Popular cricket reporter a ‘true gent’

THE death of David Holmes on Sunday has left the cricket community in Northern Ireland in shock.

The 54-year-old cricket correspondent of the News Letter — and contributor to the Belfast Telegraph and Sunday Life — was a friend to everyone and known at every ground in the Northern Cricket Union.

No one spoke to more players than David and during the course of a season no one wrote more words.

He had so much more to give, so many more seasons to cover and, cruelly, for a lover of cricket at every level, he won’t be at Ireland’s Test match debut in May.

It was only recently that he had started attending international matches, but his personality gave him instant access to the players and Gary Wilson and Andy Balbirnie, currently in the UAE with the Ireland squad, were among the first to tweet their condolences.

A prolific tweeter — he posted more than 25,000 since he joined in time for the 2010 cricket season — his last was sent at 11.05 on Sunday morning, in reply to North Down’s announcement that Ryan Haire was returning to the Comber club, hailing him as a “quality act and sure to strengthen the side”.

Haire, a former Ireland international, responded: “Truely shocked and saddened by this news! A true gent.”

The last time I saw David was at the Cricket Ireland Awards in November when he was taking pictures and tweeting throughout the event, a follower you could rely on to keep you up to date with what was happening in cricket circles.

Many times I would try to contact him by phone when he was at a match during the season but invariably he didn’t pick up; he would either be in full flow talking to someone or sending his latest tweet.

David was not a trained journalist — he worked for the Ulster Bank before moving to the Londonderry-based Click Energy company — but he offered his services to Alistair Bushe at the News Letter and myself on this newspaper and we were grateful for all his contributions.

Totally reliable, if I was missing a result on a Saturday night for the Sunday Life scoreboard, I only had to ring David — who was already collating up to 10 scores for me every week — and he would dip into his contact book and come up with the details.

Educated at Royal Belfast Academical Institution, he went on to play cricket for Instonians and captained the Third XI to a league title. Current Cricket Ireland president Brian Walsh was a teammate in the side.

“He was so enthusiastic, a great character who will be sadly missed,” said Mr Walsh.

He will leave a huge void at cricket grounds this summer.