Test Match Special's Jonathan Agnew delivers emotional retelling of cricket fan's death

'He was able to convey that he was comfortable and was at peace. I was able to tell him what a wonderful father he is and just how much I love him'

Jonathan Agnew on commentating duties at Lord's (Getty Images)

After doctor's warned John Taylor's family that he would likely never regain consciousness, his grieving son Patrick decided to put on the BBC’s Test Match Special in his hospital room.

“After five minutes, he opened his eyes and was completely in the room and aware of us," Patrick wrote in a letter to show. “He was able to convey that he was comfortable and was at peace. I was able to tell him what a wonderful father he is and just how much I love him.

“For three hours we listened to Chris Woakes crashing it about at Lord’s and making his maiden Test century. We got a digital radio into Dad’s hospital room and he listened to Test Match Special the next day.

"I don’t think it’s any coincidence that he passed peacefully just after England had sealed victory.”

His letter was read out by commentator Jonathan Agnew on the third day of the current test at Trent Bridge, where England are battling to avoid defeat.

It detailed a father’s battle with a number of illnesses in the later years of his life.

John, a former pharmacist and life-long cricket fan, had faced “a beamer in the form of leukemia [sic], the yorker of muscular dystrophy, the googly of Parkinson’s and the reverse swing of diabetes,” Patrick wrote.

“But like fellow Yorkshireman Brian Close, he never winced, complained or succumbed to the temptation of amateur dramatics, he just accepted the cards he was dealt and squeezed every last drop out of life that he could on a single-by-single basis with his amazing care team acting as runners."

“On 83, Dad finally faced the inevitable, unplayable delivery and left the field of play.”

Midway through the second Test on Thursday 9 August that John was submitted to hospital with a chest infection. Doctors warned the Taylor family that John would never regain consciousness, Patrick recalled.

“On the Saturday I visited Dad in hospital with my wife, and after an hour she had the inspirational idea of getting Test Match Special on my mobile,” Patrick said.

It was then that John was revived.

The story provoked an outpouring of emotion on social media, with Agnew leading tributes to the Taylor family.

“I don’t know Patrick,” he said on Twitter yesterday. “But I’m thinking of him and his family this evening. Good job I read this ‘blind’. Wouldn’t have got through it otherwise.”