Close friend and Surfers Paradise Cricket Club senior vice president mourns loss of friend

Close friend and senior vice president Scott Day says it will take half-a-dozen people to fill the void left by Chris Connell at Surfers Paradise Cricket Club as the community prepares to farewell its legendary member.

CLOSE friend and senior vice president Scott Day says it will take half-a-dozen people to fill the void left by Chris Connell at Surfers Paradise Cricket Club as the community prepares to farewell the heart and soul of the club.

Day spent seven years with Connell at the club before the 43-year-old’s death last Tuesday.

The grieving friend and club coach said the former Surfers Paradise secretary would be remembered as a selfless, passionate and enthusiastic man who influenced the junior careers of many players and was the lifeblood of the club.

‘WE’VE LOST A TRUE FRIEND AND LEADER’

“He was very passionate about his mates and family. He would do anything for anyone,” Day said ahead of Connell’s funeral at Reedy Creek Baptist Church on Friday.

“The next season would have been our eighth together. He was the under-17s coach and basically coached the same group of kids from about under-14s to under-17s.

Chris Connell (bottom row, far left) with members of the Surfers Paradise Cricket Club. Picture: Taken from Facebook.

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“So he has had a big influence on those kids and treated them very well.

“All the parents loved him for the way he coached them and his enthusiasm and to get them all to participate and compete and have fun.

“He spent hours and hours every week at the club. He would be one of the blokes organising our functions, presentation nights, weekend cricket, getting the covers on and off, putting the side screens up and down, sorting witches hats. You turn around and he was doing it.

“It will take half a dozen people to do what he did.”