Torquay and Devon career of Ron Willson remembered by team-mate David Post
By CONRAD SUTCLIFFE
FORMER Torquay and Devon all-rounder Ron Willson, who had a brief but lively career with club and county, has died in Zimbabwe at the age of 83.
Willson, an all-rounder, was engaged by Torquay CC at their professional at the start of the 1958 season. He replaced Reg Dare, the former Hampshire all-rounder, who had taken new employment with Ernest Turner Sports in High Wycombe.
Willson had played first-class cricket for Sussex between 1955-1957, without ever being a regular in the side. His career-best batting was 113 not out against Somerset in his final season at Hove.
In club cricket with Torquay it was a different story as Willson was a heavy run scorer and prolific wicket-taker with his slow left-arm bowling. He announced his arrival with a six-wicket haul in an early season win over Paignton.
In 1959, his final full season with Torquay, Willson completed the double of 100 first team wickets and 1,000 runs. Had it not been for a contracted commitment to play Western League football for Torquay United Reserves, his statistics would have been even more impressive.
Devon picked Willson for two games during the 1959 season, both of them on his home ground at Torquay. He made 31 with the bat and took one wicket on debut in a win over Berkshire.
Willson was man of the match in the drawn game against Dorset when he scored 50 and 66 AND took six wickets for 33 in the visitors’ second innings.
Willson was retained as Torquay’s professional for the 1960 season, but by late June he had left the club and his home in Bishopsteignton for a coaching post at Falcon College, Bulawayo in what was then Rhodesia.
Torquay needed a professional in a hurry – never easy to find mid-season – and turned in-house to Devon fast bowler David Post, who had been playing for Somerset II.
Post played regularly with Willson and remembered him as an effective cricketer as well as a useful footballer for Torquay United Reserves.
“You could not call Ron outstanding, but he was very good in the type of friendly cricket we played, which was almost every day in the latter part of the summer,” said Post.
“He bowled left-arm orthodox stuff at the same sort of pace as Derek Underwood and had a wicked faster ball and a good yorker.
“Ronnie only used the faster ball or the yorker occasionally if he was desperate to get someone out. We all thought he threw both of them, but no umpire ever noticed.”
Willson went on to play three times in first-class games for Rhodesia between 1961-62. The last wicket he claimed belonged to Everton Weeks in a match against an International XI in Bulawayo.
Ron Willson was born in Seaford, Sussex and attended Burgess Hill Secondary School. He made his debut for Sussex 2ndXI against Surrey at the Oval two weeks before his 16thbirthday.
Sussex kept Willson on a contract from 1948-1957, although his time with them was punctuated by two years’ National Service in the RAF.
Willson, who was of Romany extraction, never returned to the United Kingdom to live and died in Harare. Hid did attend Sussex ex-player re-unions during visits back to the UK.
Willson did the rounds in semi-professional football, playing for Haywards Heath (1953-1954), Lewes (1955) and finally Torquay United Reserves (1958).
According to the obituary written for Wisden, Willson’s domestic arrangements were unconventional.
“He had an eventful private life, outliving his fourth wife,” wrote the un-named obituarist.
“One son, who thought Willson was his older brother, met him only twice.”
