Sam Garaway

Sam Garaway's death, aged 83, was announced in early November 2026 by the Isle of Wight cricket site Vimps at the Crease, and reported on 9 November by Island Echo and the Isle of Wight County Press. The exact date and the cause of death were not given in the reports.

His son Mark said: "I think one of his proudest things was looking at the sheer number of players who he coached back in the day and how many of them are following in his footsteps, coaching at all levels of the game, from International to the vital roles in club cricket, the same place where dad thrived as a coach. Now that's a legacy. His spiritual coaching home was on the Island, that's where he was happiest. He loved the people on the Island and they loved him."

His funeral was arranged for Wednesday 18 November 2026 at 1.20pm at Taunton Crematorium, followed by a reception at the Somerset County Ground in Taunton.

Sam Garaway was born in South Wales and was blind in one eye from birth, which made his later sporting achievements all the more notable. He grew up in a council house, and the patch of green outside it became, as his obituary put it, his Lord's and his Villa Park.

He was never an academic. His headteacher agreed to keep him on in the sixth form only on condition that he scored more than 50 goals and 500 runs in a season, and he did both. As a schoolboy he played county cricket and county football.

He went on to St Paul's College, a teacher training college in Cheltenham. While there he played football for Cheltenham Town and had cricket trials with Gloucestershire, later playing for the Gloucestershire Club and Ground XI. He also played for the Cotswold village side Willersey, once taking seven wickets and two catches in the same innings.

Garaway began his teaching career at St Sampson's School in Wiltshire and later became headmaster of Carhampton Primary School in Somerset. In 1985 he moved to the Isle of Wight to become headteacher of St Boniface CE Primary School in Ventnor.

On the Island he joined Ventnor Cricket Club, playing alongside Jeff Hose, Steve Clutterbuck and others. He captained Ventnor for several seasons, winning Whitbread Cups and league titles, and represented the Isle of Wight.

In 1994 he chose to drop from the first XI to the third XI to work with the club's young players, whom he called the nippers. Juniors who began under him included Danny Briggs (Hampshire, Warwickshire, Sussex and England), Steve Snell (Gloucestershire and Somerset, later Cricket Scotland's director of cricket), Chris Russell (Worcestershire) and Adam Hose (Somerset, Warwickshire and Worcestershire). He also played a significant part in the development of David Griffiths (Hampshire and Kent), later head of cricket at Hilton College in South Africa.

He served for a time as the Isle of Wight Cricket Board's development officer, supporting the game across the Island, and coached the Help for Heroes cricket team based at Tidworth. He was also a qualified FA football coach.

Garaway was married to Val. Their son, Mark Garaway, played for Hampshire, England and MCC Young Cricketers at junior level and credited his father as an amazing influence who ferried him around the country to matches. Sam and Val later moved to follow Mark's career and watched him become a top coach: Mark's Somerset side won the T20 Blast and beat the touring Australians at Taunton, and he went on to join the England coaching team that won the Ashes under Duncan Fletcher. Sam was survived by Val, Mark, his daughter Sian and six grandchildren.

Garaway's legacy lies in the players he coached. Ventnor's third XI in the 1990s became a starting point for county and international cricketers, and many of those he taught went on to coach at every level of the game. As a headteacher in Ventnor for many years and a long-serving figure in Island cricket, he was remembered in local tributes as a cricketing legend.