The Peterborough Evening Telegraph
Poshlegend’sashes scattered13 years on
The ashes of a Peterborough United legend have been scattered on the field of his first sporting love - cricket.
The family of Posh hero Noel Cantwell attended a ceremony in Ireland last week, where Noel’s ashes were spread on Cork Cricket Ground 13 years after he died in Peterborough.
While Noel was a well known figure in Peterborough, managing Posh twice - winning the fourth division championship in his first spell - his family said he considered Cork his home - and told of how he would get in trouble with Manchester United boss Sir Matt Busby for travelling to play cricket during the summer.
Noel represented Ireland in both football and cricket.
Noel’s daughters, Kate and Liz Cantwell, spoke to Eoin English of the Irish Examiner newspaper after a moving prayer ceremony on the grounds of the Cork County Cricket Club on the Mardyke, where the Cork-born former Manchester United skipper, Irish soccer and cricket international, embarked on his illustrious sporting career.
Born on the Mardyke in 1932, one of the best full-backs of his generation and one of Ireland’s first international soccer stars, Noel died in Peterborough on September 8, 2005, aged 73.
Kate, who was joined by her sons, Sam and Joe, her sister, Liz, and extended family and friends, said the ceremony was a day of mixed emotions.
“I’ve had my dad with me at my home for 13 years. But this is a really special place for us. It’s like coming home really.
“I always felt that he should come back to Cork, because this is his home,” she said.
“He loved this city like no other. He loved the characters, and the craic, and he especially loved the Mardyke, and his cricket club.
“Cricket was my dad’s favourite sport.”
David Griffin, treasurer of the Cork County Cricket Club, described Noel as a very fluent, stroke-making batsman and a brilliant fielder.
He was so good, he was approached by Essex with a professional contract - but Kate said he declined because it would mean no summer visits to Cork.
The sisters said their mother Maggie, who died late last year, struggled with life after Noel died, and really never wanted to let him go.
They discussed with her their hopes of bringing their father’s ashes home to Cork when they all attended the unveiling in 2015 of Noel Cantwell Walk nearby.
“She said ‘I think it’s time’,” Kate said.
“Sadly she’s not here to witness it, but I know they’re together and that she’d be so proud that we did it.”
‘I always felt that he should come back to Cork’
Kate Cantwell