Alan Rayment

Alan William Harrington Rayment (29 May 1928 — 27 October 2020) was an English first-class cricketer and social worker. Rayment played first-class cricket for Hampshire from 1949 to 1958, scoring over 6,000 runs in 198 matches. After retiring from playing, he held a number of occupations, most notably as a senior social worker for West Sussex County Council. From March 2020 to his death in October 2020, he was Hampshire's oldest surviving cricketer.

Cricket career The son of Samuel Rayment and his wife, Wennerloef, he was born in May 1928 at Finchley. He was educated at Finchley Grammar School. Rayment his debut in first-class cricket for the Combined Services cricket team against Northamptonshire at Northampton in 1947. A club cricketer for Finchley Cricket Club, it was while playing for the Middlesex Second XI in 1948 that he first came to the attention of Hampshire,

Two years later in 1952, he recorded his first instance of making over 1,000 runs in a season, in addition to scoring his first two centuries. He made a third century in 1953 at Bristol, making 126 runs in a fourth wicket stand of 246 with Clifford Walker. Rayment played first-class cricket for Hampshire until 1958, making 198 appearances. He was noted for his quick feet as a batsman and as a cover fielder, which was attributed to expertise in ballroom dancing. From the 1940s to the late 1950s, Rayment and his wife, Betty, ran a dancing school in a hotel adjacent to Northlands Road. He also coached at Lord's in 1959 (where he was offered the role of head coach of the Marylebone Cricket Club ), and on occasion the Hampshire Second XI, Rayment died in Lymington Hospital in the New Forest on 27 October 2020, following a short illness. In tribute, then Hampshire chairman Rod Bransgrove said "what he embodied more than anything was the spirit of a Hampshire player and I have only ever known his as a warm and genial presence". At the time of his death, he had been working on the second part of his autobiography. This was completed posthumously by friends and was released in November 2021.