Firefighter praised for saving life of cricketer

Matt Wilson said he had received a lot of trauma care training through the fire service

An off-duty firefighter has been praised for helping to save the life of a cricketer who had suffered a cardiac arrest.

Matt Wilson, 41, had been watching his son make his senior debut at Wellington cricket club in Shropshire on Saturday when one of the visiting team collapsed.

After the player's son administered CPR, Mr Wilson used the club's defibrillator to help him recover.

Mr Wilson had been trained by the fire service to use the equipment and said: "I was straight into trauma incident mode I guess."

The cricketer, 59-year-old Simon Parker from Calverhall Cricket Club, had been batting in the match against Wellington's fourth team when he suddenly collapsed.

Mr Wilson said: "I can remember the over had just finished and Simon, I could see, had just turned around to talk to our wicketkeeper."

He said he turned away for a minute and then heard shouts for first aid and saw Mr Parker lying on the floor.

He added that he ran over to help and found Mr Parker's son, Alex, performing CPR.

Calverhall's captain, Oliver Griffiths, said watching it all unfold had been "pretty horrific".

"Watching a son try and save his dad's life was quite emotional and it still affects me a little bit now," he added.

"He was saying come on, I'm not letting you go, come back to me."

Alex Parker (left) gave CPR to his father Simon while Matt Wilson set up the defibrillator

Mr Wilson said Shropshire Fire and Rescue Service trained its firefighters "to a relatively high level for trauma and first response care".

He set up the defibrillator and operated it, with Wellington Cricket Club praising him for his "calm management of the situation".

He said: "I just got in there and helped and guided people and we did what needed to get done I suppose."

After shocking Mr Parker three times with the defibrillator, an ambulance arrived.

Mr Griffiths said: "They were very clear that by the time they arrived the hard work had been done and people like Matt and Alex had saved Simon's life."

He added that he had spoken to Mr Parker on Tuesday and he was doing "very, very well" and had thanked everyone who helped him.

He said one of the first questions he asked was "How many runs did I score?" and noted that Mr Parker was disappointed they had not won the match.

Mr Griffiths said that was typical of the man, but there were "much bigger things than cricket".