Former York Cricket Club stalwart Tony Temple has died after suffering a heart attack while playing cricket in Canada. He was 60.

Mr Temple, who emigrated to Canada just over 20 years ago but still visited his home city of York, was a former pupil of Archbishop Holgate's School.

He played for York CC for many years as a left-arm swing bowler and right-handed late-order batsman.

Mr Temple was a major fundraiser and leading force behind their merger with the city's Clifton Park-based rugby union club in the mid-1960s, when the cricket club were forced to leave their Wigginton Road ground due to the construction of the hospital.

His late father, John, a right-arm fast swing bowler and big-hitting lower-order batsman, was a captain of York CC and latterly chairman of Yorkshire Cricket Committee and the renowned 40 Club for older cricketers.

John Temple, whose widow, Lucy, died last year, remains a record holder as the scorer of the fastest half-century in Yorkshire League history.

He reached his 50 in only 13 minutes and went on to score 65 off only 40 deliveries playing against Rotherham in 1948.

Tony Temple's younger brother, Barry, who died in a car crash in 1983, was also a player at York.

All three Temples were prominent members behind the now defunct York Nondescripts XI, a select Sunday side.

Tony Temple, a quantity surveyor by profession, leaves a widow, Susan, from Huntington, and two children, John and Justine.

Updated: 12:24 Wednesday, June 27, 2001