Mike Hobbs, one of the best known figures in local cricket, has died at the age of 72.

The father-of-two died at his home near Wallingford on March 10 after a short illness.

Mr Hobbs was a player, groundsman, president and umpire for Warborough & Shillingford Cricket Club.

And as a member of Somerset County Cricket Club he was responsible for bringing the county side to the village green for fundraising games in the 1980s.

All-time greats such as Sir Ian Botham, Sir Viv Richards, Joel Garner and Steve Waugh played against the village.

Mr Hobbs, of Rush Court Nurseries, near Wallingford, was the son of Lambourn racehorse trainer Reg Hobbs, who won the 1938 Grand National with Battleship.

Mike Hobbs mischievously enjoyed telling people that he was born in December 1938 and was the product of his mother and father’s celebration of the Grand National victory. In fact, he was born 12 months later.

After leaving school, Mr Hobbs moved to the then Rhodesia to work in the tobacco farming industry for six years.

On his return, he drove racehorse boxes around the country and was a corn merchant, before running his home at Rush Court Nurseries as a market garden.

He went on to work as the head groundsman at Shiplake College, near Henley, until his ret-irement in 1999.

A football fan, he was a season ticket holder at Swindon Town.

Mr Hobbs was a member of Wallingford’s Comrades social club for four decades.

Fellow member Jem Appleton said: “Mike was a countryman. He was a very good shot and he enjoyed patrolling his ground early morning or at dusk, looking for intruders. Squirrel, rabbit and magpie were dealt with severely.

“Mike enjoyed the good things of life – good food and adequate beverages to wash it down.

“As village groundsman Mike maintained a square worthy of county cricket. He was, in the words of one of his old Warborough teammates, ‘simply irreplaceable’.”

Richard Tilley, the assistant editor of The Oxford Times, played cricket at Warborough with Mr Hobbs and also worked for him at Shiplake College.

He described Mr Hobbs as a “wonderful one-off”.

Mr Tilley added: “As a young player turning out in the same side as him you wanted his approval. As a grown-up you wanted his company in the pub.

“He had a healthy disregard for authority and the rules, and like all truly great people he seemed to live his life differently from everyone else.”

Mr Hobbs is survived by wife Janet, children James and Andrew, and grandchildren Amelie, Louis and Finn.

The funeral will be held at St Laurence Church, Warborough, today at 1.30pm.