John Hurst

A man with a passion for cricket, who wrote articles and books on the game and who was well known to players and spectators in Carlisle and all over Cumbria, John Hurst has died aged 80.
He was an equally well-known journalist who began work as a £1-a-week junior reporter with the Cumberland and Westmorland Herald and who eventually became the newspaper’s editor.
And then there was his interest in football, which prompted him to write a book marking the centenary of the Penrith Football Club.
Born on May 19, 1928, he was the eldest of three sons of John and Mary Jane Hurst, Abbeytown, Wigton. His brothers, Tom and Alan, were twins. His father, a Prudential Assurance agent, was promoted early in the 1930s and this involved a transfer into Lancashire. The family moved, first to Clitheroe and then to Feniscowles, near Blackburn, before returning to Cumberland in 1937 when Mr Hurst became the Prudential’s district manager in Penrith, with an office in Market Square.
Young John went to the Boys’ Council School, in Ullswater Road, and then, in September, 1939, to the Queen Elizabeth Grammar School, nearby. Like others of that wartime era, he had only half an education in the grammar school itself, as evacuees from Newcastle upon Tyne had use of the building in the afternoons. An interest in writing and newspapers stemmed partly from visits to his grandmothers, both at Abbeytown, who encouraged him to write letters describing his holidays, the chapel activities, slide shows and pie and pea suppers. This seed later blossomed and towards the end of his years at the grammar school he was taking lessons in shorthand and participating in a correspondence course with the London School of Journalism. He applied for a job with the Herald and after an interview with editor Tom Sarginson was taken on as a £1-a-week junior reporter and began work in January, 1945.
There were no full-time college courses for journalists in those days but practical experience, Under the ever-watchful eyes of Robert Irving and Robert E Burne, the manager, gave the newcomer a sound grounding. He attended his first magistrates’ court with Mr Irving and thereafter covered hundreds of sittings at Penrith, Appleby and the now-defunct courthouses at Hackthorpe, Shap, Alston and Kirkby Stephen. The Penrith Observer was still being printed in Penrith, in premises in St Andrew’s Churchyard, but the rivalry between the newspapers was generally friendly.
In fact, the Observer was the first of several papers and organisations which tried to coax him away from the Herald, but his loyalty to this particular newspaper did not waver, despite the generosity of some offers.
Although he spent many years more or less office-bound, as a sub-editor and then editor, he always reckoned that his most memorable years were when he was reporting and getting away from the office., particularly to jobs like Grasmere sports and other big Lake District gatherings.
In later years he developed an interest in local history, particularly as it related to sporting activities, and during the 60s he wrote Century of Penrith Cricket, a history of Penrith CC. He also served the club as a committeeman, including several years as chairman and then president.
His later books included a history of Cumberland County Cricket Club and True Blues, a book which marked the centenary of Penrith Football Club. (whose activities and matches he had previously reported on). He went on to become president of Penrith FC in 2001.
In honour of his service to both Penrith cricket and football clubs, he was made a life member of each. He edited a Carlisle Cricket Club history and also edited Cumberland CCC yearbook. Mr Hurst was also a member of the Cricket Society (often contributing to its publications articles on the history of the game in Cumbria) and of the Association of Sports Historians.
He had enjoyed playing soccer for local junior sides – Penrith YMCA and Penrith Weavers – but was an indifferent cricketer, although in the late 50s he played for Jackie Lancaster’s team, the “Barrackers”, when they won the Penrith CC medal competition. He was a member of the Rotary Club of Penrith for some years.
He leaves his wife, daughter, son, three granddaughters and grandson.