ONE of the Cumbria Cricket League’s most respected scorers has retired from the profession.

Tim Kempster, 63, has been first team scorer at Workington for 26 years until today.

He scored for the last time at Furness on Sunday, when Workington were beaten in the final of the League’s T20 competition.

Tim said he had intended to retire at the end of the 2020 season, and informed the club he would be standing down.

He spoke of the decision to go on despite wanting to retire more early: “Because the season was incomplete I decided to go on for one more year, really to give myself a little bit more free time.

“To be truthful, I probably wasn’t enjoying doing it as much as I had, and maybe because one or two mistakes were creeping in.”

Having been an open batsman for the club, moving to scoring was seen as a natural progression when he knew it was time to stop playing.

“My grandfather taught me how to score when I was a young boy so it was always something I knew about and enjoyed," he said.

“Towards the end of my playing career a lot of our matches didn’t have umpires and the lads had to take it in turns to don the white coat and do a bit in the middle.

“I absolutely detested umpiring so I used to take over the scorebook which the others were quite happy for me to do.

“From there I moved to scoring for the second team and then the first team scorer Ged Cunningham asked to swap roles which we did in 1996.”

Tim believed he had scored roughly over 600 matches in his career.

When asked if one match stood out particularly, he recalled one in particular.

“Definitely, August 2nd, 2005.

“I had watched England beat Australia by three runs at Edgbaston and then scored Workington’s Higson Cup final at Cleator against Keswick.

“Simon Beare hit 215 as Workington made 397-7 in 45 overs.

"It was an incredible innings, the best I’ve seen live.”

In a Tweet, the Workington club said: “This weekend saw our main man – and in our humble opining – the finest scorer in the land, Tim Kempster bow out after over a quarter of a century.

“Through thick and thin, he’s been an ever-present across that period.

"As a club we simply cannot operate without people like Tim and we will be eternally grateful for all the time he has given us.”

Giving tribute to the icon, Workington Cricket Club chair, Kristian Moffat, recalled one of his memories of being with Tim: “I remember passing my driving test, I needed it because you have to drive to Barrow quite a lot in the club so a week after passing I decided to drive to Barrow.

“Tim, being one of the club’s fairest critics, was also not shy of commenting on my driving, and by the time we got to the Travellers Rest pub in Workington, he had already offered to drive in his car, so I spent the rest of the trip sweating!”

Giving a heartfelt tribute, he said: “In a club like this, you’re always looking for people to help find players, or find people to help you out for anything you need.

“For a lot of clubs, you see them struggle for a long time, and you see other teams struggling for scorers.

"With us, Tim has always been there – he was there every week.

"He is a lovely chap, no hassle, and was a solid fixture at the club.”