FORMER captains today led the tributes for Sussex's head groundsman Peter Eaton who died yesterday.

Mr Eaton, 57, collapsed with a suspected heart attack at a groundsmen's conference in Durham.

He was the longest-serving member of the county's staff, having joined Sussex in 1965 before becoming the youngest head groundsman in the country five years later.

During his time Hove wickets gained the reputation as being the quickest and best in the country.

John Barclay, who captained Sussex from 1981-87, said: "Peter was a great ally, a great friend, and will be greatly missed.

"The wickets in my day were tremendous. They had pace and bounce which is very difficult to produce and Peter was one of the best. He was a shrewd old thing who always knew what the wicket was doing and if it would turn.

"It's a very sad loss for Sussex cricket and his family."

Barclay's successor Ian Gould remembered Mr Eaton as a "fantastic bloke and a fantastic groundsman."

"The wickets Peter prepared when I was playing in the '70s and '80s were the best in the country by a long way," said Gould, now coach at Middlesex.

"He should have got Harry Brind's old job as Inspector of Pitches when it came up, but I suppose he was overlooked because he was such a nice fellow. "

As well as supervising the preparation of the square at Hove, Mr Eaton was regularly called on by the ECB to inspect wickets at other grounds which had been reported to Lord's as being unfit.

Sussex's committee will discuss a permanent memorial to Mr Eaton in the next few days. One possibility is to name the new practice area at Hove, which will come into use in 2001, after him.

The club's general manager, David Gilbert, said: "We are all absolutely stunned, he was dedicated to Sussex cricket.

"He was one of cricket's characters and will be sorely missed by everyone here."

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