CONRAD SUTCLIFFE REPORTING

SPORTSMAN, businessman and admin man extraordinaire, Barry Page-Dove has died at the age of 85.

Page-Dove, a former Torquay hotel owner, had a life-long love of cricket as a player, captain and later as the long-serving de facto chief executive of the Devon Cricket League.

Either side of a 17-year stint running the cricket league in his capacity as secretary, Page-Dove played rugby at school and for Wigtownshire in Scotland, football for retro side Torbay Gentlemen in the South Devon League and got heavily involved in amateur swimming through his sons.

Page-Dove the cricketer turned out for Narracotts CC, Wellswood CC, St Marychurch CC, whom he captained, and finally Kingskerswell CC.

Former team-mates remember Page-Dove as an asset to the team as a player and leader.

Robbie Lewis, who played under Page-Dove at St Marychurch, said: “Barry was a good batsman and a better bowler than people thought.

“He was a nice chap who loved cricket and played it in a gutsy way.”

Chris Walker, another St Marychurch team-mate back in the late 70s and early 80s, said: “We had a useful side in those days, captained by someone who did nothing controversial and played honest cricket.

“If the game was drifting away from us, Barry would come on to bowl and often took the wicket that we needed.”

Phil Bees, who played against Page-Dove and worked with him on the league executive, said: "I came across him when I became a results secretary, back in 1986 and he was Devon League secretary. Sometimes firm, but always fair, Barry did some great work for the DCL."

Bees has never forgotten his first encounter with Page-Dove on the field, while playing for Whitchurch against St Marychurch in the early 80s.

“I was batting and Barry was fielding close in. I played the ball down close to me and asked if they wanted me to pass it to one of them,” recalled Bees.

“Barry said 'yes' then looked like he was going to run me out. He  didn't, but one of his team-mates said ‘never trust a hotelier!"

Page-Dove the footballer was recruited by the late Roger Mann, a cricketing team-mate and opponent at different times, for Torbay Gents. The team played in Victorian-style kit and travelled to matches in an Edwardian-era bus.

Swimming commitments included timekeeping and announcing at galas, some coaching at Leander SC in Torquay and swimming for Devon Masters.

When he wasn’t on a pitch of some sort or another, beside the pool or running football coaching responsibilities at Babbacombe Primary School, where he was a governor, Page-Dove built a successful hotel business that continues under family management of sons.

Talk about a live lived to the full!

Barry Page-Dove was born in Torquay where parents Arthur and Joan ran a successful hair-dressing salon in the Belgrave Road area. 

“Agatha Christie, the famous author, was one of their clients,” said wife Sheila, who was married to Barry for 54 years.

Page-Dove was educated at Montpellier School in Paignton – future England rugby captain Richard Sharp was a contemporary – then progressed to Blundell’s School in Tiverton.

Sheila said her husband fell in love with sport at school and remained besotted for the rest of his life.

“I think the seed  for his love of sport was sown at Montpellier, where he played football and cricket, and he played cricket and rugby while at Blundell’s,” said Sheila.

“Knowing that boys all enjoyed sport, football, swimming, cricket and golf, must have been a big motivation for Barry. Our family weekends were spent watching or playing cricket, or at swimming galas when Barry got older and was unable to play cricket.”

A career in the hotel industry was the young Page-Dove’s aim and he went straight into it as a trainee manager at the Imperial Hotel in Torquay.

It was while working at the Imperial that Page-Dove’s career literally took off!

“Barry was asked fly out to the Bahamas and spent six months out working in a hotel there gaining experience,” said Sheila.

Work placements in Norfolk, Port Patrick in Scotland, Torquay and Cardiff followed for Page-Dove in his role as a ‘trouble shooter’ for Mount Charlotte Hotels.

Barry met Sheila when both were working at the Victoria Hotel in Torquay. They married in 1972 had three sons – Xavier, Russell and Daryl – who between them, produced four grand-daughters and two grandsons.

The couple’s first venture into hotel ownership was at the Carlton Hotel near Lucius Street, which they owned and operated for 16 years before selling.

During a two-year sabbatical that followed, the Page-Doves worked as temporary managers on behalf of clients. They purchased the Anchorage Hotel in Babbacombe in the early 1990s.

Page-Dove ran the Anchorage until he retired in 2006 at the age of 65. For more than 20 years he was a member of the Torquay Hotels Association and served as chairman in 1988 and 1989.

There were few blank dates in Barry Page-Dove’s appointments diary, which was just how he liked it.

“Looking back I really have no idea where Barry found the time,” said Shelia.

“Barry worked all the hours he could at the hotel during the week, and tried to keep his weekends relatively free for sport.

“Early mornings and late nights working on cricket league business were never difficult for him. If he did anything he always gave it 100 per cent.”

Retirement allowed time away from sport for other interests such as stamp and postcard collecting and motor-homing all over Europe.

No formal funeral will be held for Page-Dove. Instead, a closed cremation has been arranged.

Sheila said her wish is to scatter her husband’s ashes on one of the home grounds he played on, subject to consent from users and the land owners.