Cleckheaton Cricket Club to install memorial stone in tribute to cricketer Lloyd

Lloyd Campbell, of Cleckheaton, played local league cricket until he was 67. He was a talented all-rounder and fast bowler.

One of 13 children, Lloyd was part of the Windrush generation who left the West Indies to make a new life in Britain.

He grew up in poverty and often went without shoes. Sometimes he had to eat sugar cane because his family had no money for food.

Lloyd came to England in 1957 aged 23. He had relatives in Leeds and as he and his cousin travelled north by train Lloyd remarked that they wouldn’t have any trouble finding work because of all the factories.

He had never seen houses with smoking chimneys before and he had mistaken homes for factories.

Lloyd was a tailor in Jamaica but had various jobs in the UK, working for 27 years at Haigh-Chadwick, a textile machinery firm in Cleckheaton.

He lived in Chapeltown and met his wife Jean at the Mecca dance hall in Leeds. Jean came from a white family and they married in 1960 in an era when inter-racial marriages were rare.

After their marriage the newly-weds moved to Heckmondwike and later Gomersal where they spent most of their married life. Jean died last year.

Lloyd always loved cricket and his first game was at Cleckheaton Cricket Club in 1957. He had been asked to play by a touring university team.

Lloyd played for several clubs including Hartshead Moor, Scholes, Cleckheaton, Liversedge and Staincliffe.

He captained Gomersal for 13 years. He played his last game aged 67.

Only daughter Belinda said her dad’s passions were cricket and a few bets on the horses.

He had been offered money to play cricket but always refused, saying it would spoil his enjoyment of the game.

His best ever bowling figures were 7-17 including a hat-trick for Gomersal in 1975.

His family still have the match ball and trophy he was given as a memento.

Lloyd leaves Belinda and two grandchildren Mac and Mae.

A memorial stone will be set in his memory at Cleckheaton Cricket Club.

His body has been donated to medical science.