A fine 43 year career at Cricketer Farm
14th November 2008
Anthony Evans, Cricketer Farm’s longest standing cheesemaker, has retired after 43 years with the Somerset based Company. Anthony, known to all as ‘Taffy’, started work with Cricketer Farm in 1965 when he was 18 years old and can still name the four other employees that worked for the farm and dairy when he started; the Company is now over 50 staff strong.Anthony comments: “A lot has changed over the last 43 years and it’s a delight to have witnessed what was once a relatively small company evolve and go from strength to strength, whilst continuing to honour traditional cheesemaking methods and winning countless awards for its expertise and innovation along the way. I’m looking forward to my retirement, the only thing that’s going to be tricky is re-programming my body clock – I’ve been getting to work for 1 o’clock in the morning for as long as I can remember – I’m not sure what I will do at this time in the morning now!”
Anthony has lived in Somerset for 55 years and started working for Cricketer Farm in his teens because of the Company’s attractive pay package, which, back then, was £15 a week! Anthony continues: “When I first started working at Cricketer Farm we concentrated on creating traditional cheddars, which we won many awards for. Over the years I learnt all the cheese making skills, a craft which has been passed on within the Company, from generation to generation. New recipes were slowly developed and we started making half fat cheeses, Red Leicester and goat’s cheeses, and continued to win awards. Cricketer Farm’s strength is its expertise, careful recipe development and fine sourcing of local milk. It’s been a fantastic team and Company to work for, I have many happy memories and I wish everyone all the very best in the future.”
Cricketer Farm held a farewell party for ‘Taffy’ at the Ancient Mariner Pub in Nether Stowey two weeks ago. The Company presented him with a Sony Vaio Laptop and his colleagues clubbed together to buy him an HP Printer, a laptop case and other accessories. Paddy O’Keeffe, Managing Director at Cricketer Farm, comments: “It’s because of long standing, hard working team members that Cricketer is where it is today. Our success and numerous accolades are in no small part due to the experience, expertise and knowledge of our cheesemakers. Taffy has been an incredible part of our team, he will be missed and we are sorry to see him leave, but we wish him all the very best in his retirement.”
