Tyke on the mike Tony Loffill is the new voice of Yorkshire County Cricket Club.

The Heslington cricket enthusiast's voice is the one all Yorkshire supporters now hear over the public address system at Headingley and Scarborough and he will be action when the final Test between England and South Africa starts tomorrow.

Loffill is on hand to issue information about incoming and outgoing batsmen, milestones and other crowd announcements.

The former modern languages teacher replaces John Featherstone, who died suddenly in February following a heart-attack.

Loffill has been a keen cricket follower all his life and decided to offer his services after reading an interview with Yorkshire chief executive Chris Hassell.

"I contacted the club and much to my great surprise I was appointed," said Loffill, whose family have been involved in sport for more than three generations.

"My grandfather Harry was groundsman to Stoke City Football Club in the early 1900s and my father Bert followed him in 1946.

"Since then I have been a keen follower of Stoke and remember my first game very well because Stanley Matthews was playing for Stoke and we beat Aston Villa 6-3.

"I broke the mould because my main passion has been for cricket."

He played for his school in Newcastle-under-Lyme, for King's College in London, while studying modern languages, and then for Woore in Shropshire.

"I was a batsman and slip fielder when I played cricket and was also captain, which meant that I never got dropped," he added.

Loffill taught and lectured in French, German and Spanish, chiefly in Staffordshire and Cheshire, where he spent most of his working life until a virus forced his retirement in 1995.

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