR (Derek) Stevens being the "other one". Funny how some things still stick in the memory that happened the best part of five decades ago. I also had the privilege of playing many times in the same side as Don remembering that it was always good fun. He always gave you a good "crack of the whip" when as Captain although I suspected that I was probably there to run around in the field! To finish as Ian said a sad loss to Addiscombe and also to that wonderful game called cricket.

David Harris.