Roy Torrens: Bell honours giant of Irish cricket

In cricket, a bell is traditionally rung five minutes before play to alert the teams to be ready for the field.

And a very special bell was heard this week at Stormont ahead of play between Ireland and Zimbabwe in their historic test match to remember an Irish cricket great.

The Roy Torrens’ Bell pays homage to the hugely popular figure who represented his country 30 times before a high-profile stint as national team manager.

Roy’s daughter, Judith Torrens, said it was a huge honour for their family to have the bell in his memory and to know it would ring out ahead of every home international.

The bell, with special engraving, was officially unveiled on Thursday and rung by Roy’s wife, Joan, for the first time in a special ceremony at the Civil Service Cricket Club at Stormont with friends and family in attendance.

It is just Ireland’s second Test on home soil while Stormont became the 123rd ground to stage a Test match.

“It is just lovely that for a few moments ahead of every match, maybe people’s thoughts will turn to him,” Judith Torrens said.

“It is going to be rung at every home international, whether it be mens’ or the ladies’ matches, and it’s just lovely to know that dad’s presence will be felt there at every match.

“There will be people who will be asked to step forward and ring the bell who would have meant a lot to dad – past players and dignitaries – so it’s lovely to know that in the future people who had a good relationship with dad and crossed paths with him will be able to ring it.”

Judith Torrens said her father was never happier than when friends and family were together and whenever they were at the cricket.

“My dad had three daughters, but the boys at the cricket were like his sons.”

Cricket Ireland High Performance director Richard Holdsworth said the bell will be rung five minutes before the start of every international on the island of Ireland.

“It’s a lovely tribute to a legend of a man, who gave so much to the game,” he said.

Torrens was a renowned international pace bowler and while he also played Irish League football for Coleraine and Ballymena United, it was in cricket where he made his name.

A committed player for the Brigade club based in Londonderry’s Waterside, he won 30 Ireland caps between 1966 and 1984, taking 77 wickets with his best figures 7-40 against Scotland in 1974.

After hanging up his whites, he served as a national selector before becoming president of the then Irish Cricket Union and chairman of the cricket committee.

Under his watch as national team manager, the country achieved unprecedented success – notably the wins over Pakistan, England and West Indies at successive World Cups in 2007, 2011 and 2015.

Torrens was also recognised for his contribution to cricket when he was appointed OBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List in 2009.