Tony Ladner RIP
Gifted sportsman and civil engineer Tony Ladner, who has died aged 82, was one of the ‘Tregony Boys’ who emerged from a village better known for its footballers to leave their indelible mark on Cornish club cricket.
For much of the 1960’s and 1970’s, along with Tony Rodda, from Wheal Gerry, Camborne, he was a mainstay of Redruth CC, a leading wicket-taker in Senior One West and a Vinter Cup winner who made a surprise re-appearance to help Tregony Old Boys lift the Hawkey Cup.
Quite how Tony was able to retain his dual affiliation in Cornwall’s East and West sections, to become a Hawkey winner for Tregony in 1963, while also starring that season for Redruth, having moved there In 1961, has been lost in the mists of time.
What is beyond dispute is that he answered Tregony’s emergency call after one of their key all-rounders, farmer John Warne, dropped out in order to enter his prize-winning bull at the Royal Bath and West Show - which he won as well.
Born in 1942, midway through the Second World War, Tony started life in West Cornwall at St Hilary where his father Eric was a school teacher. The Ladners moved to Tregony after Eric was appointed head teacher of Tregony School.
In an era when there were no televisions and money was scarce, Tregony youngsters filled their evenings and weekends by playing cricket and football on their village playing field, just behind the school.
A kindly groundsman named Charlie Ford ensured that there was always a practice strip available. The outcome was 9 boys, who had started their cricket with Tregony in the League’s junior divisions, spreading their wings to play senior and representative cricket elsewhere, and give lifelong service to clubs, notably Ray Roberts and Peter Lidgey at Truro.
With Eric Ladner later becoming head teacher of Barncoose School and his family moving back West to Carn Brea, Tony Ladner enrolled at Cornwall Technical College, on his way to becoming a chartered municipal engineer, and joined Redruth CC.
1963 saw him feature both in the Redruth 2nd XI crowned as Cornwall Junior One champions and the Tregony XI which, against all the odds, won the Hawkey Cup Final with a two-run victory over recent Senior One East champions Veryan at St Columb.
Tony’s excellence as a brisk medium-pace bowler and useful middle-order batsman soon saw him become a Redruth 1st XI regular. A Vinter Cup Final victory in 1964, following an earlier one in 1962, was followed by further appearances in Vinter Finals and top 3 finishes in Senior 1 West.
He played for Cornwall making his debut against Devon at Camborne in 1967. Also for Michael Williams’ Cornish Crusaders, notably in a prestige fixture in 1968 against the International Cavaliers at Truro, where he found himself in a team with two Crusader ‘guests’, England batsman Tom Graveney and South Africa’s finest, Graeme Pollock.
The Shaft End at Redruth, where a mine engine house once stood, had been known as the Alan Opie End, in honour of a Cornwall bowler who took 445 league wickets for Redruth. With the arrival of his successor, it became the Tony Ladner End - and tailor-made for his off-cutters.
That was the way it stayed until the close of the 1976 season, by which time Tony had taken 638 league wickets for the Ist XI at minimal cost, while delivering many thousands of accurate, testing overs, and also contributing almost 3,000 runs with the bat.
Alas, with Tony only 33 years of age, a difference of opinion with his captain over whether or not he should keep bowling unchanged at the Shaft End - it is likely that Tony gave him 638 reasons why he should - led to his early retirement from cricket, and golf at Tehidy Park and Mullion. Cash offers from other cricket clubs to play for them instead were declined.
Opponents in the Falmouth and Helston Football League will also remember Tony as a skilled inside forward for Pool Sports Club at Roskear, alongside fellow Redruth CC team-mates Tony and Dickie Rodda and other Wheal Gerry Boys who excelled at football too.
Tony first worked for Camborne-Redruth Urban District Council, before joining Cornwall County Council’s highways department. He served that authority with distinction for many years, rising to be manager of Cornwall’s entire road network and responsible for its highway maintenance.
His expertise as an engineer proved invaluable both to Redruth CC, when the club embarked on levelling and enlarging its Trewirgie Hill ground, and his family: he designed and built their home at Trevingey, with a panoramic view of Carn Brea, where he passed away this month.
He is survived by his wife Margaret and sons Paul, a Redruth CC member, and James, a solicitor in London. His brother-in-law and fellow Tregony Boy Malcolm Trethowan, who went on to play cricket for Falmouth and Looe, will give the eulogy at Tony’s funeral at Treswithian Crematorium on Monday, March 3 at noon, followed by a wake at Redruth CC for his many friends.
