A SPECIAL ceremony took place at Selkirk Cricket Club’s Philiphaugh ground on Saturday, when a new bench was unveiled outside the club’s pavilion, dedicated to Selkirk cricket stalwarts Tom and Liz Brown.

The unveiling was carried out by three of the couple’s five children – Derek Brown, Carol Rae and Susan Pettie – watched by family and friends, along with former Selkirk team-mates of Tom.

“My father would have been 93 on August 26,” said Derek, “so the family thought it would be a good idea to invite folk who played alongside my Dad to attend the unveiling and have a bit of a reunion.”

A former Selkirk captain and life member, Tom Brown was one of the club’s greatest players of the post-war era, taking a record 1,574 Border League wickets in a playing career stretching from 1949-1992.

Tom’s wife Liz served as Selkirk’s official scorer over many years, having taken over from the couple’s son, Derek.

Paying tribute to the couple at Saturday’s unveiling, former team-mate George Thomson described Tom as Selkirk’s ‘greatest all-round sportsman of the second half of the 20th century’.

“It was a privilege to have known him, and to have played for him and against him, after I moved to Boroughmuir. He was a complete natural, and a credit to the town and to Selkirk Cricket Club.”