Wakulla’s own Leon Frances is named to Cricket Hall of Fame
By LYNDA KINSEY
Staff
You never know who will walk in our doors.
Leon B. Frances, LUTCF visited The Wakulla Sun office last week to share with us an honor bestowed upon him: he had just been inducted into the Cricket Hall of Fame on Oct. 5th of this year in Hartford, Conneticut.
Frances is now a resident of Wakulla but was born in Liberta Village, Antigua and grew up playing Cricket. “I grew up playing it and just have a love for the game,” says Frances.
For more than 60 years he has promoted sports and the game of Cricket. Frances was captain of the football and Cricket teams at the Princess Margaret Secondary School, played First Class Football for ACME Club, Cricket for St. Johns Cricket Club, and the Antiqua Sugar Factory.
After migrating to the U.S. in 1978 he was instrumental in in forming the St. George Cricket Club in Patterson, New Jersey, where he served as a player and president of the club. He would also hold cricket parties where they would watch all the matches on his satellite dish and VHS tapes. He thought of this a privilege.
Just like football and baseball are played differently, “cricket is played differently than other games.” In cricket there are two batsmen and the pitcher is called a Bowler, the object of the bowler is to dismiss the batsmen.
Frances received the designation LUTCF from the American College and later became the manager of Capital Security Insurance Company.
“For over 60 years I have been teaching, administering and promoting the game of Cricket,” he says.
He was a statistician for 15 years for Florida Caribbean Sports Line, and he is also the President of the Cricket Show, an online cricket broadcast show. The show has broadcasted many influential cricket players and administrators.
Frances wants everyone is know they are welcome to tune into the show each Sunday from 6- 9p.m. Call 515-605-9850 to get signed in or go to BlogtalkRadio.com/thecricketshow to learn more about the game. You may fall in love with the sport too and start a local team.
There are only about 200 members who have been inducted into the Cricket Hall of Fame and you can clearly see why they included Mr. Frances with this honor He may have left his country of Antiqua but he never left his love for the game he grew up playing.
In his speech at the ceremony, Frances thanked almighty God and named his family members as well as many mentors he has had in his life’s journey. I would love to share it with you as it would tell you just who this humble man is, but it is 8 pages long and I don’t have enough space here.
He is a member of the Crawfordville United Methodist Church and the Wakulla Senior Center.
If you get a chance, congratulate Mr. Frances on this honor.
Lynda Kinsey is the sales and marketing representative for The Wakulla Sun.
