GOOGLIES & CHINAMEN
An Occasional Cricketing Journal
Edition 12
December 2003 Ossie Pipe
One of the delights of circulating this Journal is that from time to time I get a letter through the post on which I don’t recognize the handwriting. I recently received one such whose author turned out to be Roy Phipps, who at the time of his retirement had taken more wickets for South Hampstead than any other bowler. Roy has been living in Somerset for the past thirty years and watches matches at Taunton where he is a member of the County Club. He lamented the passing of Ken Fletcher, who, with Ossie Pipe, had played alongside him on his club debut in 1948, in a third XI fixture at Woodside Park. Roy was the best spinner I played with in any level of cricket and I am delighted to add him to our fraternity.
I have received a communication from Nick Vincent, who for some reason was called Dave at school. Nick has been based in Warsaw for ten years. He tells me that he played in the first ever cricket match staged in Poland back in 1994. He also had the audacity to hit one of my well-flighted leg breaks for six in an Old Danes match back in the late sixties. Nick would be pleased to hear from any of his contemporaries; his email address is on the header sheet.
I recently had a long telephone conversation with Bruce Tutton who played his last game at South Hampstead in 1968. However, by that time he had become one of a very select band of players who had scored 10,000 runs and taken 500 wickets for the club. He still lives in the Luton area where he played for Sundon Park until the mid eighties, eventually acting as President. He now plays golf to keep in trim.
The Off Season
Lest anyone should accuse me of not giving credit where credit is due, I consider that England did everything that could be asked of them in Bangladesh. In a professional manner they demolished inferior and inexperienced opposition, which all goes to show that the sooner Wales, Ireland and Scotland achieve test status the better.
*
Ian McIntosh tells me that much of the outfield at South Hampstead has been leveled and re-seeded since the end of the season. Fingers are being kept crossed that the seed will germinate. I remember a similar exercise being carried out in the mid-sixties and by cricket week there was no sign of grass and the baked earth was like glass with the gentlest of forward defensive shots racing away for four. Nevertheless, it is excellent news that the club is investing in the future.
*
A statistic that I missed at the time was that Lancashire recorded four centuries in an innings twice in 2003. In the post war era (1945) there have only been four other occasions when there have been four centurions in the same innings. The odd thing about it was that the same four batsmen-Chilton, Loye, Law and Hooper- were the centurions on each occasion. The opponents on the receiving end were Warwickshire and Middlesex. Yes, this was the occasion when Middlesex amassed a huge 550, with three centurions of their own and still didn’t avoid the follow on.
*
Tour Madness has struck already with Paul Collingwood apparently the preferred number four in the one-day batting line up. I always ranked him as one of those all-rounders who wasn’t really good enough at either batting or bowling to get in the side.
*
Selection Madness! So frail is the confidence in the players selected for the Sri Lanka tour that the Welsh Wizard who didn’t make the initial selection was called up to augment the party before it arrived. If he is selected to play what does this say about the initial selection? If he isn’t what is the point?
*
It won’t have gone unnoticed by the sad trainspotters amongst us who pore over the Results Round-up in the Sports pages that the Australian juggernaut is continuing in India. The usual suspects have been scoring the runs, but who has been bowling the Indians out? McGrath, Gillespie, Lee and Warne are not on the tour. So who did they call up to keep Andy Bichell company – Reiffel, Kasprovicz, Noffke and MacGill? No they’re not there either. The worrying thing is that the bowlers who are dismissing Sehwag, Tendulkar, Laxman and Dravid are Brecken, Williams and Clarke, supported by the one-day specialists, Symonds and Hogg. No, I hadn’t heard of them either – depressing isn’t it?
Big Squads
We are in the era of Big Squads in most sports, including cricket, in which players are rested regularly and selection to a certain extent is by rotation. But does it work?
During the 2003 season in the First Division of the County Championship Essex, Notts and Leicestershire used 25, 23 and 21 players respectively and were relegated. Surrey used 23 players and were surprisingly toppled from their perch. The Champions, Sussex, used only 15 players in their 16 county championship matches.
Big Squads may work in soccer but I suspect there will be a big clear out at Chelsea in January as well as some more signings! But cricket is a form game and nothing dislocates form more than irregular play. Surrey have also found how difficult it is to keep everybody happy in a large squad and in particular to blood promising youngsters. Sussex have shown that if you pick your best side and stick with it you stand the best chance of achieving results.
Fathers and Sons
Young Dave Myers was telling me that one of the reasons he continues to play is to enjoy the special experience of taking the field with your own son in the side. Colin Creasy had earlier mentioned the same thing, although he claimed that his was coloured by his son being a better player than he was. This got me wondering who else came into this category. I couldn’t come up with any of my contemporaries at South Hampstead. Of those that did procreate Bob Peach, Bob Cozens, Steve Thompson and Ray Cook all produced daughters. Although Ian Jerman did play in the Essex Wanderers side alongside his dad, Jerry.
I then recalled that Flipper Seal had told me that he plays in an annual match in which all five of his sons appear. The offspring are Jamie (30), Tristan (27), Alistair (23), Patrick (21) and Elliott (17). They all play more or less regularly for Dorwich CC in the Birmingham Leagues. Elliott broke the club batting record last season by clocking up a formidable 159 not out.
However, there is a problem in the annual match since all six Seals are fast bowlers, which prompted me to ask Flipper “who gets the new ball?” “Oh I do” was his instant reply, “I am the only one who knows how to use it”.
Playing at Edmonton
Bob Peach’s South Hampstead sides of the 1960s were difficult to beat and even when they could not win the game themselves they would go to any lengths to stop the opposition from winning.
At this time the office cleaning magnate, David Evans, built Edmonton into a formidable side which included, amongst others, David “There she goes” Abbey. However, the real force of their armoury lay in their opening bowlers Clarke and McWilliam. The track at Edmonton was always a little lively and this suited these two down to the ground. They would tear in, let it go and extract considerable life from the surface.
In 1968 we lost our way chasing only a modest total and all seemed lost when Don Wallis joined Bob Peach at the fall of the eight wicket with an hour and a half to go. However, resilience kicked in and despite everything that Edmonton threw at them they weren’t separated until 7.23pm and it was Bob who was finally dismissed. Roy Phipps joined Don and they were undefeated at the conclusion of play. Don was 5 not out having faced 82 balls and played out eleven maidens. It is such a performance that makes the draw so vital a part of cricket.
The following year in the semi final of the Wills Trophy Bob Peach opened with Terry Cordaroy when we set about chasing the Edmonton total. After a torrid battering from the Clarke-McWilliam reception committee Bob was hit in the face by Clark. His glasses taking the brunt of the impact compounded his injury and he had to be helped from the ground. I replaced him at the wicket, batting at number three. I took guard with blood on the crease. After surviving a couple of balls I then hooked at a short one and gloved it to the keeper. Later when Terry joined me in the pavilion he accused me of being fritt and claimed that I had given my wicket away. It wasn’t true and has always galled me since. We did, however, progress to the final.
Paddington Revisited
Bruce Tutton told me that when Paddington first had a fixture with South Hampstead in the mid-sixties they invited South Hampstead to send a delegate to attend their annual dinner, which was held coincidentally at the same venue, the Spotted Dog in Willesden Lane, as the annual South Hampstead Dinner. Bruce was nominated by the SH committee to represent the club and not wanting to let the club down he sought Bob Peach’s advice on the appropriate attire for the evening. Bob advised that Bruce should play safe and wear a dinner jacket.
On arrival Bruce was surprised to find that the majority of people were wearing lounge suits and the rest were sporting even more casual gear. However, he was relieved to see that there was one other gentleman wearing a dinner jacket. His relief was short lived, though, when this fellow penguin took his rightful place on the piano stool as the bandleader for the evening’s musical entertainment.
The Old Fart’s Column Its not like it was in my day, Geoff Boycott knew what it was all about, he used to bat all day for 95 not out, you wouldn’t catch him hitting sixes on the first day of a test match, in fact there shouldn’t be sixes on any of the first four days of a test match, John Edrich was the same, he would go to a hundred with a six but he didn’t show off hitting them all the time like these modern chappies whose bats are about the size of half a tree, Ken Barrington could hit them too but he just chose not to, my favourite was Ted Dexter who would hit them just to show that he could cream the best of bowlers but he never overdid it but then he didn’t play against Kuwait All Stars or Outer Mongolia or even Namibia every week, if it was alright for Colin Cowdrey and Tom Graveney to hit the ball along the ground then it sure is good enough for me, don’t talk to me about Hayden, Gilchrist and Flintoff they wouldn’t begin to know how to put together a real innings, they’re too busy hitting the ball out of the ground, sixes are an unnecessary feature of the modern game they just appeal to schoolboys and girlies, in my day sixes were the province of tail enders like Fred Trueman who wielded the long handle not mamby pamby blockers like the modern bunch, no its not like it was in my day.
Match Report
Extensive research into the archives at the Acton Gazette has unearthed another of the Lovely Jane Richards’ reports. This one refers to a match played on Wednesday 12th May 1965
On Wednesday I went all the way out to Harrow to see the Danes win an incredibly exciting match by just two wickets. I travelled to the ground with the team on a number 18 bus having changed at College Park from a 620. Who would have thought that the number 18 went all that way out! I’ve only previously seen one at Marble Arch on my way up to Carnaby Street. The weather forecast was cool at best and so I wore my new checked trouser suit and it was just as well that I did, but more of that later.
The cricket pitch at Harrow County Grammar School is right in front of the school and the playground area extends in one corner half way to the square. The Harrow boys batted first and they took full advantage of this very short boundary. Poor Ken Molloy kept being hit for four and he conceded 24 runs off just three overs.
When Graham Sharp came on to bowl his spinners in the eighth over the score was already past fifty! Graham is just one of several Danes who are wearing their hair in a Beatles mop style now. Although this cannot be said of clean cut John Adams, the captain, but then I see him more as a hippy one day. John was busy doing some of his famous fielding at cover point that I find so exciting, but his throwing seems to alarm Phil Matthews, the wicket keeper.
Anyway it didn’t take Graham long to change things round and he quickly got amongst the wickets. In fact Frank Foreman and he took seven wickets between them for the addition of only thirteen runs.
Funny things happen at boys’ schools and Harrow proved no exception. At four o’clock when school was over, lots of boys appeared on the adjacent asphalt and started marching up and down with rifles. It turned out that they formed a sort of cadet corps. The fielders found it very funny with the orders being barked out.
Frank and Graham took the remaining wickets and Harrow were bowled out for 115. Whilst the boys were having tea I walked over to see what the cadets were up to and they all leered at me. I’m glad I wasn’t wearing my mini skirt!
Phil Matthews and Jack Morgan got the Danes innings off to a steady, if unspectacular, start but then there was a similar collapse to the earlier one with six wickets falling for 14 runs. Roger Kingdon, who is still in short trousers when he is not playing, had good partnerships with Graham Sharp and then with Steve Caley, but he was stumped with just three required. Mick Jordan strode to the wicket and Steve Caley hit another boundary to win the match.
It was all very exciting stuff and we celebrated with bags of chips on the upper deck of the 18 bus on the way home.
HARROW COUNTY
*G Tyrell lbw GJ Sharp 34
A Phillips b GJ Sharp 21
A Banks lbw GJ Sharp 0
C Esmond b Foreman 1
C Meyler b GJ Sharp 4
K Sohl b GJ Sharp 0
J Alderman lbw Foreman 1
R Luetchford not out 17
#D Doole b Foreman 6
J Bailey b GJ Sharp 25
M Taylor st Matthews b Foreman 0
Extras 6
TOTAL 115
Fall: 1-55; 2-57; 3-58; 4-58; 5-59; 6-62; 7-68; 8-79; 9-114; 10-115
Bowling
Caley 5 1 14 0
Molloy 3 0 24 0
GJ Sharp 15 5 27 6
Foreman 13.5 2 44 4
DANES
#PSC Matthews c Banks b Sohl 17
JS Morgan lbw Meyler 14
FJ Foreman c Phillips bTaylor 5
JR Sharp c Banks b Taylor 0
*JC Adams lbw Meyler 1
RF Kingdon st Doole b Tyrell 23
TR Davis run out 0
GJ Sharp c Sohl b Esmond 15
SJ Caley not out 31
MG Jordan not out 1
Extras 12
TOTAL 119-8
Did not bat: KS Molloy Fall:1-29; 2-42; 3-42; 4-43; 5-43; 6-43; 7-66; 8-112;
Bowling
Sohl 7.1 2 18 1
Bailey 12 6 29 0
Meyler 7 4 6 2
Taylor 9 2 33 2
Esmond 4 1 12 1
Tyrell 3 0 5 1
Danes won by 2 wickets
Strange Elevens
In G&C 11, I failed to provide the answer to the Jazz Hat side that the Great Jack Morgan had selected in G&C 10. This rum bunch had all played for England in a one-day international but have never represented their country in a full test match.
The Great Jack Morgan has provided us with two Strange Elevens for this edition. All you have to do is work out what the common denominator is of each.
Team A
P Downton
A Needham
R Kettleborough
R Weston
M Feltham
P Farbrace
N Kemp
M Selvey
K Shine
R Ellcock
A Jones
Team B
M Harris S Russell
M Ramprakash
R White
K Dutch
I Gould
N Williams
R Maru
R Johnson
D Headley
S Hughes
Peter Ray Revisited
Murray Hedgcock is a regular reader even though doesn’t know most of us lot from Adam. However, he did recognize one name, the infamous Peter Ray, and believes that he encountered him whilst Peter was playing at Richmond in the late eighties. I am sure that someone knows whether Peter left Wembley and finished up abusing batsmen at Richmond.
Christmas Greetings
I have been asked by Bob Peach to pass on this Christmas Greeting to all readers
Seasonal Greetings to all readers of Googlies
I thought that it would be seasonably appropriate to share with you this photo which I took at a recent gathering of senior members from South Hampstead, at which Don Wallis regaled his enraptured colleagues in the polite and encouraging tone for which he is so rightly respected. On this occasion he concentrated on one of his speciality topics: Fielding at Third man-is this a science or an art?
For those of you unfamiliar with the gentlemen pictured, they are from left to right: Len Stubbs, Harry Rose, Don Wallis, Ken James and, of course, Jim Sharp.
Irritating trends in modern cricket-number 11 The organization of modern day international cricket gives us more test cricket, which, on balance, is probably a good thing although there are far too many one-day matches. However, the authorities arrange these tours without any apparent reference to the local climactic conditions. The current England tour of Sri Lanka has been organized to coincide perfectly with the local monsoon season. Therefore, on the few days when play is not washed out completely, it rains in the afternoon anyway. This is akin to arranging test cricket in England in September and then expressing surprise that there is still dew on the ground at lunchtime and that it starts to get gloomy by six o’clock.
Ex Libris
If you like sports writing and, in particular, you have some knowledge of baseball I can heartily recommend Roger Angell’s compilation of articles “Game Time”. It is easily obtainable from Amazon. Angell is the veteran baseball correspondent for the New Yorker magazine and his writing is sublime.
A more recent publication is the latest book by Keith Walmsley “Mosts without in test cricket”. Keith is a former classmate of the Great Jack Morgan and myself, neither of whom has been presented with a copy, yet. The review in the Wisden Cricketer is praiseworthy and it will no doubt find it’s way into many a trainspotter’s Christmas stocking.
Earlier Editions
I will be please to email you a copy of the earlier editions of Googlies & Chinamen, if you missed or have mislaid them:
Edition 1 includes: Tour Madness
Edition 2 includes: One or Two Short and Conspiracy Theory
Edition 3 includes: Naff & Absentee Journalism, The Russ Collins Circus
Edition 4 includes: World Cup Awards, Rhyming Slang, Duckworth Lewis
Edition 5 includes: The Cult of the Celebrity Umpire, The Great Jack Morgan, Just Like the Ivy
Edition 6 includes: Duckworth Lewis Revisited, Appalling Fielders, The SH Wed XI-1964
Edition 7 includes: A-Level Sport, The SH Wed XI-1968
Edition 8 includes: O-Level Cricket, The SH Sixes, Hitting an Eric
Edition 9 includes: Project Salvation, Shits, Ron Hooker’s Benefit Match, Arthur Gates’ Two Seasons
Edition 10 includes: Hawkeye, Morgan the Bowler, Behind the Sightscreen
Edition 11 includes: Sledging, Banter and Bankers; Points-Pointless;
Just send me an email to secure your copies.
If you received this edition through a third party, please send me your email address to ensure that you get on the main mailing list for future editions.
Googlies and Chinamen
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Tel & fax: 01298 70237
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An Occasional Cricketing Journal
Edition 12
December 2003 Ossie Pipe
One of the delights of circulating this Journal is that from time to time I get a letter through the post on which I don’t recognize the handwriting. I recently received one such whose author turned out to be Roy Phipps, who at the time of his retirement had taken more wickets for South Hampstead than any other bowler. Roy has been living in Somerset for the past thirty years and watches matches at Taunton where he is a member of the County Club. He lamented the passing of Ken Fletcher, who, with Ossie Pipe, had played alongside him on his club debut in 1948, in a third XI fixture at Woodside Park. Roy was the best spinner I played with in any level of cricket and I am delighted to add him to our fraternity.
I have received a communication from Nick Vincent, who for some reason was called Dave at school. Nick has been based in Warsaw for ten years. He tells me that he played in the first ever cricket match staged in Poland back in 1994. He also had the audacity to hit one of my well-flighted leg breaks for six in an Old Danes match back in the late sixties. Nick would be pleased to hear from any of his contemporaries; his email address is on the header sheet.
I recently had a long telephone conversation with Bruce Tutton who played his last game at South Hampstead in 1968. However, by that time he had become one of a very select band of players who had scored 10,000 runs and taken 500 wickets for the club. He still lives in the Luton area where he played for Sundon Park until the mid eighties, eventually acting as President. He now plays golf to keep in trim.
The Off Season
Lest anyone should accuse me of not giving credit where credit is due, I consider that England did everything that could be asked of them in Bangladesh. In a professional manner they demolished inferior and inexperienced opposition, which all goes to show that the sooner Wales, Ireland and Scotland achieve test status the better.
*
Ian McIntosh tells me that much of the outfield at South Hampstead has been leveled and re-seeded since the end of the season. Fingers are being kept crossed that the seed will germinate. I remember a similar exercise being carried out in the mid-sixties and by cricket week there was no sign of grass and the baked earth was like glass with the gentlest of forward defensive shots racing away for four. Nevertheless, it is excellent news that the club is investing in the future.
*
A statistic that I missed at the time was that Lancashire recorded four centuries in an innings twice in 2003. In the post war era (1945) there have only been four other occasions when there have been four centurions in the same innings. The odd thing about it was that the same four batsmen-Chilton, Loye, Law and Hooper- were the centurions on each occasion. The opponents on the receiving end were Warwickshire and Middlesex. Yes, this was the occasion when Middlesex amassed a huge 550, with three centurions of their own and still didn’t avoid the follow on.
*
Tour Madness has struck already with Paul Collingwood apparently the preferred number four in the one-day batting line up. I always ranked him as one of those all-rounders who wasn’t really good enough at either batting or bowling to get in the side.
*
Selection Madness! So frail is the confidence in the players selected for the Sri Lanka tour that the Welsh Wizard who didn’t make the initial selection was called up to augment the party before it arrived. If he is selected to play what does this say about the initial selection? If he isn’t what is the point?
*
It won’t have gone unnoticed by the sad trainspotters amongst us who pore over the Results Round-up in the Sports pages that the Australian juggernaut is continuing in India. The usual suspects have been scoring the runs, but who has been bowling the Indians out? McGrath, Gillespie, Lee and Warne are not on the tour. So who did they call up to keep Andy Bichell company – Reiffel, Kasprovicz, Noffke and MacGill? No they’re not there either. The worrying thing is that the bowlers who are dismissing Sehwag, Tendulkar, Laxman and Dravid are Brecken, Williams and Clarke, supported by the one-day specialists, Symonds and Hogg. No, I hadn’t heard of them either – depressing isn’t it?
Big Squads
We are in the era of Big Squads in most sports, including cricket, in which players are rested regularly and selection to a certain extent is by rotation. But does it work?
During the 2003 season in the First Division of the County Championship Essex, Notts and Leicestershire used 25, 23 and 21 players respectively and were relegated. Surrey used 23 players and were surprisingly toppled from their perch. The Champions, Sussex, used only 15 players in their 16 county championship matches.
Big Squads may work in soccer but I suspect there will be a big clear out at Chelsea in January as well as some more signings! But cricket is a form game and nothing dislocates form more than irregular play. Surrey have also found how difficult it is to keep everybody happy in a large squad and in particular to blood promising youngsters. Sussex have shown that if you pick your best side and stick with it you stand the best chance of achieving results.
Fathers and Sons
Young Dave Myers was telling me that one of the reasons he continues to play is to enjoy the special experience of taking the field with your own son in the side. Colin Creasy had earlier mentioned the same thing, although he claimed that his was coloured by his son being a better player than he was. This got me wondering who else came into this category. I couldn’t come up with any of my contemporaries at South Hampstead. Of those that did procreate Bob Peach, Bob Cozens, Steve Thompson and Ray Cook all produced daughters. Although Ian Jerman did play in the Essex Wanderers side alongside his dad, Jerry.
I then recalled that Flipper Seal had told me that he plays in an annual match in which all five of his sons appear. The offspring are Jamie (30), Tristan (27), Alistair (23), Patrick (21) and Elliott (17). They all play more or less regularly for Dorwich CC in the Birmingham Leagues. Elliott broke the club batting record last season by clocking up a formidable 159 not out.
However, there is a problem in the annual match since all six Seals are fast bowlers, which prompted me to ask Flipper “who gets the new ball?” “Oh I do” was his instant reply, “I am the only one who knows how to use it”.
Playing at Edmonton
Bob Peach’s South Hampstead sides of the 1960s were difficult to beat and even when they could not win the game themselves they would go to any lengths to stop the opposition from winning.
At this time the office cleaning magnate, David Evans, built Edmonton into a formidable side which included, amongst others, David “There she goes” Abbey. However, the real force of their armoury lay in their opening bowlers Clarke and McWilliam. The track at Edmonton was always a little lively and this suited these two down to the ground. They would tear in, let it go and extract considerable life from the surface.
In 1968 we lost our way chasing only a modest total and all seemed lost when Don Wallis joined Bob Peach at the fall of the eight wicket with an hour and a half to go. However, resilience kicked in and despite everything that Edmonton threw at them they weren’t separated until 7.23pm and it was Bob who was finally dismissed. Roy Phipps joined Don and they were undefeated at the conclusion of play. Don was 5 not out having faced 82 balls and played out eleven maidens. It is such a performance that makes the draw so vital a part of cricket.
The following year in the semi final of the Wills Trophy Bob Peach opened with Terry Cordaroy when we set about chasing the Edmonton total. After a torrid battering from the Clarke-McWilliam reception committee Bob was hit in the face by Clark. His glasses taking the brunt of the impact compounded his injury and he had to be helped from the ground. I replaced him at the wicket, batting at number three. I took guard with blood on the crease. After surviving a couple of balls I then hooked at a short one and gloved it to the keeper. Later when Terry joined me in the pavilion he accused me of being fritt and claimed that I had given my wicket away. It wasn’t true and has always galled me since. We did, however, progress to the final.
Paddington Revisited
Bruce Tutton told me that when Paddington first had a fixture with South Hampstead in the mid-sixties they invited South Hampstead to send a delegate to attend their annual dinner, which was held coincidentally at the same venue, the Spotted Dog in Willesden Lane, as the annual South Hampstead Dinner. Bruce was nominated by the SH committee to represent the club and not wanting to let the club down he sought Bob Peach’s advice on the appropriate attire for the evening. Bob advised that Bruce should play safe and wear a dinner jacket.
On arrival Bruce was surprised to find that the majority of people were wearing lounge suits and the rest were sporting even more casual gear. However, he was relieved to see that there was one other gentleman wearing a dinner jacket. His relief was short lived, though, when this fellow penguin took his rightful place on the piano stool as the bandleader for the evening’s musical entertainment.
The Old Fart’s Column Its not like it was in my day, Geoff Boycott knew what it was all about, he used to bat all day for 95 not out, you wouldn’t catch him hitting sixes on the first day of a test match, in fact there shouldn’t be sixes on any of the first four days of a test match, John Edrich was the same, he would go to a hundred with a six but he didn’t show off hitting them all the time like these modern chappies whose bats are about the size of half a tree, Ken Barrington could hit them too but he just chose not to, my favourite was Ted Dexter who would hit them just to show that he could cream the best of bowlers but he never overdid it but then he didn’t play against Kuwait All Stars or Outer Mongolia or even Namibia every week, if it was alright for Colin Cowdrey and Tom Graveney to hit the ball along the ground then it sure is good enough for me, don’t talk to me about Hayden, Gilchrist and Flintoff they wouldn’t begin to know how to put together a real innings, they’re too busy hitting the ball out of the ground, sixes are an unnecessary feature of the modern game they just appeal to schoolboys and girlies, in my day sixes were the province of tail enders like Fred Trueman who wielded the long handle not mamby pamby blockers like the modern bunch, no its not like it was in my day.
Match Report
Extensive research into the archives at the Acton Gazette has unearthed another of the Lovely Jane Richards’ reports. This one refers to a match played on Wednesday 12th May 1965
On Wednesday I went all the way out to Harrow to see the Danes win an incredibly exciting match by just two wickets. I travelled to the ground with the team on a number 18 bus having changed at College Park from a 620. Who would have thought that the number 18 went all that way out! I’ve only previously seen one at Marble Arch on my way up to Carnaby Street. The weather forecast was cool at best and so I wore my new checked trouser suit and it was just as well that I did, but more of that later.
The cricket pitch at Harrow County Grammar School is right in front of the school and the playground area extends in one corner half way to the square. The Harrow boys batted first and they took full advantage of this very short boundary. Poor Ken Molloy kept being hit for four and he conceded 24 runs off just three overs.
When Graham Sharp came on to bowl his spinners in the eighth over the score was already past fifty! Graham is just one of several Danes who are wearing their hair in a Beatles mop style now. Although this cannot be said of clean cut John Adams, the captain, but then I see him more as a hippy one day. John was busy doing some of his famous fielding at cover point that I find so exciting, but his throwing seems to alarm Phil Matthews, the wicket keeper.
Anyway it didn’t take Graham long to change things round and he quickly got amongst the wickets. In fact Frank Foreman and he took seven wickets between them for the addition of only thirteen runs.
Funny things happen at boys’ schools and Harrow proved no exception. At four o’clock when school was over, lots of boys appeared on the adjacent asphalt and started marching up and down with rifles. It turned out that they formed a sort of cadet corps. The fielders found it very funny with the orders being barked out.
Frank and Graham took the remaining wickets and Harrow were bowled out for 115. Whilst the boys were having tea I walked over to see what the cadets were up to and they all leered at me. I’m glad I wasn’t wearing my mini skirt!
Phil Matthews and Jack Morgan got the Danes innings off to a steady, if unspectacular, start but then there was a similar collapse to the earlier one with six wickets falling for 14 runs. Roger Kingdon, who is still in short trousers when he is not playing, had good partnerships with Graham Sharp and then with Steve Caley, but he was stumped with just three required. Mick Jordan strode to the wicket and Steve Caley hit another boundary to win the match.
It was all very exciting stuff and we celebrated with bags of chips on the upper deck of the 18 bus on the way home.
HARROW COUNTY
*G Tyrell lbw GJ Sharp 34
A Phillips b GJ Sharp 21
A Banks lbw GJ Sharp 0
C Esmond b Foreman 1
C Meyler b GJ Sharp 4
K Sohl b GJ Sharp 0
J Alderman lbw Foreman 1
R Luetchford not out 17
#D Doole b Foreman 6
J Bailey b GJ Sharp 25
M Taylor st Matthews b Foreman 0
Extras 6
TOTAL 115
Fall: 1-55; 2-57; 3-58; 4-58; 5-59; 6-62; 7-68; 8-79; 9-114; 10-115
Bowling
Caley 5 1 14 0
Molloy 3 0 24 0
GJ Sharp 15 5 27 6
Foreman 13.5 2 44 4
DANES
#PSC Matthews c Banks b Sohl 17
JS Morgan lbw Meyler 14
FJ Foreman c Phillips bTaylor 5
JR Sharp c Banks b Taylor 0
*JC Adams lbw Meyler 1
RF Kingdon st Doole b Tyrell 23
TR Davis run out 0
GJ Sharp c Sohl b Esmond 15
SJ Caley not out 31
MG Jordan not out 1
Extras 12
TOTAL 119-8
Did not bat: KS Molloy Fall:1-29; 2-42; 3-42; 4-43; 5-43; 6-43; 7-66; 8-112;
Bowling
Sohl 7.1 2 18 1
Bailey 12 6 29 0
Meyler 7 4 6 2
Taylor 9 2 33 2
Esmond 4 1 12 1
Tyrell 3 0 5 1
Danes won by 2 wickets
Strange Elevens
In G&C 11, I failed to provide the answer to the Jazz Hat side that the Great Jack Morgan had selected in G&C 10. This rum bunch had all played for England in a one-day international but have never represented their country in a full test match.
The Great Jack Morgan has provided us with two Strange Elevens for this edition. All you have to do is work out what the common denominator is of each.
Team A
P Downton
A Needham
R Kettleborough
R Weston
M Feltham
P Farbrace
N Kemp
M Selvey
K Shine
R Ellcock
A Jones
Team B
M Harris S Russell
M Ramprakash
R White
K Dutch
I Gould
N Williams
R Maru
R Johnson
D Headley
S Hughes
Peter Ray Revisited
Murray Hedgcock is a regular reader even though doesn’t know most of us lot from Adam. However, he did recognize one name, the infamous Peter Ray, and believes that he encountered him whilst Peter was playing at Richmond in the late eighties. I am sure that someone knows whether Peter left Wembley and finished up abusing batsmen at Richmond.
Christmas Greetings
I have been asked by Bob Peach to pass on this Christmas Greeting to all readers
Seasonal Greetings to all readers of Googlies
I thought that it would be seasonably appropriate to share with you this photo which I took at a recent gathering of senior members from South Hampstead, at which Don Wallis regaled his enraptured colleagues in the polite and encouraging tone for which he is so rightly respected. On this occasion he concentrated on one of his speciality topics: Fielding at Third man-is this a science or an art?
For those of you unfamiliar with the gentlemen pictured, they are from left to right: Len Stubbs, Harry Rose, Don Wallis, Ken James and, of course, Jim Sharp.
Irritating trends in modern cricket-number 11 The organization of modern day international cricket gives us more test cricket, which, on balance, is probably a good thing although there are far too many one-day matches. However, the authorities arrange these tours without any apparent reference to the local climactic conditions. The current England tour of Sri Lanka has been organized to coincide perfectly with the local monsoon season. Therefore, on the few days when play is not washed out completely, it rains in the afternoon anyway. This is akin to arranging test cricket in England in September and then expressing surprise that there is still dew on the ground at lunchtime and that it starts to get gloomy by six o’clock.
Ex Libris
If you like sports writing and, in particular, you have some knowledge of baseball I can heartily recommend Roger Angell’s compilation of articles “Game Time”. It is easily obtainable from Amazon. Angell is the veteran baseball correspondent for the New Yorker magazine and his writing is sublime.
A more recent publication is the latest book by Keith Walmsley “Mosts without in test cricket”. Keith is a former classmate of the Great Jack Morgan and myself, neither of whom has been presented with a copy, yet. The review in the Wisden Cricketer is praiseworthy and it will no doubt find it’s way into many a trainspotter’s Christmas stocking.
Earlier Editions
I will be please to email you a copy of the earlier editions of Googlies & Chinamen, if you missed or have mislaid them:
Edition 1 includes: Tour Madness
Edition 2 includes: One or Two Short and Conspiracy Theory
Edition 3 includes: Naff & Absentee Journalism, The Russ Collins Circus
Edition 4 includes: World Cup Awards, Rhyming Slang, Duckworth Lewis
Edition 5 includes: The Cult of the Celebrity Umpire, The Great Jack Morgan, Just Like the Ivy
Edition 6 includes: Duckworth Lewis Revisited, Appalling Fielders, The SH Wed XI-1964
Edition 7 includes: A-Level Sport, The SH Wed XI-1968
Edition 8 includes: O-Level Cricket, The SH Sixes, Hitting an Eric
Edition 9 includes: Project Salvation, Shits, Ron Hooker’s Benefit Match, Arthur Gates’ Two Seasons
Edition 10 includes: Hawkeye, Morgan the Bowler, Behind the Sightscreen
Edition 11 includes: Sledging, Banter and Bankers; Points-Pointless;
Just send me an email to secure your copies.
If you received this edition through a third party, please send me your email address to ensure that you get on the main mailing list for future editions.
Googlies and Chinamen
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