I was reminded recently about my passion as a youngster for Subbuteo -the ‘flick to kick’ table football game. It is reassuring to learn that in this day and age of computer football games, Subbuteo is still very popular. Indeed, competitions are organised and there’s even an annual Subbuteo collectors’ fair where row upon row of Subbuteo teams are laid out in your favourite football teams colours.

As a lad, the place to buy your Subbuteo teams in Salisbury was Jim Redman’s sports shop in Fisherton Street. Unbeknown to me, I was standing in the shop of one of Salisbury’s premier sporting personalities because Jim had been a former county cricketer. It was a tragedy when he died in 1981 at the age of 55 following an operation in hospital – he had lived in Salisbury for 25 years and built up a thriving sports shop business in Fisherton Street.

Jim Redman spent several seasons on the Somerset staff in the early 1950s and was a regular first team opening bowler. He also played rugby for Bath. In 1956 his job as an insurance agent brought him to Salisbury where he began a long and distinguished association with South Wilts Cricket Club.

He became widely recognized as a captain who put the team on the map and was still chairman at the time of his death. At the peak of his 12 playing years for South Wilts he completed the double of 1,000 runs and 100 wickets in a season and also skippered the Wiltshire Minor Counties side.

Jim Redman opened his first shop in Fisherton Street in 1959 under the name of Springbok Sports Agencies before expanding the business into the shop I remember near the railway station. Ten years later he opened another sports shop in Andover.