St.George's are today mourning the death of their oldest Cup Match player.

Burton Paynter, a former St.George's Cup Match opening batsman and wicketkeeper, passed away earlier this week. The grandfather of present St.George's Cricket Club president Neil Paynter Jr, he was 91.

Paynter played four times for St.George's in the popular mid-summer classic during the 1930s and along with former Somerset Cup Match player, Arnim (Sam Porgy) Smith, became two of the classic's oldest surviving veterans.

Over the years Paynter and Smith had developed a very close relationship that continued right up to the former's sad passing.

"He and I were always together. I would go to St.George's and he would come to Somerset to visit me," said Smith, the oldest surviving Cup Match veteran at 95.

"We always used to sit up and talk about Cup Match. I always found him to be a very pleasant fellow and we even got along well when we played against each other during Cup Match.

"So, to me, it's a loss like a brother because we had very nice repertoire and got together nicely. He and I always had that and I remember sitting down and chatting with him during the luncheon intervals during Cup Match, even though we were rivals."

Paynter is believed to have been the first local bowler to face a googly playing for St.George's during a match against a visiting team called Sir Julian Chan's in 1933. He later recalled that experience during a 2001 interview with Royal Gazette reporter, Lawrence Trott.

"Talk about looking stupid . . . I never looked so ugly in my life," he exclaimed.

"I saw the ball pitch right there and I thought, 'yeah, you're going away too. My bat was way up here in the air. I went down to him (bowler) and said to him what type of ball was that? He said it was the first googly ball bowled in Bermuda. We had never seen a ball like that."

St.George's president Paynter Jr paid tribute to his relative.

"He was the oldest Cup Match player from St.George's and it's a sad loss not only to local cricket but also a loss for the Cup Match classic," he said yesterday.

Paynter's passing comes on the heels of the news that another former St.George's Cup Match player, Eldon Raynor, suffered a mild heart attack last week. Raynor has since fully recovered and was reported to be resting comfortably this week at his Southampton residence.