THERE were no tears shed for Malcolm Marshall yesterday. Not even the sky could manage to put on a gloomy face.

As the sun flooded in to fill Southampton's mother church, former Hampshire cricket skipper Mark Nicholas captured the mood perfectly.

"How appropriate we should have a sunshine day for such a sunshine man."

It was not a day for tears. They had been shed at Marshall's funeral in Barbados, where a nation poured out its grief for the untimely death of its favourite son.

Yesterday's memorial service at St Mary's Church was a day of celebration. Celebration of the life of a man who many sound pundits judged the greatest fast bowler the planet has ever seen.

Celebration of a man who gave enormous pleasure to Hampshire supporters spanning the years of his time with the club he loved.

Also, celebration of the pride he instilled in those same supporters who packed St Mary's. Pride in the fact that Marsall was their man, knocking over the world's best batsmen for them, even when he was doing it for the West Indies.

The Great and The Good of Caribbean cricket were not present. Clive Lloyd, Viv Richards, Brian Lara were all marked among the absent and Marshall would not have had it any other way. After all, there was serious business to be done, a Test match against Zimbabwe to be won.

And how it was won, with Zimbabwe shot out for 63 by bowlers Macko would have played with, like Courtney Walsh and Curtly Ambrose and those like Reon King and Franklyn Rose whom he would have nurtured and nursed along as West Indies coach. It was almost as if they were paying their tribute from the sun-blessed islands in the azure sea. Macko would much rather they were winning cricket matches than turning up to salute him.

The Great and The Good assembled were largely from Hampshire; those denied the chance to see him off properly in Barbados.

Although they ranged from the High Commissioner of Barbados, through England chairman of selectors David Graveney, former England skipper David Gower, and Macko's old Hampshire team-mates, the guests included the likes of Suzanne Marlow, perhaps Hampshire's most faithful follower.

It was for people like Suzanne and her husband Ian, himself stricken with cancer, that yesterday was for. That much was known and appreciated by Marshall's elegant and dignified widow Connie who had a special word for the pair.

During the service, Macko's son Mali rested his head on his mum's shoulder. Afterwards he gambolled about the churchyard, a new replica England football training jacket shielding him from an English wind he would have found nippy.

But one which his old man would have relished, licking his finger to test for direction and strength bustling in to produce a devastating outswinger.

Converted for the new archive on 25 January 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.