DORCHESTER Cricket Club officials have paid tribute to president Doug Read who has died aged 63.

Mr Read, who was taken to hospital last week with pneumonia, died early on Sunday.

He was also president of the Dorchester evening cricket league and a partner in accountancy firm Read Woodruff in Cornwall Road.

Club leaders said it was a huge loss, describing him as a great character' and a magnificently passionate man'.

Finance chairman Pete Tucker said it was Mr Read who encouraged him to join Dorchester back in 1991. He said: "Doug always played cricket the way it should be played, hard but fair. I'm sure that's how people will remember him. He was a great man.

"For years he's been the backbone of Dorchester Cricket Club and he'll be sorely missed by everybody."

Mr Tucker said Mr Read, who was confined to a wheelchair by multiple sclerosis, was always striving to make things better'.

"It's unbelievable that he's gone," he said. "Even through his long illness he was always coming to games and bringing everyone together. It's such a shame that now our first team are back in the premier league he won't be able to watch them.

"He would've loved to have been able to come and see just what we've achieved over the last few years."

Mr Tucker said life at Dorchester Cricket Club would be very strange' without Mr Read.

He added: "Now we've got to get our thoughts together and decide how we're going to pay a fitting tribute to a man who's done so much."

Former Dorchester Cricket Club chairman Bill Sibley said Mr Read's death was a tremendous loss'.

"He was a great character," he said. "He did so much for the club and for cricket in general. Doug had a few health troubles in recent years but that didn't stop him. He carried on with his life, his business and his cricket with the support of his wife Judith.

"He was just a really genuine guy."

Current club chairman Tony Foot praised Mr Read, of Casterbridge Road, as a very committed man'. He said: "It's a really sad loss for all of us and it's going to be incredibly difficult to replace him.

"Doug was a great servant, not just to club but to the town in general.

"He was Dorchester through and through."