Eric Burgin was a lovely man, who I was lucky enough to get to know quite well in his later years via Sheff Utd Cricket Club (for whom I played, not very well at all, in my early 40s, and with whom Eric remained in touch as a spectator, a former Chairman, and the grandparent of a player, until his death in 2012).
Eric had a more or less lifelong connection with Utd, having represented the cricket club from his teens until his retirement, during which time he became the first Sheffield cricketer for 50 years to play for Yorkshire during the 1952 and 1953 seasons--opening the bowling alongside, among others, Fred Trueman. Eric also played with distinction at centre half for SUFC reserves during the early years of World War 2, and always maintained that he would have played regularly for the first XI were it not for another squad member keeping the management supplied with wartime vegetables (and chickens) from his allotment! He went on to captain York City.
I have a half-finished book about Eric and his career with SUCC/SUFC, grounded in 60-70 hours of recorded interviews with him before he passed. I really must finish that damn book! If anyone on here feels like encouraging me, please feel free.
In lieu, I'll copy and paste the obituary I wrote for Eric that was published in the
Yorkshire Post. The editor changed my references to "Eric" to "Mr Burgin", to suit house style. And they cut the lines towards the end where I talk about "vested interests on the Yorkshire committee" and the Boycott-era "Yorkshire Reform Group". Otherwise, the paste below is as was published.
Eric Burgin (January 4 1924 – November 16 2012)
Eric Burgin, who opened the bowling for Yorkshire in 1952 and 1953, and who served on the Yorkshire Committee during the troubled “Boycott era”, has died in Sheffield, aged 88.
The first Sheffield cricketer to play for Yorkshire for 50 years, Eric was born in Pitsmoor in 1924 and grew up in a strict Methodist family in Shiregreen, where, by 1938, he was playing cricket for Low Shire Methodists in the Sheffield Sunday School League. The “Sunday School” was one of many amateur senior leagues in Sheffield that produced rich pickings for the bigger, more established clubs, and the following summer Eric moved to Sheffield United under the tutelage of Jack Elms and former Yorkshire all-rounder, Cyril Turner. By 1940 Eric was playing regularly for United’s 1st XI in the Yorkshire League in front of several thousand at Bramall Lane. In a debut he never tired of recalling, Eric’s first wicket was that of his boyhood idol, Bill Bowes, the Yorkshire and England fast bowler who played in the “Bodyline” Ashes series of 1932-33, who was guesting for York while on national service. Later that year Eric also signed amateur forms for Sheffield United Football Club, where wartime call-ups propelled him straight into the Reserves at centre-half.
Called up to the RAF in 1942, Eric went to Algeria in one of the biggest convoys of the War, where his company staffed a transit-camp shipping men and munitions for the African campaign and the Italian front. In Algeria, and in his subsequent posting to Italy, Eric played representative football for the RAF, including a memorable match in Milan where he was picked at full-back for Italy Combined Services South against Italy Combined Services North, and found himself marking the great Tom Finney.
Demobbed in 1946, Eric resumed his career at Sheffield United as a part-timer for the football club, for whom he played in the Reserves until 1949, when he left to captain the first team at York City. Appointed as bowling professional and senior bowling coach at the cricket club, Eric was running nets on the famous evening in 1947 when 16 year old Fred Trueman appeared off the streets at Bramall Lane.
Called up by the county in 1952, Eric played 12 times for Yorkshire—9 of them in the County Championship—including two matches against the MCC and one against the 1953 Australians. Bowling medium-fast inswingers and leg-cutters he took 31 wickets at an average of 25.64. Highlights included 6-43 against Surrey at Headingley, and 5-20 in the Roses match at Old Trafford in 1952, where he opened the bowling with his old protégé, Fred Trueman.
After captaining the Sheffield United side which played the last game of Yorkshire League cricket at Bramall Lane in 1973, Eric flung himself into cricket administration, leading Sheffield United as Vice-Chairman and Treasurer, and serving on the Yorkshire Committee from 1979. Eric’s optimism and courage were just what United needed during the difficult transition from life at Bramall Lane. The club found a new home at Bawtry Road and Eric began negotiations with Yorkshire to bring county cricket back to Sheffield. Plans to convert Bawtry Road into a County Championship venue were well-advanced when the venture was scuppered, Eric always felt, by vested interests on the Yorkshire Committee.
Voted off the Committee in 1984 by Yorkshire Reform Group members championing the cause of Geoffrey Boycott, Eric retained strong ties with Headingley as a founder of Yorkshire’s Old Players Association, and remained active at Sheffield United as a Committee member and Trustee of the cricket club. He is survived by his wife Betty, son Stuart, and grandson Matthew.
A few photos:-
Eric on debut for Yorkshire CCC vs Warwickshire, at Bradford Park Avenue, 1952.
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Eric, shaking hands with dignitary before Italy Combined Services North vs Italy Combined Services South. Milan. May 25, 1946.
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Eric (R), comprehensively skinned--by his own admission!--by Tom Finney (L), during Italy Combined Services North vs Italy Combined Services South. Milan, May 25, 1946.
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I have loads of photos, and scans of reserve team programmes for games Eric played in, and thousands of words of draft text from my book. V happy to be encouraged to post!
Eric Burgin. A proper gent. Much missed.