My uncle Brian Langford, who has died aged 77, was a cricketing legend in Somerset. He made his debut at the age of 17, and played for the county from 1953 to 1974.
Born in Birmingham, Brian moved at the age of four to Bridgwater, where his love affair with Somerset began. Having attended the town's Dr Morgan's school, Brian was signed by Somerset county cricket club as a schoolboy and was soon making headlines with his inventive bowling. In just his second match, against Kent, he took 8 for 96 and 6 for 41 to become the youngest player in history to take 10 wickets in a match (a record unbroken until 2007). He once took 15 wickets for just 54 runs in a game against Lancashire in 1958 and, famously, in 1969 bowled his eight overs in a 40-over Sunday League match at Yeovil without conceding a single run.
Having gained his county cap in 1957, Brian regularly took more than 100 wickets a season with his clever off-spin. He was captain from 1969 to 1971, and by the time he retired from playing at the end of 1974, his career tally of 1,390 placed him third in the list of the county's wicket-takers. Indeed, perhaps the only thing missing from Brian's otherwise stellar cricket CV was an England cap; it was the abundance of talented spinners during the peak years of his career that prevented him from gaining the international recognition he merited. In 1986 Brian became cricket committee chairman of the club he loved so much and was made an honorary life member.
With his playing days over, Brian began working for Barclaycard and also indulged in his passion for sport. Though cricket was his first love and he could often be spotted at the county ground, he also played golf to a very high standard and was latterly a member at Taunton and Pickeridge golf club. He was a lifelong supporter of Aston Villa football club. As a youth, while his Villa-supporting friends would watch Birmingham when Villa were playing away, Brian would always go to watch Villa reserves.
Put simply, Brian was one of life's good guys. A charming, kind and charismatic man, he was always the person you wanted to be seated next to at a social function. A natural raconteur and teller of often terrible jokes, he had a knack of making you laugh, even if you knew only too well where a particular story was headed, his West Country drawl delivering line after deadly line.
Brian is survived by his wife, Mo, and her son Paul and his family, to whom Brian was devoted.