{"id":379867,"date":"2025-08-28T08:35:25","date_gmt":"2025-08-28T08:35:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/379867\/"},"modified":"2025-08-28T08:35:25","modified_gmt":"2025-08-28T08:35:25","slug":"watford-fan-and-cricket-club-stalwart-ian-chief-smith-dies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/379867\/","title":{"rendered":"Watford fan and cricket club stalwart Ian &#8216;Chief&#8217; Smith dies"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\n  Ian Smith, popularly known as \u2018Chief\u2019, had been Watford Town CC\u2019s first-team scorer for nearly 40 years and following the Hornets\u00a0home and away\u00a0for even longer.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  <img   alt=\"Ian Smith in Watford Town's scorebox at Woodside, his 'second home'\" style=\"width: 100%;\"\/>Ian Smith in Watford Town&#8217;s scorebox at Woodside, his &#8216;second home&#8217; (Image: Supplied) Ian was admitted to hospital in July and was still in Watford General when he suffered a heart attack on Saturday.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  Club chairman Richard Bayliss described Ian as a &#8220;Mr Reliable&#8221;\u00a0in the ever-changing world of club cricket.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  \u201cChief was an essential member of our support team for Watford Town Firsts and will be very difficult to replace,\u201d Richard said. \u201cHis presence will be missed, both on and off the field.\u201d\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  After learning of Ian\u2019s passing that morning, the Watford Town players went into Saturday\u2019s vital Herts Cricket League Division Two B match with Eversholt in\u00a0shock.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  However, they paid tribute to their scorer by securing a two-wicket victory to move them out of the relegation zone with two games of the season remaining.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  A statement on Watford Town\u2019s Facebook page described Chief as the \u201cheartbeat of the club\u201d.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  \u201cHis dedication, humour, and unwavering support made him a true friend to everyone,\u201d it read. A proud Watford supporter since 1977, his love for the game shone through in everything he did.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  \u201cThe club won\u2019t be the same without him, but his legacy and passion will live on in every match we play.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ian Smith, popularly known as \u2018Chief\u2019, had been Watford Town CC\u2019s first-team scorer for nearly 40 years and&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":379868,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4101],"tags":[1406,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-379867","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cricket","8":"tag-cricket","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115105479277339086","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/379867","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=379867"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/379867\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/379868"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=379867"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=379867"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=379867"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}