FORMER POSTMAN WORTH £38,000

Manawatu Times, Volume 64, Issue 308, 30 December 1939, Page 9

FORMER POSTMAN WORTH £38,000

Fifty years ago they played cricket j: s they do to-day, on the village pitcl at Brompton-Ralph, near Taunton Somerset. And often, on a hot summon’s afternoon, the rural postman would halt as he trudged by, drop his bag, and sit on the grass to watch the game. Nobody noticed him much. Many cricketers have played at BromptonRalph since then. Whoever would reImember Postman William Randall? Whoever would think, either, that William Randall, who came into money and left the little village to go and live in Cleeve House, Cleeve, near Bristol, would look back on those days fend live them over again?” But he did. The other day BromptonRalph learned that the postman who flied worth nearly £38,000 had left £SOO to the village cricket club. His will say s that the committee of the club is to spend the money “as it Ithinks proper, in the hope that it will be able to turn out some good cricketers.” The village grocer, Mr Albert Box, who is’ captain of the cricket team, said to a Daily Mail correspondent: “At first we thought it was a mistake. Nobody knew of aMr Randall, and then some of the old inhabitants remembered that a man of that name used to watch the matches when he came here on his postal rounds. “We have got a middling cricket team and have not produced any outstanding players so far; but, who knows, we may be like our neighbours, Watchet, and produce another Gimblett to play for England and Somerset.”

' Mr Randall also left £SOO to Somer jset County Cricket Club.