THE vice-president of Westcliff Rugby Club has been killed in a car crash in South Africa.

Andrew Riches, 48, from Leigh, died in a head-on smash in Johannesburg last Thursday, just weeks after taking up a new job there. A four-year-old girl was also killed in the accident.

Mr Riches’s parents, Marian and Derek, of Cosgrove Avenue, Leigh, said he had been travelling from Durban to Johannesburg when his Audi hit a Range Rover carrying a family of five.

Mrs Riches, 80, paid tribute to her “fun-loving son”. She said: “He worked for a Lloyds insurance syndicate until earlier this year, then went out to start a new job in South Africa.

“He had a brief holiday, but had been working on his new venture in insurance for a few weeks.

“He went to Johnannesburg in 1990 and loved it.

“He was very happy there, then he was killed, instantly.

“He had been coming back from Durban. It was a very wet and very nasty bit of road.

“He was larger than life and had lots of friends. We have had so many people contacting us.

“He was a great character and will be sadly missed by his family and a multitude of friends.”

The keen golfer and squash player, whose greatest passion was rugby, had gone to South Africa five weeks ago to take up his new job with an insurance firm.

A former pupil at Westcliff High School for Boys, he later joined EF Williams, a Lloyds syndicate, where he stayed most of his working life as a broker and underwriter.

Mr Riches died when he was involved in a collision on the N3 freeway, outside the Van Reenen police station, in KwaZulu-Natal.

A family of five, including three children aged four, six and nine, were travelling to Durban from Gauteng when their vehicle collided with Mr Riches’s Audi.

He died instantly. The four-year-old girl sustained critical injuries and died despite efforts by paramedics to resuscitate her.

The four other people suffered minor injuries.

Geoff Sawyer, spokesman for Westcliff Rugby Club, said: “We are all really shocked and stunned to hear about this.

“Andy was a lovely guy and a very good player.

“He was a first team player who had come up through the youth team.

“I had known him when he was practically still in short trousers.

“He retired from playing about ten years ago, but carried on helping us with sponsorship and advertising until he went abroad.

“He was a lovely bloke and will be greatly missed.”