DON Kenyon remains Worcestershire’s record run-scorer and skippered the side to their 1964 and 1965 County Championship title triumphs.

Now, 50 years after that second Championship success, a book about the legendary Kenyon entitled Don Kenyon – His Own Man is due to be published at the end of the current season.

It has been a labour of love for its author, Tim Jones, who is chairman of the Worcestershire Heritage Group and is also a recently-elected Worcestershire Board member.

He has interviewed dozens of people, including Don’s widow Jean and his daughter Sue, many former teammates and opponents, in putting together the 65,000-word publication, which should be priced at around £13.

The foreword to the book is by former Worcestershire captain Phil Neale, who worked with Don during his spell as an active committee member.

Don, who died in 1996 aged 72, scored 37,002 first-class runs for Worcestershire, is third on their all-time list of centurions with 74 – behind only Graeme Hick and Glenn Turner – and made the most ever appearances for the county with 589.

He was also the first person to be appointed an England selector while still a current player and this duty involved him having to miss several matches each season.

Don was also a highly respected member of the county’s committee for several years, including the turbulent period in the mid-1970s.

Jones said of the book: “It was something I wanted to do for a while, to write something on a Worcestershire subject, and I couldn’t come up with which idea.

“I was out with a friend and suddenly I said ‘I’ve got it, I know what needs to be done. There is nothing about Don. We know his career statistics, but there is nothing about him as a person’.

“That was the moment I realised this is what I wanted to do and I’m so pleased I have.

“I have interviewed 25 or more people, a lot of the Worcestershire team from when he played — Norman Gifford, Ron Headley, Roy Booth, Duncan Fearnley, Alan Ormrod, John Elliott, Norman Whiting, Glenn Turner, etc. Other contributors included Jeff Jones, Don Shepherd, Ray Illingworth, Geoff Boycott, Mike Beddow and Grace Fuller.

“Mike Vockins (Worcestershire club secretary-chief executive for 30 years) has been excellent as well with his contribution and Phil Neale is doing the foreword. He has big respect for Don.

“Don was a very meticulous man. There are lots of photos, scorecards, menus, even his demob papers from the war and receipts from all the gifts he brought back from the Worcestershire world tour of 1965.”