Son pays tribute after the passing and funeral of a well-known local cricket legend

When John Bigham was born on the 7th June 1946 nobody knew that he would be a cricket fanatic. Born and bred in Peterborough, John started playing for Peterborough Town (when they played at Crawthorne Road) in the late 1950s, before he stopped in the mid 1970s to start a family and due to his work commitments.

By his words he was an average cricketer, but he did take a hat trick at Elton Park in 1960. That was the same year that he umpired for the first time giving Norman Hever (Ex Glamorgan and Middlesex, and then later Northants Groundsman) out lbw when he played for Peterborough Town. His Uncle Dennis played cricket at Baker Perkins playing at Alma Road and continued to play after he moved to Canada and John's mum would also regularly score.

After playing at Stamford School and at Peterborough Town, he got back involved in cricket in 1991 when his 11 year-old son Jonathan joined Orton Park. While involved at Orton Park from 1991-2016 John served on the committee for 20 years and in that time was Chairman for 8 years, Vice Chairman for 8 years, Treasurer for 12 years, Youth Development Officer for 8 years and also Fixture Secretary for 1 year.

He umpired hundreds of adult and colts matches for Orton and also picked many a team for adult and colts matches. He had many good memories of the club including the colts tour to the Isle of Wight in 1995 when he spent 4 days in Ventnor umpiring and scoring 3 matches and beating the youngsters at putting!

However, it was not just with Orton Park that he was known. He joined the Hunts League committee in November 2001. The Chairman John Gillett would not continue the meeting until a new committee member had been appointed. After a long delay Dave Rodgerson (Werrington) and the late Alan Hughes (Orton Park) persuaded/volunteered John to join the committee and the meeting continued after a large round of applause. "Don't tell your Mum" he told me on the way home that Tuesday night, "I will do it at the weekend".

Over the next 21 years in the Hunts League he was Safeguarding Officer for 16 years, Results Secretary for 14 years, Registration officer for 9 years and was Treasurer for the last 10 years. He loved all the roles particularly the results as in those days the home team had to phone the result in by 10.00pm that Saturday or Sunday night. He always enjoyed speaking to the clubs about their matches, helping them with points allocations and congratulating them on their win or wishing them all the best for next week after their defeat.

In 2007 when his son was out injured with a fractured and dislocated ankle and was helping with the results the policy changed so teams that forgot to phone in were phoned at 7.30am that next morning! Very few clubs then forgot to phone on Saturday or Sunday night. He would say "if you sow the right seeds you get the right results."

John played the occasional match for Orton Park and later Ufford Park, but as well as administrating he umpired midweek and weekend matches from 1995-2021. He umpired in the Rutland, Hunts, Cambs, and South Lincs Leagues and also umpired for Wansford in the now defunct Peterborough Jack Goodwin League as well as also making the occasional "helping out" appearance in the Lincoln Sunday League.

His son's job in Sports Development had taken him to Lincoln so he also helped them out and enjoyed seeing different grounds, different players, different teams and different umpires.

He also umpired many matches in the Stamford Cups, Jaidka Cup, Peterborough Midweek League and the Burghley Park Sixes. He umpired many colts matches and finals as well as umpiring 2 Stamford Finals, 3 Peterborough Midweek League Killingworth Cup Finals as well as the Burghley Park Sixes Final in 2019 when Bourne beat Oundle in a high scoring match.

That final in 2019 was very special as he got to umpire it with his son. He had umpired numerous matches with his son before but that match and that location was important to him. He umpired 3 fundraising Bunbury matches at Alconbury Cricket Club meeting a number of different sportsmen. At the 2014 match he found out he had become a Grandpa for the 2nd time during the tea interval and after telling his umpiring colleague the news was announced to the watching crowd. With all of those matches he umpired approximately a thousand games.

If being involved with the Hunts League, Orton Park and umpiring wasn't enough he was Treasurer and Safeguarding Officer of the Border Counties Youth Cricket Association for the last 17 years and was also Treasurer and Safeguarding Officer of the Hunts Association of Cricket Officials (ACO) for 11 years until they merged with Cambs in April 2022. He was also Treasurer and Safeguarding Officer of the Rutland League for the last 5 years and also umpired and scored at the Hunts Indoor League (based at Bushfield Sports Centre in Peterborough) for the last 12 years.

If the above didn't keep him busy, he served on the Ufford Park committee for a couple of years, was Vice President at Newborough, Ufford and Ramsey Cricket Clubs and regularly attended meetings of the Stamford Umpires Association.

He also enjoyed other sports and when younger played golf and was a member of Longthorpe Tennis Club. He was a season ticket holder at Peterborough United FC up to 2020 and he also enjoyed a visit every year to Old Trafford to watch Manchester United.

During the winter he enjoyed watching hockey at City of Peterborough Hockey Club and also travelled with his son to a number of hockey grounds in the East to watch him play and umpire. In the 1990s he was involved with his son at Bushfield Park Football Club where he was Treasurer and also managed for 1 season when they could not find a manager.

In 2014 he received a Lifetime Achievement Award at the Natwest Oscars with a day out at Lords and in July 2022 the Peterborough Midweek League Committee renamed their Plate Competition The John Bigham Plate Final as a mark of respect for all the hard work he has done.

John attended that final and presentation seeing Orton Park victorious.

John enjoyed seeing people play and enjoy sport at whatever level. One of his grandchildren has just taken part in Dynamos this summer at Peterborough Town and whether she plays for a short time or a long time he was pleased to see her enjoying the game.

John showed early signs of addiction to cricket and on Friday 5th August 2022 he raised his bat celebrating his Golden Wedding Anniversary with his wife Sue.

At John's request the funeral was family only but donations if desired in John's memory to a fundraising page on Justgiving titled: In celebration of the life of John Edward Bigham.