Simon Prodger died very unexpectedly on Saturday 8 April 2023 aged just 63. He was a cricket man through and through. As a player but even more significantly as an administrator and activist serving many cricket-related charities, his contribution to cricket – and through cricket to social and educational good – was nothing less than immense.  It was entirely fitting that the MCC has recently honoured Prodge posthumously with a Community Cricket Hero award.

As a player Prodge relished the competition of Saturday league cricket at Harlow CC, at Hoddesdon CC, at Harefield CC and finally at Watford Town CC. Beyond this, he played on Sundays for Stroud Green CC in Haringey (a club represented almost exclusively by West Indians), represented the MCC on 113 occasions at home and abroad, was a regular for the Kenya Kongonis and Stragglers of Asia and, in his later years, also for Bucks Over-50s.

Off the field, he served as a longstanding Secretary and MD of the Club Cricket Conference and National Cricket Conference, as Chair of Watford Town CC, as a trustee of the Club Cricket Charity, as Executive Trustee of the East Africa Character Development Trust and trustee of the Character Through Cricket Charity.  In everything Simon undertook, he fought tirelessly to promote the recreational game and community cricket clubs.