Further tributes have been paid to popular Devizes Hockey Club player Charlie Sherman after he died in a bike crash.

Mr Sherman, 22, was riding his Aprilia motorcycle in Bath Road out of Devizes on his way to work in Trowbridge at about 7.40am last Thursday.

After going over Prison Bridge his motorcycle collided with a Faresaver single decker bus travelling in the opposite direction.

Efforts to stabilise him by a Wiltshire Air Ambulance paramedic and paramedics from South Western Ambulance Service were unsuccessful and he was pronounced dead at the scene. The bus driver and passengers were uninjured.

The young engineer died two days before his 23rd birthday.

Floral tributes have been left at Prison Bridge this week.

He had recently moved out of the family home in High Street, Rowde, where his parents Nick and Anna, and brother Rory, 18, live, to live in Hillier Road, Devizes.

His dad said his son was an exceptional person. He said: “He was a lad who packed more into his 23 years than most do in a lifetime. He managed to do what he wanted to do in that time. He was never down, he was always cheerful and happy.

“He always took the lead on things and he was just one in a million.

“He was a star and was one of those people who took to adults and kids alike. He was exceptional, truly individual and slightly eccentric.”

Charlie joined Devizes Hockey Club as a junior and returned after university, playing as a defender in the first team, as did his brother Rory.

Coach Ollie Smith said: “Charlie has been an integral part of the first team. Last year we won the league and got promoted and he was a massive part of that. He would play every week and really enjoyed his hockey.

“He was willing to learn and that attitude summed him up. He worked extremely hard and had fun. He always gave one hundred per cent and was loved by everyone in the team and the club. We are in shock and disbelief and we can’t quite get our heads around it.”

He worked as an engineer for DTR VMS Limited at the White Horse Business Park, Trowbridge, and before that the company was based at Bumpers Farm, Chippenham.

The firm’s human resources manager Sian Widdicombe said: “Charlie was intelligent, pleasant, friendly, very hard working and fun. He’s a great loss.

"He was a very talented engineer who was never afraid to show initiative and leadership and enjoyed really good working relationships with employees and suppliers. He will be hugely missed, he was such a nice guy.”

Mr Sherman and his brother were involved in Rowde Youth Club and getting a skate park in the village.

Jan Barber, who jointly runs the youth club, said: “Charlie was very instrumental in helping with the skate park.

"He was an absolutely inspirational lad and he will be sorely missed. He had a ready smile, was cheerful, had an easy going nature and was a personable guy.

“ It’s so sad that someone so young with so much in front of him has gone.”

He was a pupil at Lavington School in Market Lavington and deputy headteacher Gary Ford said: “I taught Charlie maths and he loved the problem solving side of things and was really enthusiastic.

"He never gave up in his perseverance and determination to succeed in solving a problem. He was always very bubbly and happy and he took an interest in other people.”

His funeral service is on Friday, August 1, at St Matthew’s Church, Rowde, at 10.45am.

Sgt Barrie Card, of Wiltshire Police, is appealing for witnesses to the collision to call him on 101.