Vic Isaacs was appointed Hampshire's official scorer in 1975, and has just been forced to retire after 31 years with the club. He also operated the public address system at all home matches, and was Webmaster of the very successful club website.

A CRICKET LIFE:
It is not often that the son of a Jewish refugee family can become recognised as one of the leading cricket scorers and statisticians in the UK, but that is what has become of Vic Isaacs.

Vic started scoring shortly after joining the Army, when the Sergeant Major thought that a-level maths was a good enough qualification for the job. Within three years of first scoring he was appointed the scorer to the Army side in BAOR. After a family bereavment, Vic left the Army and settled in Southampton, joining a local club Romsey. After being made redundant in his job in November 1974, he was recommended to Desmond Eagar (Hampshire CCC secretary) and took on the task in April 1975.

In the 31 years Vic had been with the county his duties expanded beyond recognition, from those early days of the quill pen and scorebook, the county men now operate lap top computers which feeds the information through the Press Association to the newspapers, and almost immediate access through ceefax on the TV screens around the country and the Internet.

He took on the job of PA Announcer 20 years ago, and his voice was recognised throughout the county, and was praised for the way he kept the members and spectators well informed of all eventualities. These can be as diverse as giving a players statistical details on scoring a century to explaining the vageries of the Duckworth/Lewis system, and occassionaly not without a touch of humour.

He has in his years seen some of the greatest cricketers of the past three decades, great batsmen such as Barry and Viv Richards, Gordon Greenidge and his favourite Robin Smith. Malcolm Marshall was in his opinion the greatest bowler ever seen for Hampshire, but he also enjoys watching the cat and mouse battle of a good batsman against a quality spin bowler, you cannot get much better than Shane Warne. Vic's ambition to score for England which had waned over the years, as the powers at Lord's seem to select from a band that does not include the real professionals of the county circuit, was finally achieved when, as recognition of his service to Hampshire, he was appointed to score the England v Zimbabwe test match at Lords in May 2000.

In 1997 Vic started the Hampshire Web site, one of the first counties to achieve this. and is an important player in the new developement at The Rose Bowl at the turn of the century. Sadly since this roll was taken away from him the site has depreciated, with much of the cricket information now impossible to find in what has become a Marketing tool.

He formed The Association of County Cricket Scorers, and this Association is bringing about the recognition at last that these trusted band of individuals deserve. Vic's son Richard has followed in his fathers footsteps, a very capable scorer he has joined the Sky Sports Cricket Team and provides the commentators with much needed statistical content.

Victor Isaacs was born in Glasgow, Scotland on 26th August 1944, the son of a German father and a Polish mother, Jewish refugees from war torn Europe. His upbringing, first in Glasgow, then to Blackpool and Manchester had no cricket roots, and it was not until his early days in the army, that cricket came into his life.

Vic now lives in Lancashire with his wife Brenda son Richard (36), daughter Rachael (27) and now grandson Nathan.

Doug Ibbotson, Sep 1998 (Last Updated October 2008)

Sadly Doug Ibbotson, a good friend passed away in December 2000, an excellent journalist, he will be sorely missed. He would have wished this piece to have been used.