For 50 years, patients listened intently to the voice of Lionel Wright as he commentated on Hornets matches for Watford Hospital Radio.

A keen cricketer, Mr Wright was also a founding member of the Old Centralians Cricket Club, a published science-fiction writer and a regular contributor to the Watford Observer's Nostalgia section.

Sadly he passed away suddenly, but peacefully, at home in Park Lane, Colney Heath, St Albans, last Friday, October 1. He was 87 and leaves his wife Betty.

Born in Princes Avenue, Watford, Mr Wright grew up in the town and attended Chater School and Watford Central School.

He served as a wireless telegraphist for four-and-a-half years in the Royal Navy, before joining British Rail where he met his future wife.

The couple married in Tring, her home town, in 1949 and were married for more than 61 years.

Mr Wright subsequently became a purchaser for Haden International, where he worked until his retirement.

The couple first lived together in Kent, before moving to Kenton, and spent four-and-a-half years in Whippendell Road, Watford. They then moved to St Albans and have lived together in Colney Heath for the past 45 years.

It was during his time with British Rail and afterwards that he did a lot of writing, particularly about science-fiction, and published several books alongside articles that featured in genre magazines under his pen name Lan Wright.

Some of his work included A Man Called Destiny, The Last Hope of Earth and Exile from Xanadu.

Mrs Wright said: “A lot of what he wrote about has now happened. It's crazy. He wrote one short story about a man landing on the moon. It was some years after that it really happened.

“It was a subject he loved. He had always been interested in it. I think he started doing a little of it when he was still a schoolboy.

“He had to stop writing because he became too busy. So he wrote a purchasing manual for Haden's.”

Mr Wright was one of the original members of the Old Centralians Cricket Club, which was officially formed in November 1947 after a group of old boys played Watford Central's current school side several times that year.

A skilled opening batsman, he served in numerous positions for the club, particularly as president during its 50th anniversary celebrations in 1997, before it closed in 2009.

At one stage, he had held the single season run record with 754. And after hanging up his pads, his involvement with the club continued, while Mrs Wright would often keep score. He was a regular visitor at Lords as a “very proud” member of the MCC.

Family friend Roger Lambert, who played with Mr Wright for Old Centralians, described him as a “second father figure”.

He said: “He was a very efficient man. He used to write up the minutes as we went along. He was such a good friend and a good cricketer.”

Mr Wright then made radio history when, on March 5, 1955, he commentated alongside Harold Cook and Reg Stacey on the first Watford FC fixture, against Gillingham, to be broadcast over Watford Hospital Radio.

David Roberts first met Mr Wright in the mid-1970s when the hospital radio commentaries had already been going for 20 years.

He recalled: “Joining the team as a youngster was almost like joining a team so knowledgeable and professional it reminded me of the whole BBC 'Johnners' test match special set-up.

“Lionel played a very straight bat with his commentaries but off-air had something of a double act with the commentary team technician Ken Felton. For a quite conservative man he told some wonderful jokes off-air and was full of surprises.

“His cricket-loving, blazer-wearing, gentlemanly personality was, it turned out, just one one side to a man who wrote a whole series of science fiction novels in the 1950s and 1960s. When I asked him why he'd never told me he was a published sci-fi author, he replied 'you never asked me'. Typical Lionel.

“The last time I met him, on football duty so to speak, I was lucky enough to sit next to him at the Watford FC Awards night at The Grove Hotel in 2005. There, he and Reg Stacey were honoured by the club as supporters of the season and presented with silver salvers. He was a very proud man on a night that marked the end of 50 incredible years behind the microphone.”

Mr and Mrs Wright both loved to visit Scotland, particularly the Highlands, and Mrs Wright said her husband was a very “kind” man.

“He wasn't somebody who ever got very ruffled,” she said. “He was very kind to our friends and their children. He was very clever with his writing but he didn't like figures. He was very proud of being a member of the MCC.”

Mr Wright's funeral will take place at 1.20pm on Wednesday, October 13, at Garston Crematorium, in High Elms Lane, Garston.

Family flowers only; donations can be made to Cancer Research UK and the Salvation Army.