JOHN LYON, the former Lancashire wicket keeper, who had such a great impact as a coach at both Bangor and Clontarf, died in Krugersdorp, South Africa on 2nd January 2010 aged 58.
He played 84 matches for Lancashire between 1973 and 1979 and also toured South Africa with DH Robins XI in 1973/74.
In all first class matches, he held 159 catches and stumped 12.
A somewhat negligible tail end batsman, he nevertheless made one first class hundred, but aggregated only 1,016 runs at 13.91.
The hundred was made in somewhat remarkable circumstances against Warwickshire at Old Trafford in his final season.
The visitors had scored 359. Then, having dismissed Lancashire for 208, enforced the follow on. Lancashire were 230/7 when John and pace bowler Bob Ratcliffe came together. They added a county record 158 both scoring their only first class hundreds.
As a coach his value to Irish cricket was untold. After two years at Bangor, where he had much to do with Michael Rea's early development and that of Irish wicket keeper Brian Miller, he moved south and spent some seven years with Clontarf.
Numerous players, including leading internationals such as Deryck Vincent and - having also moved to Clontarf - Rea once again, felt that they owed a tremendous amount to him. He also set in motion the Club's highly successful age group system.
Moving to South Africa, he ran a successful sports bar and also held a variety of coaching positions, being still involved in this work at the time of his much lamented death.
Edward Liddle
Copyright: Cover Point
