{"id":3717,"date":"2025-07-18T17:40:11","date_gmt":"2025-07-18T17:40:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/3717\/"},"modified":"2025-07-18T17:40:11","modified_gmt":"2025-07-18T17:40:11","slug":"hundreds-attend-david-syd-lawrences-emotional-funeral","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/3717\/","title":{"rendered":"Hundreds attend David ‘Syd’ Lawrence’s emotional funeral"},"content":{"rendered":"

Leigh Boobyer<\/p>\n

BBC News, West of England<\/p>\n

\"BBCBBC<\/p>\n

Lawrence’s son Buster, in the light suit, was one of the pallbearers<\/p>\n

Hundreds of people have attended the funeral of former England and Gloucestershire fast bowler David “Syd” Lawrence in Bristol.<\/p>\n

Lawrence, the first British-born black cricketer to represent England, was diagnosed with motor neurone disease (MND) in 2024 and died last month at the age of 61.<\/p>\n

Family, friends, and former teammates from both Gloucestershire and England, along with members of the public, gathered to remember him<\/a> at St Mary Redcliffe Church on Friday.<\/p>\n

An emotional Phil Tufnell, Lawrence’s friend and former England teammate, said Lawrence was “someone who you wanted on your side”.<\/p>\n

“[He was a] larger-than-life character and filled the room when he came in. We had some great laughs along the way,” he said.<\/p>\n

“He had this great big deep voice. He’d always say hello to everyone. It’s sad that he had to go.”<\/p>\n

\"PAPA Media<\/p>\n

David ‘Syd’ Lawrence died last month<\/p>\n

Revd Rupert Martin led the funeral, with the hymns including the well-known ‘The Lord is my Shepherd’.<\/p>\n

A eulogy was read by George Orchard, followed by family tributes from Shauna Mighty and Bev Powell, Alice Lawrence and Buster – Lawrence’s son.<\/p>\n

The Bristol Reggae Windrush Choir, which performed outside the church before the service began, also sang during the service.<\/p>\n

Current Gloucestershire Head Coach and former teammate Mark Alleyne said afterwards: “The service was wonderful.<\/p>\n

“[I’m] really proud to have known him and so glad he’s touched so many lives.”<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

The Bristol Reggae Windrush Choir performed a moving song before the service started<\/p>\n

The funeral was followed by a wake at the County Ground in north Bristol.<\/p>\n

Lawrence, affectionally known as “Syd”, was given an MBE in the King’s Birthday Honours weeks before he died for outstanding services to cricket.<\/p>\n

He played five Test matches for England and took 625 wickets in 280 matches during a 16-year career at Gloucestershire, where he grew up.<\/p>\n

After retirement he became a nightclub owner and amateur bodybuilder before being named Gloucestershire’s club president in 2022, a role he remained in until his death.<\/p>\n

Former cricketer Andy Brassington said he was with Lawrence, who he was friends with for more than 44 years, just an hour before his death.<\/p>\n

Speaking outside the church, Mr Brassington added he “has lost a best mate”.<\/p>\n

“It was a difficult situation for us all, and it was time for Syd to go. But right until the end was there he was positive.”<\/p>\n

\"Dozens<\/p>\n

Hundreds of mourners attended the funeral in Bristol city centre<\/p>\n

Additional reporting by Ali Durden, Ed Hadwin and James Diamond.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Leigh Boobyer BBC News, West of England BBC Lawrence’s son Buster, in the light suit, was one of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3718,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[564],"tags":[64,63,740,85],"class_list":["post-3717","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cricket","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-cricket","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3717","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3717"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3717\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3718"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3717"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3717"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3717"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}