The Waringstown man played cricket internationally for Ireland, including when they famously beat the West Indies in 1969 and was also a former director of Irish League side Glenavon.<\/p>\n
Also playing cricket for Waringstown and North Down, Mr Reith played for Ireland between 1970 to 1980, making 44 appearances, scoring almost 2,000 runs and making 41 catches.<\/p>\n
His debut for Ireland came on what has been described as one of the most momentous days in the history of Irish cricket \u2013 July 2, 1969 \u2013 when the West Indies were bowled out for 25 and Ireland passed their total and declared at 125-8.<\/p>\n
On that day Mr Reith \u2013 a then 21-year-old \u2013 made his debut as a replacement for Dermot Monteith who was unavailable for business reasons.<\/p>\n
Speaking about the moment to the Belfast Telegraph in 2004, he explained: “I suppose you could say it was a piece of Irish selection which gave me my chance – naming an opening batsman to come in for a slow left-arm bowler.<\/p>\n
“We beat the West Indies total for the loss of one wicket. It was all quite surreal. Here we had dismissed the West Indies for 25, yet there was an atmosphere of disappointment that the supporters couldn’t see the great West Indies in full flow.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mr Reith\u2019s sporting career \u2013 which also included playing football in the Mid-Ulster League \u2013 began at the age of 14 with Waringstown and within two years was a member of the team that won the NCU Cup 10 times and the League seven in a remarkable 16-year span.<\/p>\n
He went on to spend two years in Sydney playing in highly-competitive Grade cricket before returning to Northern Ireland and joining North Down.<\/p>\n
Paying tribute to him online, Waringstown Cricket Club called him \u201ca truly legendary figure in Irish cricket\u201d who made an \u201cimmense\u201d contribution.<\/p>\n
“Our deepest condolences to his wife Margaret, daughters and wider family circle,\u201d they added.<\/p>\n
In another tribute written by his friend Ian Johnston, he called Mr Reith a \u201ccricketer’s cricketer \u2013 the sort of player every captain wants to have on his side\u201d.<\/p>\n
Widespread tributes were also shared online, including from fellow North Down cricketer Clarence Hiles, who is the founder and editor of the Ulster Cricketer, and wrote \u201cAbsolutely gutted. One of my best friends in cricket and indeed in life. I shared so many great times with, and against him. A true gentleman in every way. So so sad.\u201d<\/p>\n
Another tribute read: \u201cDeepest condolences on the passing of Michael – a true Waringstown champion and a man of epic skills and personality.\u201d<\/p>\n
A funeral notice said Mr Reith was the dearly loved husband of Margaret, devoted dad of Caroline and Emma, father-in law of Iain and Mark, precious grandad of Erin, Emily, Beth, Lucy, Grace and Joe and dear brother of Valerie, Lynne and the late Anne.<\/p>\n
“Very deeply regretted by the entire family circle,\u201d the notice added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Waringstown man played cricket internationally for Ireland, including when they famously beat the West Indies in 1969…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":267149,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[39107,8924,1721,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-267148","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cricket","tag-armagh-news","tag-christopher-leebody","tag-cricket","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/267148","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=267148"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/267148\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/267149"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=267148"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=267148"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=267148"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}