Tony Howcroft 1940-2021

Old Sennockian and sports coach Anthony Russell
Howcroft was born in Gravesend on 29 July 1940.
He attended a local convent school then joined
Sevenoaks School in 1951, moving to the town in the
same year with his parents.
From the very beginning at Sevenoaks, Tony’s passion
for sport was his main sense of direction and he
contributed to the school’s sports programme from
thereon. He had a natural flair for all sports and in
1957 as a 15-year-old represented the 1st XI cricket
team and was awarded his full colours at the end of
his first season.
Tony could have made a mark in club cricket as an
excellent all-rounder, but his contribution to school
athletics and particularly tennis channelled him away
from being a first-class cricketer. With his natural
athleticism and dedication to fitness and strength
training he also found himself in the 1st XV. He was
a mobile flanker (wing forward, we would have said
in those days) with good hands and a sound defence.
After school he ventured into club rugby, was soon
recognised, and represented the 1st XV at Sevenoaks
RFC. The pinnacle of his rugby career was playing
against a London Welsh celebrity side which included
JPR Williams!
Eventually squash and tennis became the centre of
his sporting activity. He qualified as an LTA tennis
coach, acquired a part 3 Squash Rackets Association
coaching certificate and became a member of the
United States Professional Registry UK. He returned
to Sevenoaks School to develop a squash programme,
becoming a dedicated, innovative and well-respected
coach and producing Kent Cup-winning teams.
Academically, Tony never felt that he had achieved
what he could have done at school, but he later
gained additional A-levels, a Postgraduate Diploma in
Recreation and Leisure Practice, a BA in Sociology and
Social Policy and Administration, and a further degree
in History and International Relations, which had
become a consuming interest for him.
After school, travel became a very important part of
Tony’s life, and there were few parts of the world he
did not visit, from the Norwegian Fjords and the Arctic
Circle; Nepal and the Himalayas, as far as Everest
base camp; the USA; the Andes; East Africa, taking in
Kilimanjaro and a visit to his beloved gorillas; South
Africa; Tanzania; Australia; to Israel in a kibbutz, and
Russia – the most significant of them all, as it turned
out, where he met a doctor, Kadriya Agisheva, in
2001. The couple married in 2006 and spent the best
16 years of Tony’s life together. He stepped into a
father’s role quickly and spent many hours supporting
Kadriya’s daughter, Victoria, through her middle school
years and her studies at Tonbridge Grammar School.
Tony was the most unassuming, modest gentleman,
a scholar and a true friend who was respected and
well-liked by everyone.

Peter Hill, former Head of PE and Sport